This beautiful, bounteous, life-giving planet we call Earth has given birth to each one of us, and each one of us carries the Earth within every cell of our body.

Thich Nhat Hahn

For the last several springs, my sister and I walk down along the river with our dogs, watching the nesting, the lives and growth of a pair of bald eagles and their eaglets. We feel quite honoured and amazed at these incredible creatures who gracefully take flight across the sky. We eagerly await the development of their offspring who eventually learn to fly and to source their own food. The young eventually move on to their own territory and the cycle of life continues.

I am in awe of these eagles who inspire me to remain aligned with my passion and calling to share and facilitate healing with people, whether in individual Soul Coaching, in Peace Circle, or in Reiki Ryoho programs.

What I have witnessed in my own life, as well as in my professional life working with others, is that our healing is deeply rooted in the Earth. The quality of our healing is matched by our qualitative connection with the Earth and all of Nature. Earth is not just our environment. She is our Mother ~ sentient and abundant. She gives us life. The atoms that make up our cells and being are the same ones that create all life. There is a great and incredulous order and harmony to the flow and function of our Earth and how we are to be in respectful stewardship with all our relations.

A few of my Reiki friends spent a couple of years exploring our relationship with Nature where we gave ourselves permission to really notice Her, to delight in Nature, to celebrate and play with Her. We also gave ourselves space to grieve and anger at all that is diseased, killed and maimed, desecrated, raped and violated in Nature. This 2-year healing circle opened us and guided each of us into our own unique way of volunteering, of giving back as awakened stewards and of being in love with our Living Earth. We each found that deep appreciation for Her natural cycles and rhythms, for the boundaries and natural laws that support the balance of all life.

We had to grapple with our own disconnect, with our own disembodied paradigms of cultural success. We were called to remember that we are human beings, living in a resource limited planet. We were called to celebrate our limits on this Earth rather than push beyond them for greed. We also were humbled by all that remains a mystery to us about this elegant and beautiful Earth.

In a recent workshop I was facilitating, one of the participants is a geneticist who is moving into the specialty of roses. The incredible existence of roses, she explains, is they are are like the bananas we eat, from the point of view of chromosome composition (triploids). Simply stated, odd numbers of chromosomes can’t reproduce, and when something can’t reproduce, there are no seeds. That is why we have seedless bananas. Sterile. What she said is that some roses are triploids as well, but scientists are discovering that unlike bananas, rose pollen can still be fertile. In other words, they don’t follow scientific ‘rules’ of genetics. So now they speak of ‘guidelines’ rather than rules. It’s not ‘a mechanical universe’!

I was delighted to hear about the rose’s capacity to do what we didn’t believe was possible. It made me fall in love with roses and the Earth all over again. And I was reminded that our perceived status as superior to the Earth needs a ‘falling’. We need to fall from our present position as superior to the Mother Earth and into Her. We need to ground, connect and recognize our own constitution as from Her. Though we can be as diverse as Nature and all creatures in it, we need to respect our place in Her.

What this highlights for me is that our language about the Earth needs to change, so that our relationship with the Earth can also change. Our language has been from a position ‘above her’, ‘standing upon her’, ‘having power or dominion over her’. This structure or position of above, over, upon Mother Earth is filled with arrogance, delusion and entitlements. And now after hundreds of years of this kind of structuring of our relationship with Mother Earth, we are experiencing the consequences of our plundering and abuse of Her.

It’s time we collectively step down from our self-made platform of ego superiority and into right relationship with Nature,humbly and gratefully accepting the gift of having limits and boundaries to our existence as humans. It is time we stepped back into the circle of life, take our place in the rim with all our relations, rather than believing we alone are the centre, or are entitled to control the centre of the circle of life.

If we fail to accept our place here as ‘part of, one among, with’, if we fail to ‘fall in love with our Mother Earth’, we deny ourselves healing on any issue we have. We deny ourselves our true heart’s abundance and health. We deny ourselves respect and the flow of Love. And we deny ourselves the gift of being guests here on this planet. By Nature’s power, we will be the ones asked to leave, as any disrespecting, violating, extremist person is tried and judged as unsafe for society.

Earth Day (April 22^nd) is coming soon. Mark this day as a time to celebrate. A time to fall in love with Mother Earth. A time to experience the magnificence, elegance and mystery of what gives us life … and love. I also invite you to join me in our next Peace Circle on Wednesday, April 20^th and share your stories of Falling in Love with our Living Earth.

