Dream Alive Life
Marlow Shami
Autumn 2002.
Greetings NaturalSense Readers--
It has been a busy month. I'll be moving to a new home in a few weeks and feel grateful to have found such a wonderful location to live in. In the process of packing I did some research on how to recycle computers and plastic (see resource section). This has been a time to let go of a lot; stuff I have carried with me "just in case" for over 20 plus years. Old portfolios from past careers were thrown out, old pictures, old videotapes (I was a CBS television videographer/editor once!), letters, even journals from the 70's!
I cherish my past. The ups and downs helped to shape my life and person. Letting go of the bulk of material documentation of the past has been a liberating experience. I can feel my shoulders lighten. A sense of room is being made. This new space, found in my new home and within the less tangible space of my psyche, welcomes the present and future with vitality and enthusiasm.
As you prepare for special celebrations, look into the corner of your desk, closet, or garage. Root out the old "stuff" that no longer serves you. Let it go with thanks and find someone to pass it on to, recycle it, or sell it. Make room for the creative change that is the nature of life on earth and the nature of being human. I guarantee you'll experience life in new and refreshing ways as you do.
My essay this month is about dreaming. With all the activity of the holiday season, many of us find we remember more dreams and are touched more deeply by them. I encourage you to work with your dreams. Dreams are loving gifts from your inner nature waiting to be opened. Take the time to listen to them, there is gold to be found here!
With Nature in heart and mind and dreams-- Marlow
NaturalSense
Late Autumn 2002 ISSUE
Volume 2 Issue 9
CONTENTS:
* Mission statement
* Essay: Dream Alive Life
* Resources
Mission Statement: NaturalSense e-newsletter offers the opportunity to investigate how and why our relationship with nature can be a healing one. The nature of healing is rooted in our relationship with all of life. When we wake up to our authentic self as a part of nature, our thoughts, actions, and life reflect the innate compassion and creative change of the natural world. This newsletter provides an essay, activity, calendar, and resource list to inspire deepening your natural healing connections with Nature.
Marlow Shami is a Holistic Healing Practitioner, Teacher, and Writer. She has a private healing practice in Litchfield, Connecticut. She conducts Nature As Healer workshops, Energy Healing/Meditation Circles, and publishes a quarterly e-newsletter, NaturalSense®. Her specialty is the healing connection between humans and the natural world.
Essay: Dream Alive Life --by Marlow Shami
All week I have looked for fallen white pine boughs to bring inside and
enjoy. This attraction to the White Pine grows from recent dreams. In the
first dream a golden horse stands in a kitchen. I notice pine trees outside the kitchen window and step out to inhale the pine's fragrance. On return to the kitchen I don't want to walk on the floor because it is covered with insects. I find a way to pass without stepping on them. In another dream I have a mission to get past a huge pine tree in order to save it. An insect my psyche invents, the pine wasp, insists I not walk past the huge pine tree. It dive-bombs me and wins. I wake up with a curious attraction to learn more about why pine trees thread through so many of my dreams.
Shortly after the dreams I start to notice white pine and think about this tree during my daily activities while walking in a forest. The lone source of a gentle swishing sound leads me to the white pine. I lean back on the tree and squint my eyes to soften the bright gold wash of afternoon sun. My breath slows and deepens. I feel that old familiar hum of life deep in the core of my being. As I listen, the pine boughs reveal themselves. They are scattered in a circle around this tree. I want to read this elegant green calligraphy. A cluster of five slim four-inch needles graces each thin arch of brown. I remember the story of how the Native Americans showed the sick and dying Europeans how to prepare these needles and extract the vitamin C. I wonder how they are saving me now.
Just before I leave the pine I follow my intuition and circle the tree five times all the while thinking of qualities I love about this tree. I feel gratitude for the branches I gather. I have never done a ritual like this before. In fact, ritual up till now seemed foreign and uncomfortable. Later that night I am prompted to throw a few pine boughs into my bath water. This feels cleansing. The next evening I burn dry pine branches in my fireplace along with the greens I had bathed with earlier. The burning of old wood becomes symbolic of the burning of old ways. Fire transforms this wood into energy. The pieces of white pine's purpose begin to fall together. I am creating a ritual of renewal.
Some boughs grace my home now, weeks later, green and present. Pine adorns
my writing desk and the mantle above the fireplace. It reminds me of things yet to know and of what needs to be remembered from the past. Most importantly, it reminds me to tend the moment.
This past Christmas we experienced a partial solar eclipse. I used binoculars to project the image on a white piece of paper and viewed this rare celestial event. The image was crisp; a silver crescent stained-glass window streaked by the lead pattern of tree branches. When the eclipse was over, I lay the binoculars down and looked out at the sun through the trees and saw the branches that had streaked through the eclipse belonged to a white pine.
The golden horse, white pine, insects, and spontaneous ritual all carry personal, mythological and archetypal meaning for me. When we follow our sensory attractions we are following our inner nature's quest for homeostasis. Just as earth's ecosystem wordlessly works in ways that create and maintain balance, so do we. The senses that lead me on my pine quest are many, far more than the five we are taught about (smell, touch, taste, sight, hearing).
