This weekly sharing is challenging me in so ma y ways. I realize I need to practice the many ways of relating to human and our nonhuman partners sharing their environment with us. There is so much to !earn, assimilate and explore in our relationships and in this journey grow more sensitive with a!l that is a part of of our living and breathing.
From the time I was a child I sought to connect with all nonhuman life. I had a special hollow oak tree that was my home, I went there as often as I could to hear the birds, watch the cattle, listen to the wind as it brought the Lea ed together in a chorus sometimes gentle sometimes fierce. Always the oak sheltered me in it's cavernous trunk, even heavy rain barely broke through its great canopy, and I could remain there listening to its music.
There is still a longing in me to communicate more clearly with the wind, rain, trees, birds, all of nature but I seem unable. I know they reach out but I seem unable to decipher their messages. I would appreciate guidance from any readers who sojourn on the same path seeking to enhance their connection with all that is. CAT
Dear Cat, thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt comment and request. What a gift that you’ve known since you were a child about the importance of being with the more than human world. I don’t know the answer to deciphering the messages but here are a few thoughts.
I’ve just finished another course with David Whyte on conversation and he said “You cannot enter any world for which you don’t have language. What language do you need to learn to enter the next stage of your existence?” Robin Wall Kimmerer calls this language the ‘grammar of animacy.’ David Abram talks about becoming animal in his book of the same name. I re-read his chapter on the speech of living things and he recalls a threatening encounter with sea lions. They were barking at him menacingly and, out of his fear, came a guttural response that shocked the sea lions.
Whyte offers several steps for deeper conversations and my biggest takeaways from those is that you must first let go of how you think the conversation should go, be silent and listen deeply, and then if called to respond in some way, do so. This call will most likely be felt in the body. I think you’re already on the right track with your ability to be with and listen deeply. Whyte says to ask for visible and invisible help. Looks like you’re doing that too.
Thank you Kim your words a d suggestions are most helpful and I will follow your suggestions. I appreciate all the work you put in to offer us encouragement and awaken our awareness to the human and non- human companions on the journey.
This weekly sharing is challenging me in so ma y ways. I realize I need to practice the many ways of relating to human and our nonhuman partners sharing their environment with us. There is so much to !earn, assimilate and explore in our relationships and in this journey grow more sensitive with a!l that is a part of of our living and breathing.
From the time I was a child I sought to connect with all nonhuman life. I had a special hollow oak tree that was my home, I went there as often as I could to hear the birds, watch the cattle, listen to the wind as it brought the Lea ed together in a chorus sometimes gentle sometimes fierce. Always the oak sheltered me in it's cavernous trunk, even heavy rain barely broke through its great canopy, and I could remain there listening to its music.
There is still a longing in me to communicate more clearly with the wind, rain, trees, birds, all of nature but I seem unable. I know they reach out but I seem unable to decipher their messages. I would appreciate guidance from any readers who sojourn on the same path seeking to enhance their connection with all that is. CAT
Dear Cat, thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt comment and request. What a gift that you’ve known since you were a child about the importance of being with the more than human world. I don’t know the answer to deciphering the messages but here are a few thoughts.
I’ve just finished another course with David Whyte on conversation and he said “You cannot enter any world for which you don’t have language. What language do you need to learn to enter the next stage of your existence?” Robin Wall Kimmerer calls this language the ‘grammar of animacy.’ David Abram talks about becoming animal in his book of the same name. I re-read his chapter on the speech of living things and he recalls a threatening encounter with sea lions. They were barking at him menacingly and, out of his fear, came a guttural response that shocked the sea lions.
Whyte offers several steps for deeper conversations and my biggest takeaways from those is that you must first let go of how you think the conversation should go, be silent and listen deeply, and then if called to respond in some way, do so. This call will most likely be felt in the body. I think you’re already on the right track with your ability to be with and listen deeply. Whyte says to ask for visible and invisible help. Looks like you’re doing that too.
Thank you Kim your words a d suggestions are most helpful and I will follow your suggestions. I appreciate all the work you put in to offer us encouragement and awaken our awareness to the human and non- human companions on the journey.