Stewarding the Land

Principle: The Earth and all Creation are sacred, a physical manifestation of the Divine.

Practice: Cultivate a relationship with the land where you live, and/or with a non-human living being.

written 2/5/21 Friday

Good morning, Beloveds All: Isis, Sekhmet, Great Mother, all the great icons, angels, ascended ones on both sides of the veil. I feel a little separate – meaning I’ve separated myself from You this morning – and it does help to call Your Names. It reminds me that I’m not alone, that You are always available when I choose to ask for help, when I open myself to You. Thank You for another day to walk this sacred Earth path with You and as You.

The house where my apartment is sits on 5 acres of beautiful woods and meadows that are glistening with snow this morning. Yesterday when I went out for my walk, I felt compelled to explore the land instead of going out to the muddy, pot-hole filled dirt road as I usually would. I find myself called to cultivate a relationship, a connection with this beautiful piece of the Earth I’m blessed to call home.

I want to get to know it, to love it, to steward it. It’s not “mine,” legally or morally – I’m no longer arrogant enough to believe I can own land, own the Earth. But You’ve given me the sacred gift of living here, and I’m just beginning to appreciate its value. Thank You for opening my eyes, Beloved Mamas. Help me to love it, to come to know it, to steward it as the sacred ground it is.

I stopped to see my friend, Cindy the maple tree, yesterday, too, and feel her calling me into relationship as well. When I was living in the trailer last fall while my apartment was under renovation, she was engaged in the splendor of turning her leaves from bright green to golden yellow. She filled the trailer's picture window with a kaleidoscopic blaze of shifting colors while I recovered from my surgery and a minor stroke. And now I see that You’ve been calling me to be in relationship with this land since then, Mamas! Probably a lot longer, too. You always provide exactly what I need, Beloveds!

I want to send roots down here, Mamas. I want to nest here, to nourish and be nourished by this land. I’m a little surprised to find this coming up now, when it’s so cold and apparently so barren, and it’s showing me a deeper need to be at home, metaphorically, spiritually. To be at home in You, Beloveds, on this sacred, glorious, beautiful physical manifestation/ expression of You. I’m falling in love with You in a new form of this 5 acres of land, recognizing my longing for You in a new way. I feel You courting me, calling me to come home to You.

And I hear You offering Your assurance that You are always present and available, Mamas. I’m deeply receiving Your longing to be in relationship with me. I feel Your Presence in all the recent pain and grief around LO feeling responsible for keeping Mom from killing herself. I feel You holding me in Your loving arms spiritually, comforting, guiding, supporting me, assuring me I am never alone. And now, I feel You holding me in Your loving arms physically in the sanctuary of this land.

And in this moment, I know that the old coping patterns from my childhood have gotten in the way of my receiving Your love, in the way of the joy and bliss that serving You through my own self-expression would be. My own self-expression and Self-expression – my expression of You. So all through this time of excruciating pain, You’ve been providing the opportunity to burn away the blocks that have been separating me from You. Because You want me, You love me, because You want to be in co-creative partnership with me. So I say, “Yes,” Beloved Mamas, “Yes, yes, YES!” I will follow where You lead. Help me to sing this song... especially the chorus sung by the choir. at 3:25!

That grief and pain are still here, still intense; the old habitual patterns are still here, still frequently driving the bus – and now all my human life is in this big picture, spiritual context that has You at my center, You as my literal ground, You as my Beloved Source, spiritually and physically. Blessed be!