Blog tours are not really a thing that I've participated in much, (only two previous) but I felt I wanted to be part of this one, as 'our connection' to the earth which Jackie Stewart and Jason Smalley are encouraging, is something I would like all people to feel.
Yesterday the blog tour visited Karina's Inner Space Please go and visit if you have the time.
Do you know the landscape of your soul?
I've always loved the outdoors. I grew up playing in fields that sloped down to a winding stream. A fallen willow was our bridge to the other side. We built cabins (dens) and swung on homemade swings attached to huge dying elms. Our meeting place was the lightening tree. We wandered in woods, peeped into birds nests, jumped across the old weir, filled carrier bags to the brim with hazelnuts and strung bunches of primroses and violets with wool on a stick to carry home. We cooked outside on fires that we made ourselves and came in at dark with charred remains of jacket potato in our teeth. We were chased by the farmer for climbing on haystacks and building palaces with the bales. We grew up with the seasons, collected conkers, picked blackberries, mushrooms, and gooseberries that grew wild in the hedge. We walked with cats, dog and a goat. We climbed trees and came in late our clothes mud stained and grass stained. We rolled down hills, sledged down slopes, fell in stinging nettles, rubbed the stings with dock leaves and played on. This was the landscape of my childhood and it's woven into my soul. A landscape that has helped mold me into who I am today.
~*~
'To touch the earth is to have harmony with nature'~ Sioux
I believe our soul landscape goes deeper than childhood. It is our very connection to the Earth. Sometimes when we walk in ancient, and wild places we experience a strange feeling, a pull to something that we can't quite explain. Sometimes on nights when the wind howls and the rain lashes down, there is a stirring of feeling of something that has been lost. Something forgotten. Have you ever felt it? When you are still and quiet in nature, listen, it is there..... it is ancient. A golden thread entwined with our heart strings. An energy, an earth magic that resides in all of us. You know this, because you have felt it pull. You and it are stitched together. It surrounds your soul with a wise embrace that feels like home.
At this time on Earth, when often things look dark and bleak, it's more important than ever to have this connection. It encourages wonder, appreciation, love, respect, and compassion of everything that we share this planet with.
***
If you would like to deepen your connection with the landscapes of YOUR soul. Landscapes of your Soul is available to buy as an instant download here. It includes the most gorgeous guided meditation journey that I'm sure you will enjoy as much as I did.
And while I stood there
I saw more than I can tell,
And I understood more than I saw;
For I was seeing in a sacred manner
the shapes of things in the spirit,
and the shapes of all shapes as they must
live together as one being.
~
Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks
Posts
i do feel the same connection as you do towards the nature... there is a strong magic in it and a usually i get this strong feeling that now i must go to the woods, sometimes on those exact moment something magical have happened; like i have found a small nest filled with turquoise blue eggs or a blackbirds nest, where last chick is coming out of the egg. i always say that the woods and nature is my home first, in there i feel where i truly belong.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing your lovely story Karen!
I too understand this pull and feel at "home" when out in nature perhaps walking through an ancient wood or standing on top of a hill and seeing the earth laid out before me or maybe in smaller details like the lichen on a fallen branch, the first primrose or the colour of a bird's egg. Lovely post and I do so like the Sioux quote too.
ReplyDeleteThe Sioux quotation is both beautiful and true. My daily walks on the moors or in the woods ground me and keep me in close connection with the earth and the seasons. Lovely post Karen.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a great pity to me that today's children miss out so much on playing out as we did. There is something very healing about being in "green" spaces.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful post which speaks to my soul. I certainly feel the pull, so deep and powerful!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about your childhood..
I so wish I had that kind of childhood. I was fortunate at least to have an adulthood in which I could explore the pull you mention. Thanks for the beautiful words to inspire me.
ReplyDeletekaren- a truly lovely post from another who feels that pull.
ReplyDeleteLeanne x
talesofsimpledays.blogspot.com
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to played with you when I was little! There was a pond in the woods where we lived and always saw a newt or two. There was so much more wildlife around then. Each day would be another discovery and we used to make dens all the time! Like a lot of places, it's a housing estate now. I do envy you in your lovely Lacock. :) I shall check out the links now, thankyou Karen!
ReplyDeleteJess x
You know... something with moss, a teensy little stream, heaps of horse manure (to me, it's not gross at all, the smell reminds me of the happiest summers a child could ever experience) and rocks with fossils in them will do. Old, soft, green, warm, sparkling, critter- infested, promising. A sloping meadow near in the mountains or the banks of a turquoise lake. Even a village with red roof and cobblestone alleys, where lizards bask in the sun and snakes are more than just a bedtime spooky tale. Eggs which still have wee feathers attached to them for breakfast, milk fresh from the cow if you know how to milk her. Count me in!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. xxx
ReplyDelete