The Healing Is Mutual

It wasn't a bad day exactly, in fact bad days have, thankfully, been a rare oddity of late, but this afternoon I did have an emotional challenge that, though it didn't lay me low, did at one point have tears rolling down my cheeks (in the middle of work where, gratefully, most everyone but me was at lunch).

On my lunch break I decided to treat myself to an Egg Nogg Chai (heaven in a cup!) and on the way to the espresso stand I looked over at the pond that is kitty-corner across the street from my day-job, noticing all the ducks and geese there and deciding it would be a healing thing for me to take a walk there, to perhaps find some nice feathers as well as just to connect with Nature.

So upon my return, my cup of 'ambrosia' warming my little tummy, walk I did. Slowly and consciously I strolled around the edge of the water, watching the water birds changing their swimming patterns according to my position.  I walked with my hands open, my arms at a slight angle from my sides, so I could feel the energy of the earth.  Very healing indeed.

The thing that struck me strangely was that, just within the last few days a crew from the city had come in and cut down all the trees and foliage that fringed the pond (which in itself is interesting timing with Samhain and all, amidst a lot of death I've witnessed this season) but the energy of the place was still vital.  A scene that a short time ago would have broken my heart, I was looking upon from a very different perspective.  In the recent shamanic workshop in Santa Fe we really learned how in order to heal someone you can't see them as sick.  You can acknowledge the challenges, but you always see the person, or in this case the land, as whole. 

As I circled around the far end of the pond, feeling more energized and whole myself from the healing vibes of the earth, I silently addressed 'The Spirit of the Land' asking what I could do to help it heal. "You're doing it," came the gentle reply with a hint of a smile, and though I hadn't seen a single feather so far, as soon as the voice spoke in my mind, I spotted a single downy feather at my feet. 

"But, but, but..." I started to protest, expecting some elaborate ceremony involving drums and moonlight and dancing of some sort, "Are you sure you're not just my own mind trying to make my feel important?" "Very sure," came the distinct voice, this time spoken with almost a laugh, "As you walk in wholeness and heal yourself, you heal the land you stand upon. It is that simple.  Besides that, we have been less ravaged than the land around us and are for the most part still intact."

I looked around at the warehouses encroaching on this little oasis of wildlife, and realized what bit of destruction here was but a mere 'trim off the top' compared to the 'development' of the land surrounding it.

I had just about completed my circle around the pond, and I wondered at how curious it was -- healing the Earth which I was receiving healing from. Curious indeed. And suddenly I realized there was one more thing I could do to seal our mutual healing. A song had, unbidden, lept to my mind and onto my lips as I found myself singing out loud over the rippling waters.


           EE    EE
 HEE     LA    HEE                              
                             YO             EE    EE
                                        HEE     LA    HEE
                                                                     YO

What the words, if that's what you can call them, mean or where the fully formed tune came from I do not know, but the resulting healing was mutual, I assure you.