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Tag Archives: Spirit

Moving On

02 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by Lesley Irene Shore in Fox Hill Village, Growing, Nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Energy, Fall, Fox Hill Village, Gratitude, Harmony Farm, Land, Nature, Prayer, Ritual, Seasons, Spirit, Spring, Trail, Walk, Winter

Fall

Fall’s energy invites us to let go of the old to make room for the new.  And so, during fall, I set my intention to release my ties to Harmony Farm.  I had been gradually separating myself, but the commitment to move on required that I sever the ties more completely.

The land let me know that it was ready.  One day, while taking my meditative walk, I stopped in surprise for a huge branch blocked my path.  I had intended to go up the hill to a ceremonial place – the area where I frequently offered prayers.  Knowing that the branch hadn’t been there the day before, I stood for a while and tuned into its message.

The land blocked my path – clearly telling me to stop my daily ritual of walking up the hill.  I asked for permission to go there this one last time, to say “farewell.”  Sensing that this might be alright, I bent down to see if I could push the branch out of my way.  The branch yielded to my touch, I pushed it aside and slowly trod up the hill.

Arriving at the top, I offered a prayer of deep gratitude.  Thanking the land for the ways it nurtured us over many years, imparting its teachings and helping us to grow.  As I walked down the hill, I felt Harmony Farm release me from its grasp.

Winter

Winter’s energy invites us to retreat within, to dig down deep, to rest, to renew and to dream.  So, during winter, I swam in the dark and dreamed big dreams.  I dreamt of the family who would answer Harmony Farm’s call.

During winter, Bill and I gradually moved into our apartment at Fox Hill Village.  This meant going back and forth between our new home and our old.  While I had intended to continue walking along Harmony Farm’s trails, the woods outside my new home beckoned and I began exploring their terrain.  I discovered an abandoned trail, put pruning shears to use and began creating a hiking path.  My heart expanded to embrace Fox Hill’s land.  And as I walked along the trail, I sensed new dreams bubbling beneath frozen earth.

Spring

Seeds germinate during spring – the time of rebirth, reawakening.  During spring, seeds sprouted and a lovely young couple answered Harmony Farm’s call.  They offered to become its future owners / caretakers.

Spring cleaning ensured, for we needed to finish clearing out stuff we had accumulated during 37 years of living on Harmony Farm.

As with every season, Spring’s polar opposite – Fall – kicked in.  We released more and more of the old, while opening to the new.

 

Praying

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Lesley Irene Shore in Nature, Spiritual

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Blizzard, Connection, Doe, Feeling, Gratitude, Harmony Center, Love, Nature, Prayer, Protection, Sacred, Safety, Sensing, Snow, Spirit, Spiritual, Spirituality, Walk, Wind

On the day of the impending blizzard, I took my usual walk in the woods.  Snow drifted down lazily around me as I put one foot in front of the other and connected with the land around me. 

Arriving in my sacred prayer area, I stood for a while surveying the scenery.  My heart expanded to include each tree, each rock, and each place my eyes touched.   I felt filled with love.

I began speaking out loud.  “Dear Spirit, please protect all of us during the coming blizzard.  Protect the birds, including Blue Jay who sat on the branch outside my bathroom window this morning, from the danger coming our way.  Protect all the wild beings, including gentle Doe who recently visited this area.  Help all who are in the path of the storm find shelter and stay safe.”

I continued praying, “Please guide each snowflake to pass between the tree branches and pine needles.  Help the trees sway and bend with the wind.”  

My prayers became more specific as I asked for protection for my family and friends, for our chickens and sheep, for Star our donkey, for Kali our dog, for Pizzaz our cat, for our home, for Harmony Center, and for all of Harmony Farm.

I prayed, and prayed some more.  Then stood in silence, listening, sensing, feeling.

Deep inside I felt reassured.  I couldn’t say how I knew, but I felt everything would be all right.

As the day progressed, I watched snow pile up and heard wind blow.  When I went over to Harmony Center during the evening, I noticed that our driveway had already been plowed.  I said a mental “thank you” to John for being out in the storm, for taking good care of people like ourselves.

Snowy Scene

Later at night I lay in bed, listening to wind howling around our house.  Snuggled cozily inside my bed, I felt safe and warm.  As I drifted into sleep, I felt deep gratitude for the unsung heroes out braving the storm keeping us safe, plowing, repairing electric lines, answering emergency calls, clearing railroad tracks, etc. etc. 

I prayed for their protection and sent them love. 

Doe

07 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by Lesley Irene Shore in Nature, Spiritual

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Commune, Deer, Doe, Energy, Gentle, Healing, Heart, Kindhearted, Love, medicine, Nature, Prayer, Presence, Sacred, Sensed, Spirit, Spiritual, Thoughts, Walk

The other day I received an e-mail from a friend.  After informing me that her husband had been hospitalized with pneumonia shortly after contracting the flu, she asked that I hold him in my thoughts and pray for his recovery.  