When I attend to callings from my sleeping and waking life, the two areas overlap and inform one another often with a synergistic effect. What were all the dream symbols and wakening activities expressing? How do I connect the dots between sleeping and waking life? What is nature's idiom? We are responsible to discover our own answers to these questions. It is our commitment to awakening our
multi-sensory potential that is key here. Sensory attractions are the more than 53 senses we share with all sentient
beings, including Earth. The acknowledging and blending of our sensory attractions can provide deeper life meaning and direction. They shine light into the dark places we sometimes find ourselves lost in.
I believe I am learning to translate white pine's elegant calligraphy. Consider the rewards of following the tree's inspiration. My dreams inform and motivate me to grow in ways I may not have, had I ignored them. The pine reminded me to revisit early childhood experiences with healing results. I am learning to respect the power of ritual and the transformative process it elicits. Both water and fire enhanced my ability to relax by quieting my rational mind. This quiet place enlivens my connection to nature and my sense of belonging to something far greater than myself.
Have you a dream to reflect on? Is there a recurring image, emotion, or event in your waking life? Attend to these gifts. They long for your connection and care. These are the bits and pieces of our inner nature offered up for us to faithfully pull together. What unfolds can hasten a return to home and wholeness. Get to know your golden horse, the tree or stone that calls you, the insects that keep your feet off the ground. Attend to the moon that resides in your heart and the sun that lights your path. You have only your self to gain. As you place the sensory pieces of your self-together, by learning nature's unique language, the world becomes more whole and welcoming. How could it not? We are nature not apart from it.
RESOURCES
November 29th is buy nothing day... Lets take our cue from this date into our year-round daily lives. Many of us will be purchasing gifts for holidays, celebrations, birthdays, gifts for ourselves etc. Find gifts that keep on giving; gifts that leave a touch of your care and love. Visit with friends, cook a special meal for friends and family, get active with a community group you have been meaning to connect with, volunteer at your local food bank, take a walk out in nature, enjoy a companion animal, read a good book, write in your journal, ask big questions and consume/give no junk! Avoid supporting a non-sustaining life of unnecessary consumption.
Check out the excellent posters and handbills you can download and print out.
Poster your town, or your office, or your school.
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/toolbox/posters/
How to recycle plastic and electronic equipment? See 3 resources below.
The best plan is to think through a purchase before buying. Ask a few questions: Do I really need this product? Can I recycle if safely? What impact does the manufacturing of this product have on the environment? Taking these questions to heart can save you money and help preserve our health and the health of our planet.
ElectronicsRecycling.org- Electronics have revolutionized our lifestyle with computers, TVs, radios, telephones, and cell phones. However, they also make up the bulk of electronics that threaten the environment, because of the dangerous elements in them. Recycling and reuse of these electronic items prevent them from reaching landfills, which help to create less waste, and provide usable items to organizations that need them and recapture valuable resources. As new products hit the market, relevant information and resources are necessary to ensure old items are properly discarded.
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection website has a great resource page. Check your states DEP to learn more about recycling in your area.
http://www.dep.state.ct.us/wst/recycle/ctrecycles.htm
Recycle your old computer: www.ibm.com/ibm/environment/products/pcrservice.shtml Cost per computer system $31.
Another option www.hp.com/recycle (cost $13-$34).
Plastic Recycling (cellophane, all hard plastic, styrophome cups, meat trays etc) Finding a plastic recylcler may take some sleuthing but the time and energy is well worth it. OBEX is located in Stamford, CT see
www.obex.com or reach them by phone (203)975-9094. This company turns your discarded plastic into picket fences, garden bed boarders etc. If you do not live in Connecticut and would like to learn how to recycle plastic in your area I suggest you call your state department of environmental protection and ask for the recycling division. They may be able to refer you to a company like OBEX.
The Cultural Creatives: See this website by the authors of the cutting edge book entitled: Cultural Creatives--
http://www.culturalcreatives.org/
In Connecticut we have a group of CC called Cultural Creatives In Action. They're origin springs from the discovery that we are part of some 50 million socially and environmentally concerned people who value and support a worldview of compassion, peace, and less materialism, and who view nature as sacred. CCIA was created to form an interdependent, open-minded community that works to support the creation of earth-centered balance. Cultural Creatives in Action holds monthly Gatherings in Redding, CT. Information: call Pat Hinkley at 203-240-0647 or you may send an email to
pat@artsthatheal.com SEE
http://www.culturalcreativesinaction.com/
Project NatureConnect-- Has a new certificate program! http://www.ecopsych.com/ecocertificate.html
Learn how many of our human problems (war, pollution, greed, depression, etc) can be healed.
Learn why these problems are wrongly assumed to be the inevitable result of human nature and the price of progress. You will be inspired to learn how much our relationship with nature has to do with healing ourselves and the planet we are all a part of. This site offers practical tools that empower you to help make positive change in our world.
READERS WRITE COLUMN
NaturalSense™ from time to time publishes a Reader's Write column. Please don't be shy, email any questions or comments and I'll do my best to respond to them in a future column.
MShami@aol.com
Marlow Shami
P.O. Box 186
Bloomfield, Connecticut 06002 USA
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Copyright © 2002, all rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute NaturalSense™ Newsletter as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached. The author of this article is: Marlow D. J. Shami. Contact her by email at: MShami@aol.com, or by phone at (203) 720-0302
Create balance and healing by deepening your relationship with Nature.
Marlow Shami
NaturalSense ®
PO Box 33
Goshen, CT 06756
TEL: (860) 491-2067
Email: MShami@aol.com
www.naturalsense.org
