Tao of Slug

It's been about 9 months since my vision quest, which I guess is a pretty good gestation period for something to be born into my understanding. It has taken that long for me to take one of the most powerful messages I received in that experience and to realize it into my daily life.





The first day of my quest, as I sat there alone in the woods of a National Park near Darrington Wa, I noticed a slug easing his way down an old dead fallen tree in front of me. I just watched him for a long time, finally asking him what his message for me was. "The un-hurried life," was his answer. I continued watching him and how mindfully he moved down the log, seeming to enjoy every moment and every new discovery his path afforded him. I could (and still can as I write this) feel the joy he experienced on his unhurried journey, feeling the warmth of the sun on his back, the musky smell of the decaying wood that filled and enveloped his senses, the cool refreshment of each drop of water he inhaled. This was a very joyful slug!





The next morning, when I woke to the drumming of the grouse somewhere nearby in the underbrush, I looked over at my hat that had been lying next to my head all night, and discovered a tiny silver trail that ran all the way across the brim. I had officially been claimed by another power animal! I considered myself now part of the Slug Clan, and had a lot of fun telling people one of my Totem Animals was Slug. It's interesting to note that, when I got home and looked it up in one of my power animal books, I discovered that Slug represents moving from the dark into the light. What a perfect description of a vision quest!







Flash forward to my recent trip to Portland. It was about this time that things started to sink in and I was beginning to really get the importance, and the empowerment, of mindfulness and being totally present. If anything, that slug was totally and completely present in the moment. I have been practicing since then, sometimes more effectively than others, but I now have experiential validation of these concepts rather than just book smarts. And things keep pointing me in that direction too. My friend that rode up to Seattle with me that weekend from Portland said something to me that has stuck with me - "Own your space!" This is what I continue to do, even when doing something I may not 'suppose to' be doing, such as texting a friend while working. Normally I would kind of "ghost out", almost as if I were sending part of me away so it won't get caught (like it would make me more invisible or something).







As I learn to keep myself here, and to feel whatever I'm feeling, even if I'm nervous about what I'm doing, I have noticed a great increase in self-confidence. It hasn't been that long since my experience at that cuddle party where I relived my teen years, feeling a total lack of personal validation, waiting for others to acknowledge me, and just the other day I found myself telling someone at this gathering that I've been finding lately I'm okay in a group, even of people I don't know, either chatting with others or just sitting by myself. What a huge change that is in such a short period of time!






It's interesting that this past year most of my spiritual experiences and lessons have been, in one way or another, Native American flavored. And through a very Native American (Lakota) ceremony I received a message that has returned me back to the East - to Taoism and Zen, which feed and nurture me in a way that no other path or way of being does. I have found nothing that speaks to the core of being like they do. I find myself being less anxious, and going with the flow easier. Taoism is sometimes called "the Water Course Way", nudging us to 'be like water' following the path of least resistance. This is not a path of hard servitude and stoicly accepting whatever suffering life, or God, throws at us, but it's a freedom of knowing that all things are connected and that things always work out. By doing nothing, nothing is left undone. Joseph Campbell said it this way: "Follow your bliss."


And so I continue following my bliss, learning to be like water - to be like Slug and learning to live the un-hurried life.