Earth....the beginning and the end

Dear Settled Yogis,

Take a slow full body inhale – filling, filling, filling…. And then a long slow full body exhale- emptying.... emptying…………..emptying.  Becoming so still and quiet.

And now just notice.  Pure awareness.  Noticing exactly where you are. 

This is earth energy.

  

Molly, my yellow lab and most faithful yoga assistant, turned 15 a couple of weeks ago.  She is most definitely a crone (wise woman) now.    And with her age I am witnessing that slow pull back to the mother….back to earth.

From earth we come and to earth we must return.  Earth is creation.  It is that mysterious spark that takes nothing and creates something.   Look around you.  Everything came from nothing…from the field of pure potentiality.   

But earth is also death.  That return back to nothing.  And without death there can be no birth.  They are the same flow of energy.  Just like giving and receiving.  Joy and sorrow.  Beginning and ending.  The natural rhythm of life. 

So back to Miss Molly….. Over the last several months her walks have slowed w..a..y.. down.  Way down.  It is more of a sniff than a walk.  A few steps and a pause.  A few steps and a pause.  Really, really slow.

At first I resisted.  I would try to hurry her along, feeling impatient.  Until I woke up to see what I was doing.  What was my rush?  Where exactly was I “going”?  What was wrong with just being right where we were?  So I too have slowed way down to match my rhythm to hers.  And while she pauses to sniff, I pause to just be.  To feel the breeze on my skin and notice the way the sun reflects off the road.  To become aware of both earth’s and my vastness and beauty. 

In my training with Susun Weed this summer, she spoke of how creation is the goddess, the feminine, the shakti energy.  And how we as women have that role of “giving life”.  But that we as women also have to be willing to “give death”.  That it is also our role, but one that we seem to have handed off, but must reclaim.  That we can’t have one without the other.  Honoring both. This too has caused me to pause.  Am I willing to give both?

Stopping to notice,

SARAH