Can We Return to Being the Lover's Who First Made the Leap? - An Appalachian Trail Epiphany

 Hot Springs Spa on the French Broad River, Hot Springs, NC

"It's beautiful from up there," volunteered the hiker I met on the trail.  I'm certain she saw the are-we-there-yet look on my sweat-lined face.  I was headed up as she was headed down a portion of the Appalachian Trail in Hot Springs, NC.  

"It's beautiful from up there." 

Cognitively I knew she was referring to the view from my destination, Lover's Leap, but intuitively I sensed something else.  I heard this simple encourager and knew this is what we all feel as we look to Earth from the starry Universe.  Earth is an exquisite pearl from 'up there.'  

Imagine the thrill of being a soul knowing it's about to come here.  For just one minute, imagine the feeling of looking down on this blue, green orb knowing your time is near.  

You are a Lover getting to make this journey to beloved Earth!

Talk about a Lover's Leap! 

And then it happens.  The leap occurs.

We find ourselves in a suit made of skin that will be our vehicle for exploring this beautiful place we've seen from afar.

And then it happens.  Many of us begin to get messages related to our bodies - don't touch, don't cry, don't stare, you didn't hear/see/experience that.  We learn to crawl, walk, run, play and accumulate skinned knees and boo boos, not to mention disappointments, fears of abandonment, engulfment and control alongside prejudices, stereotypes, family and tribal legacies.

Most of us enter schools where competition is valued over wonder, curiosity, and asking tough questions whose answers aren't found in texts. Our tanks are quietly filled with less-than and shame.

We fall in love. We experience hurt.  We fall in love.  We contribute to hurt.  The internal pains accumulate.

We go from Lovers looking upon this beautiful planet to neglecting ourselves and Earth. We take for granted our beautiful bodies as well as Earth's.  We go about in varying ways destroying one another and Earth through deed, word and thought.

One can say I'm oversimplifying complex historical, biological, psychological dynamics, but to me it's pretty simple.  This is how we go from the thrill of coming here to the reality of being here.

When we allow them, cumulative disappointments, pains, fears, and legacies separate us from being the Lovers we are and what we knew 'out there.'

Fortunately the story doesn't end here.  Those who are tenacious, resilient, and waking up can shed the above and find our way back to the wonder, beauty, curiosity, joy, grace and glory of getting to be here because it's not only beautiful from "up there."

  It is beautiful here!  

Despite the killing and warring, all around Mother Earth, I believe it is beautiful here because Mother   

Earth is still beautiful and we are too. 

We and she are beautiful processors of presence.  With an open heart and mind, hurts can be forgiven and stereotypes overcome.

Healing can happen as a much bigger Mystery unfolds.   This Mystery weaves its way through our days and our nights.  

I was reminded of this just this morning as I sat outside.  A robin began singing in my neighbor's tree just as I heard a crow caw.  This took me back to April when I was witness to a crow eating a young robin in the nest just outside my window.  I could not quit crying over this.  I kept saying to my partner, Jerry, that I felt like my ongoing tears were related to France. 

This morning as the robin sang, a thought came to me: 'This is the key to how Joan of Arc died. She was singing inside.'  

Then my friend Rachel crossed my mind.  Rachel is in Germany at the present researching and visiting sites where women who were intuitive, healed with herbs and consulted the Earth were killed as witches. 

I thought of Rachel then heard church bells.  I have sat in this yard a multitude of mornings spanning twenty years.  I hear traffic, dogs, birds, neighbors and the train miles away but never have I heard the church bells I was guessing two miles away at Christ the King.  This was perfect since the church killed so many women in the times Rachel is researching.  

And even more perfect was the fact that I was hearing 8am chimes.  The number 8 represents infinity.  

Here on Earth there is something mythical and magical is occurring across time and planes because it is beautiful here. 

Equally as beautiful this time a year ago, Mystery arrived in my mother's and my life as she and I experienced cancer scares and tests the very same week only one day apart.  Both of us vulnerable, we shared life's journey on a deeper level.  Relating from the heart as we really are is vital to the beauty of being here.  

Closer to present time, a week ago tonight my neighbor asked if I wanted to come by and be with her and her cat of 21 years before he parted.  Afterwards I sat outside and wrote in my journal, 'To be allowed into another's life when they are at their most vulnerable is such a gift.'  

My friend would probably say I gifted her but the sentence above relates to her gifting me.  Inviting me to spend a bit of time with her family and her dear cat was a gift they gave me. 

And then I ask myself do I  truly believe it is beautiful here when the news carries repeated stories of senseless killing and loss.

Yes, I do believe it is beautiful here for I believe the power of Love is greater than hate.  I believe in the beauty of hearts more than I will live in fear.  I believe it is possible to remember we are all Lovers who once made the leap.  It has taken me much of my 55 years to "get this" in my body and I suspect I will continue to "get it."

Life is at its best when we remember we are lover's continually leaping into the unknown, moment by moment with heart's (and minds) open.

Imagine the Shift occurring as increasing numbers of us remember the Earth that was beautiful from 'up there' is equally beautiful down here.  

May we return to remembering the beauty that we are. 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse 14 August 2014

dawn@imaginetheshift.com