Life has so many lessons to teach us, when we are open for them.  If we take a moment to stop, to listen, to observe what is happening all around us and especially within us, a process has already begun.  When we connect deep within our hearts amazing things seem to happen, with so much less effort than our often controlled, contrived ways of life.  The problem is, is that we don’t learn very often about how to connect with our hearts.  I’m just beginning to listen and learn, and each experience I have deepens my understanding.  Seeing how other people are able to connect with our dear mother earth, and realising what a lack of a relationship I had with her catalysed this process.

 

This summer I began to walk barefoot.  I’m living at the moment on this beautiful land and finally my feet have opened up to her.  This may sound insignificant- but having spent much of my life with my feet in pointe shoes I have always been very protective of them.  Getting cut, bit or poked was not something I was willing to risk, especially when I needed to go on stage everyday.  As I transition more into teaching than performing I am embracing letting this fear go and seeing where it takes me.  Just opening up to the soft grass, the gooey mud, feeling mother earth in all her wonder and not worrying about what could happen.  I guess it is this somewhat small experience that makes me realise how much I try to control the big experiences as well, how much we all do. It is so funny how we think we can force things to happen-sometimes I’m so stubborn about things being a certain way and they end up in a big pile of chaos and then when I have the opportunity to let go, to move forward without doubt but with a trust that things will work out, it is unbelievable how much support there is from the greater energy that surrounds us.  I don’t speak much about God, but I think it’s all the same… there is something much, much greater than us that connects us all on a much deeper level than we can physically and psychologically grasp.  Something that we need to surrender to, in order for life to flow more harmoniously.  Something to give service to, to spread love, to take care of our planet, to teach our younger generations.

Beginning my relationship with mother earth is how I am connecting in the moment with this deep energy.  I sit and I watch the birds fly, I watch the sun rise and fall, I am unbelievably privileged and can go to the garden to harvest my meals.  I watch the spiders spin their webs, a rhythmic, repetitious dance of beauty.  I pick the biggest, ripe blackberries, knowing the small ones will keep growing for us, I feel the water of the river wash away the control of my life I try to have, I give thanks for the huge trees and the small plants that give us fresh air to breath.  I very often still feel like I am not doing enough- I feel the pressure of the chaotic city life, thinking I am doing something wrong because I have time and am not running around like a maniac, doing a million things, packing my day so full that I hardly have time to breath.  Nature teaches me that I have to take time.  We all need more time to sit and appreciate the small things.  All the beauty and wonder that our mother earth offers to us, that so many of us don’t even notice.

I bow to our great mother earth, I give thanks, I ask for forgiveness that so many years passed where I didn’t honour her beauty and generosity as much as I could have.  I vow to do what I can, in my own little way to cherish, to nourish, to protect her, just as she does for all of us, every day, every minute.