Namaste,
Shirley Lynn

Sometimes when the pull and push of life begins to wear down our resilience, taking a pause to be still is an enormous gift, an enormous act of freedom. In my own Reiki practice, the beauty and simplicity of self healing is the pause into love, into a moment of quiet calm with my hand on my heart. It’s a simple gesture. Yet, in this moment, Reiki brings me back home to my centre, to my heart and to my ground of being.

15 minutes between clients, 10 minutes before my next meeting, or even 5 minutes before I leave for my volunteer work – whatever time I need to return to centre, restore my sense of calm and replenish my joy – is gifted simply by putting my hands on my heart, opening to Reiki and allowing Reiki to ground my energy and balance my energy flow.

In this moment, there is nothing I need to do or is required of me – nothing beyond a moment of surrender and openness. The moment I lay my hands on my heart and open to Reiki, a soul-to-Universal Soul connection and oneness begins. It is extraordinarily simple because I don’t need to shift anything. In the moment of receiving, my breath calms, my heart self-regulates and I return to a state of ‘okayness’. When so much is often demanded of us; when so much is often coming at us; when so much noise is penetrating our inner balance, claiming a moment of pause in Reiki, where the gift of the Sacred blesses us with what we need, to do what we must do, right there in that next moment, is miraculous. No bells. No whistles. No instruments needed. Just my hand over my heart, a ‘yes’ to Reiki and a surrender to the spirit of the Universe who is attuning me to a namaste mind.

Although the quietness of Reiki in the midst of an overwhelming and distressing moment has become my go-to, I know that other times, opening to a guided meditation and surrendering into the journey of the inner heart, restores that sense of connection with like-hearted pilgrims who are also attuning to the sacred path offered in the guided meditation.

I offer this guided meditation as a way to return to your connection to yourself, to Mother Earth and to the Sacred of ALL THAT IS. I invite you into a time of pause. A time where you re-calibrate with your own sacred essence and with the ground of your being. Claim your freedom to connect to your inner heart. Claim your right to breathe fully into your incarnation, the gift of your life.

Blessings of light and love and life to you!

Namaste,

Shirley Lynn

Reiki Level One starting soon…

Want to learn Reiki self healing and meditation? Join me on November 17, 18 and 25^th, 2017 to begin your Reiki journey. Give yourself the gift of pause, and an attunement to Peace, Light and Love of the Universe.

The year of 2020 has been one for the history books. Every one of us has experienced a gamut of emotions including fear, loss, sadness, despair, hope, gratitude, care, anger, frustration, love, acceptance, longing, grief, compassion, empathy, worry, anxiety, faith and confidence. It was not the best of years. Big changes had to be made and new habits adopted. It is not natural to socially distance for most people. It is not easy to withhold hugs and physical closeness with our family and friends. These are everyday habits that uplift us, support us and make our lives rich and meaningful.

I want to acknowledge our (your) losses this year. Perhaps the loss was from death. Perhaps it was loss of intimacy from an overload of sustained exposure to lockdown and social restrictions. Perhaps it was a loss of employment and financial independence. Perhaps it was loss of travel and social freedoms to go where you wanted. Perhaps it was the loss of your social life or recreational connections. Perhaps it was the loss of seeing/visiting family and friends. Or even the loss of receiving treatments and care in the way you would like or needed it. Children lost ‘normal play’ and natural engagements with other children in many places. These are but a handful of losses we have experienced this year. Some of us have lost intensely and much while others have lost less but feel great empathy for those who lost more.

This time of year offers us, in whatever tradition we may enjoy, a season of hope and light, a season of celebration and ritual, a season of coming together with great efforts towards peace and goodwill, a season of rejoicing and shared generosity with family and the world at large. And so, this season may put our hearts at odd with these two realities, each seeking to be acknowledged and honoured in some way… loss and joy.

Our family’s traditions involved opening presents Christmas eve, celebrating our family time with joy and song and gifting. My father’s last Christmas, my father got a radio. It was 1974 and it was a big deal. He had such a big smile on his face.

Christmas eve, 1975, is a very different memory. Equally short, but without the smiles and laughter. Looking back, I can only imagine what my mother did or would have wanted to do to make this first Christmas without her husband and her children’s father a good one. She bought gifts and followed the traditions of the past that we as a family had created. However, that Christmas eve, I remember my older brother and sister leaving to go snowmobiling with friends shortly after we started opening presents. A brief conversation between my older siblings and my mother occurred, but the choice to get out was made. I could feel the pain in my mother’s heart.

