Musings

But this week Spirit decided it was time for me to level up, and this leveling-up involved children, both mine and yours, and required a level of grief so deep that I didn’t know how, or if, I could find my way out of it. But I did. At least for this moment. And with the light shining brightly today, I am led to share what I know.

Then I looked to my right and saw her up on a ridge. My breath caught in my throat. She was almost my exact height, and after walking up to her I was led to put a crystal on her “head” that I was gifted on another Arkansas trail and had been on my mesa for almost a year. In the picture, you can see a cross in the space above her head where the crystal is.

So what are we to do? One person can't save a species from extinction. One person can't un-dam the rivers, un-poison the oceans,  stop yet another pipeline that will spill oil into the sacred waters. One person can't save the world. But one one whale can mourn. One whale can hold her dead baby up as a mirror for us to see ourselves. One whale named Tahlequah can sing.

Four years ago, in the midst of a major life transformation, I woke up one morning and realized my hands were closed so tightly in fists that I was not able to receive. I was holding on so tightly to what I thought I had control over that I didn't recognize that I was missing countless opportunities.

The more I washed, the less helpless I felt. Taking his shells for him wasn't much, but it was something. We all have a job to do, and this was mine.

"All right, Baby Girl, time to level up. It's payback time."

What if you and I, with all of our flaws and scars and regrets and secrets, are powerful beyond measure, and what if our individual power is grounded in a love that connects us to each other and to the earth, plants, animals, and stars, and that all we have to do, all we truly have to do, is open up, accept that power, and receive that love that lives inside of everything?