Day 26: Stop! Look! Listen!

"We are meant to cross many thresholds in our lifetime, each a further embodiment of the soul’s character. Yet for many of us, an incomplete crossing into adulthood affects our ability to show up in our lives. We feel unsure of our place in the world, anxious about our sense of value and our right to be here. The unfinished business of adolescence haunts us. Stepping

back into the “fierce heat of our longing” requires that we create an atmosphere that courts the wild soul"

Francis Weller, Fire in the Voice: Facing the Predator

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It's ‘solo’ day in our ‘Murmurations’ retreat – 16 hours of solitude in this wild mountain land. 80 acres of private river, meadow and woodland at an altitude of 8500 feet and just a few miles from the Indian Peaks Wilderness. This land is set aside as a nature preserve and home to an abundance of wildlife, including deer, elk, moose, bear and beaver. A rare opportunity to really stop, look, and listen.

It’s not for the faint of heart to deliberately seek and find ‘their spot’ - a place that isn’t necessarily comfortable or even appealing. Possibly, even to be led to a place that holds the shadow of the unknown. But somehow each person knows when something calls them to stop and stay in place, to ritually cross a threshold and settle into mindful meditation and challenging soul practices. We never know who else might appear, but yesterday we heard the bugle of elk, saw a bear and several clans of moose. As guides, we carefully prepare the group for safety practices and offer practical suggestions of how to fully stop, look and listen.

Those who know me are aware that this mantra from kindergarten has been with me for the last decades. Without warning, I have heard Mystery stop me with this command at many, many thresholds of awareness that asked me to stop and wait before taking a step into an even deeper soul journey. When lightning and thunder crash into you, it’s a liminal moment for human bones to listen to their cosmic connection.

As the sun sets while I sit on my deck perch, conscious of my

denied access to the forest I love so much, but my heart beats in joyful anticipation with these brave women who are stepping across a magical threshold of their lives. I thank my bones for holding me firm in place - to sink even deeper into the conscious living well of Elderhood.

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Time in nature inspires a reverence of relationship with All That Is.

As John O’Donohue, one of my beloved ancestral mentors has said, "What you encounter, recognize, or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach ... When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us."

How are you being invited to STOP LOOK and LISTEN in ways that make little sense to your mind but call you into a relationship with the Holy?

What ‘fierce longing’ is inviting you into times of mindful and reverential solitude?

Next: Day 27

Back: Day 25