My younger brother and I opened our presents and I remember him not exactly liking what he got. He ‘didn’t really want that’. I heard the pain again in my mother’s and brother’s voices. For my part, I just went quiet, not wanting to ‘be a burden’ and add to the grief and sadness I felt everywhere. There was nothing she could have done to mend the pain in all our hearts. There was no tradition she could have repeated that would have stopped each of us from expressing our grief and loss in the way we each did. No material gift could fix the pain of a father gone. For all of us, in our own way, it was a most difficult Christmas, because we faced a reality that would never be different. My father wasn’t coming back.

In my mother’s wisdom, she recognized this huge loss for us all. She recognized what would never be again. Rather than try to hang onto the past, we began to change our Christmas traditions to reflect the family we were post my father’s death. It took us several years, but as we grew into teenagers, my mother invited us to share in the responsibilities of making Christmas ‘our celebration.’ And we did. I have fond memories of our family Christmases. As the years passed, my mother invited widowers who had lost spouses or those who did not have ‘family’. My siblings and I never objected. We remembered those first Christmases after our father died.

As our family grew, grandchildren arrived, siblings moved, things changed, our tradition continues to evolve. Hope and love continue to flow and bring new meaning and light to our lives. This is some of what I learned in that journey:

1. Like that first year, we must remember that everyone is hurting during this pandemic in some way because loss has been experienced by us all this year.
2. We all process our own grief and pain differently. There is no one way.
3. Learn to release resentments for how others express their loss and pain. Forgive them for the pain that was caused. Nothing good can come out of holding on to your resentments.
4. Acknowledge those who are facing a significant loss this year and invite them for a walk or bring a tea and join them on the porch. Their hearts are broken.
5. Play is necessary to maintain mental-emotional wellness. Both the day of my father’s funeral and that first Christmas after, when I was 11 years old, I asked my friends and cousins to go outside and play with me. At the funeral, we ran across the road to the public school and played in the playground. That Christmas, I remember my cousins and us going tobogganing, a Christmas ritual. Play resets and regroups the nervous system and the spirit.
6. Have genuine hope that with the courage and commitment to take steps forward each day, and in making changes to meet the current needs of the people still here, new life, new joys and the flow of love can be restored and re-created.
7. The new way may have little resemblance to what once was, and yet where love is real, the new way is built upon the shoulders of what was. The deeper threads of love and connection remain flowing from the past, opening to the mystery and creative dreams still meant to be lived in the future. Embrace the change calling you. More joy awaits.

Whether you celebrate Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, be kind to all you meet. Be gentle with your hearts. Acknowledge that your loss and fatigue is real, and it is real for others too. These losses are re-shaping our lives.

I read there is an extraordinary miracle happening in our celestial skies this season. It seems to me that in our very darkness, a little extra light is given to us. “As 2020 comes to a close, the solar system has decided to grace us with a cosmic Christmas miracle that hasn’t been witnessed [visible] in nearly 800 years. On Dec. 21^st (aka the Winter Solstice), Jupiter and Saturn will align so closely in the night sky that they’ll almost appear to collide from our vantage point here on Earth, creating a radiant point of light often referred to as the “Star of Bethlehem” or the “Christmas Star.”

I hope that light and beauty will return—in a new way. And embrace the change that this year is asking of you. You never know where the new road will take you. Joys await us all. Peace.

Namaste,

Shirley Lynn

I have the honour of helping to organize and participate in the All Nations Grand River Water Walk from its inception to our upcoming walk in September 2020. A great many gifts have come to me in being of service to the water, specifically to the Grand River – gifts that have become life lessons. I would like to reflect on five transformative lessons that I use both personally and in my soul coaching & whole life therapies work with clients.

From the beginning of our gatherings, *Mary Anne Caibaiosai taught us the protocols for the water walk ceremony. As I absorbed these teachings, I began to see my own blindness. When we really open our heart-mind to these teachings, something new awakens within because the teachings, like the Grand River, are alive.

1. Water is life. It is alive.

Of course it is. Intellectually I know our bodies are at least 70% water and without water, we will die. But this knowledge was limited to my brain, and not yet fully alive and awake in my heart. In carrying the pail of Grand River water on that first walk, something awakened in me. She is my life. I need water, the Grand River, to be healthy and happy. Her water is the water in me. If she is sick, so will I be sick. If she is contaminated, so will I be—not only my body’s ‘water’, but my thoughts too will be contaminated, as body and mind are connected.

