“You are here on earth to unearth who on earth you are.”
- Eric Micha'el Leventhal, author of “A Light from the Shadows”
Dear Wise Women,
We return to the river.
We are standing on the shore…we are a little disheveled… and we are holding hands. We look up at one another and we see the mud streaks upon our faces, the slight tears in our clothes, the bareness of our feet. The rawness of our revealing is almost too much to bear. But we lean in and we embrace the pounding sensation we feel inside our chests. We embrace it as its never been embraced before.
Together, we step a little further towards the flowing water, we are not quite in the river but we are no longer on solid ground. Our toes sink into the mud and we feel the transition as earth meets water. We shudder slightly as the cold water splashes upon our feet. We sink into the mud beneath our soles.
We breathe deeply…and we feel the unearthing that is taking place right beneath our feet.
This piece of dirt, this tiny rock, this sediment of clay that tickles our toes was not here a second ago. Ever moving, ever sinking and ever rising, this small particle might have come from the other side of the shore, the field we just walked through, or the bottom of this river. This exact piece of earth that just ran over my toes, that one over your toes, likely has not been touched by a human for hundreds or thousands of years…or maybe even ever.
And in this noticing, we remember. We remember our connection to the rocks, the water, the fish. We remember our connection to all beings who have walked this earth before us and will walk after us.
We remember the beauty of our incarnation - the fulfillment of our soul’s longing to have a chance to be in a human body- this body. We remember the innocence of this incarnation and the source of Love that we came from.
We remember our innocence and we also remember the loss of it. The history of hurts, injustices and violations, the pain and suffering caused by our collective confusion.
And in the pain of this remembering, we feel an impulse. An impulse to embrace our innocence and the innocence of all of life. The upturning of the soil beneath us reminds us to keep on digging until we find it. It is there, beneath the pains, the losses, the hurts of human history. It is there and it never left us. This impulse, we come to realize, is Love.
We unearth another piece of innocence, one story at a time, until the fragments return to wholeness and we return to our true innocent nature. Standing on the shores of the river, hand in hand, we laugh out loud. And in a rejoicing glee we shed our clothes, let go of the shore and plunge into the river! We let ourselves float and flow in this swirling pool of earth and water.
And from beneath the river, we hear the voice of Love, unconditioned, pure and alive.
And she says:
I am not asking you to accept what cannot be accepted, to forgive what cannot be forgiven or to love what cannot be loved, I only ask you to:
Embrace your own innocence, and I will accept on your behalf.
Embrace your own innocence, and I will forgive on your behalf.
Embrace your own innocence, and I will love on your behalf.
………….
Oh dear wise women, I am forever grateful to look beside me in the river and see you there with me!
With endless love,
Patti
“We can surely get through this together. It will take all of our efforts combined to create the depth of healing that brings to every heart the justice, relief, opportunity, and peace that is our right, privilege, and honor to equally receive. Even while a historical pattern of unconsciousness always sets the stage for a greater consciousness to emerge, it is only when we roll up our sleeves and dare to dig our nails into the dirt that we put forth the appropriate effort that shows respect to every person adversely affected by those who came before us.”
- Matt Kahn, https://mattkahn.org/my-ancestors-sent-me-to-apologize/
“Surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you. I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure. I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.
The hunt to uncover those jewels — that’s creative living.
The courage to go on that hunt in the first place — that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.
The often surprising results of that hunt — that’s what I call Big Magic.”
- Liz Gilbert, “Big Magic”
“Mycelium Dreaming”, www.autumnskyeart.com
Unearthing Innocence
No longer afraid of what I will find, I begin to dig
finger nails caked in mud, knees raw
I dig and dig and dig.
No longer afraid of what I will find, I plunge into the water
cold, dark, deep
I swim and swim and swim.
No longer afraid of what I will find, I turn over a rock
small creatures scurrying, mushrooms growing, a whole world revealed
I turn and turn and turn.
No longer afraid of what I will find, I remember the past
pain, suffering, betrayal, one story at a time
I heal and heal and heal.
No longer afraid of what I will find, I look past the locked off hearts of humanity
and one, by one,
I see the innocence hidden within.
- Patti Wardlaw