Our Spiritual Home on Earth

Last Sunday (the day of the solar eclipse), a group of 13 women gathered in one of their homes. We meditated and then I shared the story of writing my spiritual memoir How Did I Miss All This Before: Celebrating the Magic of Our Ordinary Lives and read some passages from the book. I started writing as a challenge—could I ever put into words the 1977 event that gave me a glimpse of my true home, turned my world upside down, and set me on the spiritual path? I continued to work on my manuscript over the next ten years, integrating into my story the challenges, epiphanies, insights, frustrations and breakthroughs that occurred as life flowed on. While I wanted to disappear upward into the light, the Divine Feminine was quietly pulling me down into my body, relationships, and every day life. She drew me to powerful places on Earth where stones, craters, mountains, trees, volcanoes and water are saturated with silence, where spiritual concepts dissolve and we can open to the truth of who we are. The Earth has so much to teach us!

As we explored what Earth teaches us in terms of trusting the flow of life, being present and resting in silent being, I asked two questions from the Reflections section at the back of my book: Are you aware of places that feel like a spiritual home for you? Are there places on this earth where you feel more fully alive?

Each woman then spoke of places where they feel attuned with all of life, relaxed, alive, places that feel like a spiritual home. They shared stories that were tender and passionate; many cried as they spoke, showing how deeply these places still touch them in their hearts. Their spiritual homes ranged from their own back yards to the land of their childhoods to mountain ranges and deserts to places in nature where healings had occurred. One woman was riveted in awe as she drove around a corner in the road—before her rose a stunning mountain range, the vision of which changed her life. Aligned with something deeply sacred (coming from both within and without), she felt alive, whole, connected to all life. She has returned to this place many times --and every time she rounds that corner she experiences the same soul-invoking response.

Flowing from such a deep place of connection to the Earth, our sharing inspired us all. I would guess that each one of us has a spiritual home on Earth, although not all of us have discovered it yet. When we do, we know it because of a feeling of being at one with all life there. It is a place that hold and nurtures us and regenerates our spirit. It is a place where we feel utterly alive.

So I ask you: Are you aware of places that feel like a spiritual home? Are there places on this Earth where you feel more fully alive?

         

How Opportunities for Healing Show Up In Our Daily Lives

At a luncheon party a week ago I sat next to a professional man in his 50s. As we introduced ourselves, our conversation touched upon his profession as an insurance agent and mine as a psychotherapist specializing in grief. I was intrigued that he showed interest in my work, as most of the time this is a conversation stopper in a social situation. At some point as more people joined into our conversation, the subject somehow came around to siblings. It turned out that both he and the woman across the table had 4 siblings—“but now there are 3 of us”, he said softly. The woman looked into his eyes: “I couldn’t imagine losing one of my siblings. How is that for you?” The man’s eyes filled with tears and he quickly turned his back to us, to talk to people at the next table. We could see him dabbing at his eyes; his grief was that close to the surface. “It’s a fresh as it was when it happened,” his wife told us, “And that was 15 years ago.”

As I sat watching this all happen, I was struck with how the two of us had been seated next to one another, that he was sitting next a woman specializing in grief when he was suffering still from a loss that happened 15 years before. I had even shared some stories as we talked about the effects of unresolved grief, not knowing then about his situation. This exquisite universe was offering him an opportunity for healing—if he would just turn toward it. At that moment, he chose to turn away. Our ordinary daily lives are filled with these healing opportunities—interactions with people, music, books, movies, life situations that expose old wounds and offer us avenues for healing. Dreams often point directly to healing that needs to happen in the psyche. Most of the time we don’t even see these opportunities—and yet the universe keeps trying.

I’ve heard that in nature many times poisonous plants have the very plants growing nearby that will help heal the symptoms caused by the poison. For example, burdock is often found growing near poison oak—crushed burdock leaves help alleviate the pain and swelling of poison oak. Likewise, we just might find someone sitting next to us who somehow can help us on our healing journey—even at a luncheon party when we least expect it. When is the last time the opportunity for healing showed up in your daily life? Did you turn toward it or away from it? What would happen if you turned toward it now?