2. Water flows forward. It doesn’t stop and look back.

Of course. I know this. But do I? My worries and fears ‘paralyze’ my body’s water flow inside me rather than allow the natural and organic flow forward. I can feel the slowing down and freezing in my fear. When I restore mindfulness and notice the way of water, its natural activity, I see the Grand River simply flow forward, not stopping in fear, reminding me to let flow.

The Grand River never changes who she is. She is always a flowing river. Her destination is always clear to her and she never waivers from her destination. And though she winds and loops around, admiring herself and her environment, her overall destination is clear and continuous over centuries.

During the water walk, women carry the pail of water. We never stop while carrying the pail. Once we begin touchup in the wee hours of the morning, we walk until touchdown. Water flows. She doesn’t stop. It is the true nature of the Grand River to flow. Even when we dump toxins in her, she flows.

In one moment in 2018, I was carrying the pail of water. I was deep in song and looking forward. Someone drove by and called my name. I was momentarily brought out of my inner state of prayerfulness and in this surprised moment, turned to respond. Before I could turn, the Anishnaabe man carrying the eagle staff, put his hand on my shoulder and firmly said, “Keep looking forward. Walk.” I was so grateful for his guiding hand to remind me of the protocols and to focus on the task of walking forward, of allowing the water to go in the direction she flows, unimpeded by my momentary distraction. After handing off the pail, the person who had called my name also apologized for causing the distraction and then said, “it all got sorted out”. Yes, that’s right, let what’s behind sort itself out if I am not responsible to sort it out. Keep moving forward, staying focused on the task.

3. You never need to reach your destination alone.

The Grand River starts as a collective of small springs and begins to flow, not yet being a big river. I was surprised to learn that it begins rather like a creek. The watershed along the Grand River is rich and diverse and abundant. The Eramosa, Speed, Conestogo and Nith Rivers all join and merge with the Grand River. At each confluence, the Grand River grows in size and strength. At the mouth of the Grand River into Lake Erie, she is a river to be reckoned with. Indeed, she is big enough to sustain a port (which she did for a time).

I realized then, if my projects arise from the ground of my being, not to worry how small me and my project may look at the beginning. Just start flowing with what I have. Let what needs to, arise. Come together with the small arisings of like-hearted others and start flowing. Trust that those who wish to join the flow, the movement of my project, will come along. There will be confluences that grow my project organically, especially if it brings life to the community. Just like this water walk is doing for our community. The Anishnaabe water walk ceremony contributes to the healing and spirit health of the Grand River, the infrastructure and life of our community.

4. Let go of fear. Water will always find a way.

This lesson is linked to the lesson that water, by nature, flows. Along the route of the water walk, we carry the water through busy centres, streets and high traffic areas. To honour water, the Grand River, we must allow her to be who she is. When we pick up the pail, we cannot stop walking and wait for traffic to stop for example. In such a moment, we must remember to walk in circles and pool as water does, while never going backward.

During rush hour traffic when people are focused on getting to work, not thinking about their relationship to water, navigating the flow of the pail forward can be very challenging. These moments call all walkers to become fully present to the moment, always looking and aware of the opening to the way forward. But as Josephine Mandamin taught us, “water will always find a way” to flow. She is a river. When we block her from flowing, she will simply create new routes that allow her to flow. It is her truth to flow.

Now, when I encounter a problem, I think to myself, ‘become like water and flow.’ Where is the way forward? Where is the opening so I can be who I am meant to be and do what is mine to do? Let go of my emotional attachment to my fear or my restricted thinking. Let go and flow like the Grand River does. As soon as I return to this state, the opening to the flow arises, and I can see my way forward and I move.

5. The Grand River is my Elder. She is my relative.

I have known this concept for a long time. Walking beside her and participating in water ceremony every two months has restored my heart connection to her. She now knows me by name. And I remember her as my Elder. She holds great wisdom as she remembers what we have done to her, done for her and with her. Water has memory. The Grand River has memory. I want my relationship with her to be harmonious, to be kind, healthy and just. When I die, I want her to remember me with love and fondness as I do her. She and the Conestogo River watched me grow up. She has given me life for 50 years. I drink from her watershed. I play in her. I sing to her. I offer her prayers. I offer her Reiki healing. I pray that my relationship with her is healing for both our spirits.

