Death Comes To Us All

 In a world of chaos, I’m embracing death and change. Life and death, the cosmic balance of life that is something we used to know as a species, we’ve lost our way with it. Something about the knowledge that we will taste death does something to a person. 

I’ve walked with people (both personal losses and professional ones) who are on the path to death, seen the stages they pass through and the peace grows the closer they get. I’ve also seen in some cases, the fear and dread of leaving others behind, or not knowing what will come...this keeps us here for longer when we could pass in peace if we just accepted the stages of life as those stages. We will pass from this life into the next, and for that it’s inevitable. It’s something we CANNOT skip, or barter away. 

Many have tried to make deals with the devil for longer life, others seek the fountain of youth believing that it will keep the clutches of Death away from them for longer. But in the end, they met with Them, the One who walks with them intimately through a process of letting go, of holding onto freedom, and letting the change happen. It’s a gift, to be honest, to walk with people in those days and hours leading to death. I cannot believe that I was blessed to do so, but it’s given me a reflective nature on death that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I think I’m more in tune with it than I realize...But It’s okay. 

I’ve become so closely acquainted with death, in the physical and spiritual forms, that I can say I am not nearly afraid of it like I had been. In fact, I can see the beauty of it, the unfolding of the steps like a forgotten rose left behind on the bush to waste away. But I’m here, to watch, to witness the glory and the passing. The way life is given, even in death, by the passing of all things. From the ashes of what’s passed on before, we rise up nurtured and strong.

Without the passing of the previous…we wouldn’t be here. There is something just beautiful in that to me. Knowing that I come from the ashes of life before, from all of life. Plants, animals, and humans alike, have nurtured me, and donated to my DNA…ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From the earth I come, and to the earth I’ll return. 

Summer Longs For Autumn

This is an unedited image, from our amazing Arizona evening skies, thanks to Summer Monsoons. 

 Drifting mind and dark aesthetics 

Cozy browns and golden hues

Misty fog and trailing raindrops

The rasp of fingertips on aged paper

Tucked into the folds of an adventurous novel

The academic finds her soul in the depths of a darkened bookstore

Summertime Lessons

Heavy weight of heat and bogs

My soul does not delight in the bright 

It longs for the dark, the cool, the hidden

To be amongst the stars and dirt

Summertime is not my favorite

But in this season I lean into the cave

I embrace the wild monsoon when she comes

The wind greets me like an old friend

Grandmother Elm weaves and dances her song

There is beauty, and my soul is thankful

For deep within the bright golds and yellows 

I find my browns and rusts.

Even this season brings gifts and messages

I can finally see 

drawing into myself

During the Summertime

Is okay

The sun heals, even through time and space

Through the heat, I cut ties

What isn’t meant to be will not

And letting go is also okay

Summertime is to let go

The Darker half of the year is 

Where my soul longs and lives

Breeding Arrogance VS Mother Earth

 

We breed this arrogance into our bones, like its nothing.

Every drip, every generation, every seed carries this arrogance like it’s our right.

We challenge those who don't have it, who want nothing more than to connect to each other and to the earth.

We see them through eyes of self indulgence, and self importance.

Forgetting that as they inhale, we exhale.

Forgetting that every step we take directly affects those around us.

Even the earth feels our influence.

We wonder why there is this break and pain with the Earth and her people.

It’s because we fanned the flames of self more than we fanned the flames of community and peace.

Find the peace within, regain that connection to Earth and hear her heartbeat.

Feel her breath on your cheek.

Don’t shy away from it when it’s uncomfortable.

Mother Earth deserves to be heard, in all her forms and fashions.

Mother Earth is the original #metoo survivor and we must believe her for her to heal.

For us to heal.

For us to prosper and be the balance we were made for.

There is no Earth without us, and no us without Earth.