An Earth Connection Tale Tuning into nature (aka. Earth Connections) is one of our core teachings at Peace Village We hope this story submitted by Karen Murphy (Peace Village mom and board member) will inspire your own family earth connections this season! My son and I are on a bike ride from Bridge of the Gods to Eagle Creek. As we bike we talk. He mostly talks and I mostly listen. He tells me his latest game, story, and music ideas and he tells me what he knows about salmon. Upon arrival at the creek we get down close to the water, crawling under low stretching branches of trees and over wet river rocks until we can see individual salmon in all the stages of spawning and death. We see some making their way up small rapids, males staying close to females, females preparing the locations for eggs, females simply staying close to their eggs until death. We see many dead fish in the water and some that have been dragged out to the forest floor by critters. We see rippling colonies of larvae continuing the decomposition process. It has rained recently and the air is thick with moisture yet the sky is blue. The forest is awash in the colors of autumn. The air is crisp. The scent of fish is strong. We feel incredibly interested, inspired and alive. Home is miles away and we easily enfold ourselves within the living landscape of this moment. Later as we pedal back through the forest to home I listen to my son some more. I see how the afternoon’s adventure had ignited another layer of inspiration within him. He casually mentions that one of his superpowers is to care for the wilderness. Then he clarifies the thought and says, “Actually all people have that superpower to care for the wilderness, they just need to remember.” He then goes on to tell me about his plans to look up more salmon data to share with his friends and create a salmon hatchery next to a river in minecraft and on and on . . . So many ideas. I listen with an open heart to my son’s emerging creative self and I listen to the emerging next levels of consciousness being awakened within me. I hold space for both. I also broaden my awareness to hold space for the challenges of the salmon, the challenges of all our planet’s fresh water sources including Oxbow Springs a couples miles east of us currently in danger of being sold to Nestle. I hold the awareness of the indigenous peoples of the river who have long held sacred the waters and the salmon and who continue to carry the wounds of genocide and occupation. I hold space for the recent eruption of violence and taking of life in Roseburg a handful of miles to the west. I hold space for all the collective disconnect that has resulted in these challenges and each one of our wounds. Although in the holding of all this my eyes mist, and my heart clenches to be so stretched, I keep breathing and listening and holding and widening. And as I witness my son’s connection with nature and his own creative self root deeper within him a vision emerges. I see the disconnects loosening and falling away revealing pathways for healing - the healing of self, the healing of community, the healing of the Earth. I see the overlapping spirals of transformation for us all.
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AuthorPeace Village Staff and Volunteers share mostly during the week of camp. Sign up above to receive notifications of blog posts and you'll never miss the latest news. Archives
August 2018
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