She flows between the Six Nations on the Grand and settler communities. She links us. She gives life to us all. And I hear her say it is time we honour the Haldimand Treaty and the Haudenosaunee and First Nations land titles. She loves us equally and is the Elder to us all. She grieves and feels the deep sadness of the grave injustices to the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Attawandaron (Neutral) peoples, being denied their treaties. You may wonder how a River grieves, but she does. As I said, she has memory. She is my Elder and the only response to her is love and respect. And when I do remember her as Elder and relative, who sustains life, I will protect her. Such clarity of relationship brings clarity to my lifestyle choices, values and decisions.

These are but five lessons which have transformed my way of being. The Grand River has given many experiences and provided rich learning that I now carry as wisdom. I am grateful to the Grand River for my life, for wisdom gained and for her beauty that opens me to love. And when I live these lessons, this wisdom gained, Love flows. Like ee cummings’s poem, to the Grand River I can whisper:

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

If you are seeking a new way of being amidst these times that call for new adaptations and flows and balances of your body, mind and spirit, contact me to discuss how we can work together to support this new flow and balance, personal and unique to you.

Shirley Lynn

I planted a seed intention this past Solstice and gave it to the Great Mother, the Mother of all Life so that new life will be born. I honoured this intention with beautiful and simple ceremony to re-orient myself toward the new and rising light.

On Christmas Eve, I listened to the carol O Holy Night, and allowed myself the openness to receive this new light again. Yes, again. To become vulnerable and open to the mystery that together darkness and light birth into new life, imbued with the soul’s intentions towards the creativity and becoming/maturing love.

And on Christmas Day, I reflected upon and re-read the stories of how Christmas came to be, the values of love, charity, generosity and of valuing all beings with true support and compassion. That on this day, as we ourselves practise this generosity of spirit and compassion, accepting the vulnerability and awe of this new life we have said ‘yes’ to once again, we extend to ourselves the gift of grace and kindness, of good will and blessing as well as to others.

However we choose to bring ritual and ceremony to our lives, the power of opening up to and allowing the presence of the Great Mystery into our ordinary experience, a miracle awaits us. Sometimes It is difficult for us to return to this place of life’s miracles. Amid the world’s violence, the images of brutality towards each other and towards Nature that assaults our spirits daily make it extraordinarily challenging to become vulnerable like a child again.

In truth, we aren’t asked to become naive and blind to what we see and know, blind to the suffering all around us. Blind faith drives out compassion and generosity of spirit. To return to a state of openness and vulnerability as a choice within one’s own place of wisdom is indeed challenging. No wonder we are driven to over-consumption and distraction during this season in just about every way we can imagine.

So how will this year be different? What will be new in this world of the same old injustice, colonialism, violence and bigotry?

For me, it lies in the surrender of my intentions, intentions that call for 3 simple, focused practices:

1. Release my emotional attachment (…to my pain)
2. Embrace love in my new life
3. “Thank you” – a conscious, happy gratitude for everything, everyday.

If I am truly open to the Great Mother who gives light to me and my intentions, if I am truly willing to come back to the dark to be awakened into new life and light through the Great Mother, then I will need to practise daily release and embrace. When I release what is no longer needed, nor in service to my new life, I am free to become the life seeking to live through me here and now.

When I embrace the life and light which seeks to flow and express itself through me in this new arising, this next turning toward the light, literally the sun, then I discover my sense of belonging and purpose in my life. I know my own inner balance because I have the parameters of what to offer in balance with my receiving. And the clarity of what is next is revealed, step by step. This clarity brings a sense of order and thus too, a sense of what is good and honouring of both the past and the future.

Yes, this year will be different because I also have a very simple plan of doing different. Will you join me? Will you make a plan to do different? Do you need help to make the doing different simple enough, focused enough, incremental step by step enough that you are willing, able and ready to do different and invest in yourself differently this year?

Let’s work together to do our lives differently, better. Let’s be the ones who restore light and love in our hearts, joy in our minds and purpose in our feet and hands. As we each commit to return to wholeness, which can only be travelled through stepping into the cracks and the dark, we make it possible for others to discover this path of wholeness just by being in our presence and witnessing who we be together in the cracks welcoming the light.

Whatever intention, commitment or mantra you have planted and made for 2020, join me in doing different to ‘be’ different, spreading what is lightly different in a dark and lost world. Peace to you.

Namaste,
Shirley Lynn