Later that morning I took my usual walk in the woods, which includes visiting a special area on a small hill where I say daily prayers.  I stood for a while in this sacred area, holding Paul in my heart and sending him love and healing energy.  I then vocalized a prayer out loud, asking Spirit to help my both friend and her husband.

Upon finishing my prayers, I immediately sensed a presence on my left.  Looking over, I spotted a beautiful doe looking at me intently.  Again I spoke aloud, though this time I spoke with her and asked her not to be afraid. 

Usually deer run the minute they hear my voice or the sound of my footsteps.  Instead, she remained standing while I moved slowly to another rocky area nearby where I usually say a few more prayers.

Doe on Hill

Looking at Doe, I thanked her for her gentle energy and asked her to send love and healing to my friend and her husband.

Doe and I continued to commune with one another.  I felt her radiating kindhearted gentleness.  She even appeared to pose while I took her photograph. 

When our time together was up, we slowly moved in different directions.  I felt Doe’s gentle energy reverberating inside me throughout the remainder of my walk.

Paul returned home from the hospital and continues to recover.  While allopathic antibiotics helped kill the bugs., Doe’s gentle, loving energy assisted his healing process. 

Thank you dear Doe!  

Mixed Blessing

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Lesley Irene Shore in Nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Blessings, Death, Gratitude, Guinea Fowl, Harmony Center, Harmony Farm, Keets, Life, Mother Hen, Nature, Soul, Spirit

In my previous blog, I wrote about the joy of discovering our guinea hen with her newly hatched brood of keets and my excitment about how all the adults were caretaking the babies (see Cooperative Edge?).  I hoped to watch the tiny, adorable little beings develop into full-grown birds. 

When I first noticed Mother Hen with her babies, I spotted at least 15 keets.  I had difficulty counting as sometimes they were underneath one guinea fowl, then moved to another.  And when they were out-from-under, they ran around so rapidly, peeping and chirping as they went, that I had difficulty counting. 

The adult guinea fowl initially hovered over their babies, protecting them from the cold, and moved around very little.  But as day one moved into days two and three, their attentiveness to the baby keets appeared to wane.  While they continued protecting and teaching the keets, their focus turned to foraging for food.  They moved at a faster pace and travelled further before stopping to eat or rest.

I watched tiny little bodies scurrying, trying to keep up with the adults.  They encountered many obstacles that the adults readily walked over.  A small stone became an insurmountable mountain and a twig a hazardous zone that their tiny legs had difficulty negotiating.  But try they did.  The feisty little souls scrambled up and down, running as fast as they could after the adults.  A noisy little bunch, for they peeped, and peeped and peeped.

While the adults still tended their baby keets, they appeared oblivious to the keets’ inability to rapidly negotiate terrain with tiny bodies and fragile state.  I watched in despair as the parents ran ahead, seemingly unconcerned about what was happening behind them and despite a keet’s loud frantic peeps.

At the end of each day, Mother Hen  found what she considered to be a safe place to spend the night and gathered her keets under her there.  Once I located her under a saw horse next to Harmony Center. Other nights I didn’t know where she slept, but she and her brood re-appeared in the morning, sitting outside the guinea house, waiting for her “husband” and other pals to join her.

I thought, “if only Mama would take them into the coop. Then I could lock them all up for a while – keep them safe, give the keets a chance to grow stronger.”  Hoping that she might, praying that she would, I readjusted the ramp into the coop to ensure that the keets could readily walk inside.  Doing everything I could think of to entice Mama inside, I sprinkled food on the ramp and turned on the light.

As one day led into the next, my baby keet count went from 15 to 10, then down to 8.  I found two small bodies sprawled, lifeless on the ground.  Gathering these remnants of once spirited beings, I said a few prayers and buried one white and one speckled inert form.

Day four dawned, and as the day developed, one after another baby keet succumbed.  Finding two little souls struggling after the pack, I picked each one up separately and held him, or her, for a while, thinking that I might warm the probably cold body.  But when I put him / her down, I watched each little body struggle to run, only to fall over, struggle again, and fall yet again.  I realized that they’d each broken a leg, probably caught on a twig, or a rock, or who knows what.

During the afternoon, I buried 2 more bodies, and watched two spirited little beings running through the brush, still managing to keep up with the pack.  At the end of the day, when I went to lock the guinea house, all five adults were there.  But none of their babies.

After all the joy and excitement, I feel deep sorrow, broken hearted.  Such feisty little souls, so full of energy and happy peeps – broken legs, exhaustion, cold – I have no idea how each one perished.  They struggled and suffered.  I hope not too much.

Walking around outside, I miss seeing tiny exuberant bodies scurrying around.  I miss hearing boisterous, happy peeps.  Yet those feisty little keets live on – inside me.

Living on Harmony Farm, experiencing nature’s cycles, carries mixed blessings.  Despite my sorrow, I feel very blessed. 

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