“Magic Greets Wisdom” by Victoria Blumberg
Ah the sanctity and holiness of our Animal Others, our friends that sustain us, surround us, make us so much larger in compassion than we would be if we were the only species on the planet. Cultural diversity is a wonderful gift yet I would not be alive today without species diversity. It is the animals that from our beginning have forever informed us, educated us, on how to be better humans. We will perish without them. We all know this at some deep and ancient level.
May is the month in the Tetons/Yellowstone that the tribes of wild humans often meet up in search of the company of Sandhill Cranes~Bears~Wolves~Moose~Flickers~Deer~Ravens. We are defined by our love for the Animal Others. We gather in observation and celebration of them, and in doing so, have a lot of fun. I recently asked some teachers I was working with to write about what it meant to them to be a Wild Human. I wasn’t sure if it was a worthy exercise, but in fact, it proved to be liberating and evocative. We all have that wild core that longs to sing and dance and be free alongside our worldly responsibilities. Sometimes we need a reminder to reawaken our embodied Joy. Our bodies are wild animals that long to leap and glide and swim just like the Animal Others. Who are you when it comes to your physical form? Mountain Lion? Hummingbird? Badger? Tick? It’s good to know such things and follow through with joyful actions and activities that feed this part of who you are. I believe this is the KEY to health.
try this!
The sidereal Taurus cycle~~May 15 through June 14~~is the natural time each year to reconnect with the joy in your body, and to the body of Earth. If you haven’t yet made the link, your body is the home nearest and dearest to you…. it houses you in this physical dimension. It is intimately linked to the body of Earth. What feeds our bodies is the body of Earth with literal food and also the palates of Beauty that feed our souls. If you haven’t yet made the link, you would be dead without the never-ending gifts of Earth. Some seem to have missed this point in the exploitation of Earth’s bounty. And Earth is our home. It is the universal home to all of humanity. It is our common ground. Such things should seem obvious, yet somehow we have been made to forget.
And Taurus holds another key, almost a paradox this: Supposedly Buddha achieved his spiritual awakening during the time of Taurus. Buddha placed his hand upon the Earth as the true witness as a sign of his enlightenment, of the awakening of the Mind. The awakening of the Mind proven by the grounding of that truth in the Earth. Interesting link. The Embodied Mind. All one, body and mind, mind and body. No separation, all linked, integrated, wholeness.
a unified field
For me, much of this same message is carried on the wings of Pelicans.I want to pay homage again, as I did last spring to the Pelican Nation. It is both Joy and Wisdom they call forth from other dimensions, landing in our souls, evoking new possibilities. Do you know Pelican? They are of an ancient avian lineage, and, like the Whales and Elephants, they carry eons of memory and time, what works, what hasn’t worked.They are the most gracious of birds, both graceful and gangly all at once, like we humans.
“The Song of the White Pelican” is one of my favorite essays by our beloved Wyoming mountaineer/philosopher Jack Turner from his revolutionary/must read book “The Abstract Wild”~I would post a link but Jack has no website so you’ll have to order from your favorite independent bookstore. His essay, which I reread often, opened me to contemplate/muse upon the gift that Pelicans bring to our world.
It is this time each year that the Pelicans return with their lilting flight and delight. If I may share this poem, just finished, or maybe a first draft, from a couple years of musings, primarily written at the curvature of calm that is called the Oxbow Bend of the wilder turbulent Snake River.
May we learn from the Pelican tribe, keepers of the Embodied Mind, guides to our future Joy.
INSIDE PELICAN MIND
poem by Lyn Dalebout
they are the Wise Ones
have seen it all
heard it all
been here throughout the ages
they look upon us with
gentle eyes
like an ancient antarctic dream
eons of Earth and memory
in their Field
they are a dreaming ear
of a once-held Earthly peace
~~~~~~~~~~~~
huddled
in a raft of reverie they are
a far-reaching Mind
as a collective Field
they travel far and wide
high and deep
they are Earthly and celestial
all at once
they are
a once-held Earthly peace
~~~~
encircled their elegant heads turn inward
one lustrous white body
each alone asleep yet awake
they breathe as one white Field
a floating down dream lofting large
toward the heavens
then returning to Earth
an ivory raft of calm
teachers of how to live as one
~~~~
from their high high flights
with yammer and clack
they spiral to unimaginable heights
where wings
absorb
awakening
Joy
unbounded
then returning to Earth
they erupt in a jubilant gangly grace
that sputters the coldest heart to smile
they gather
and toss
the earthen water to feed their young
no child short changed
no one
is left behind
they glide with glee
and grace
goofiness
how like them
are we
~~~~
when they arise together
and fall into flight
their spirals lift the Earth
in evolution
they are old
they are wise
Our Guides
~~~~~~
With leaps and bounding Joy*
Lyn Dalebout
deerlyn@gmail.com
