Planetary Beings with Planetary Hearts
The instinct to fit in and feel safe seems stronger – to maintain the status quo – to be as comfortable and insulated as possible whilst praying like mad that someone else is going to step up and make this whole d(arn) mess go away.
I’m going to redefine it in this moment. I’m going to say that our instinctual self is the part of our essence that is woven into the fabric of all nature – our planetary self – the part that is vibrating with the essence of pure aliveness and the intelligence of every living thing – the part that has never been, and can never be, separate from the planet that lives and breathes us.
Within me, it feels like liquid fire. It is the very essence of the word essential. [...]
Can you feel it? I feel it so fiercely I can hardly stand it, and I don’t think I have a choice but to let it take over and to h(eck) with the consequences. What do I want anyway? To stay this overly conditioned, fearful version of a woman that shies away from full throttle living or to allow nature to re-educate me from the toes up and from the inside out as to what it means to be truly, throbbingly, responsively, incandescently alive?
I choose the latter – although it feels very much like dying as what I’m not burns off and what’s more intrinsic and less known takes over. I say yes and I want all of us to say yes, because what we really are as women, is needed. Enough playing disconnected and safe – it’s allowed us to get to where we are and where we are is crippling life, so very simply – it – and we – cannot – go on – like this.
There are ways of more consciously calling forth that liquid fire and of drenching ourselves with aliveness that is encoded with evolutionary wisdom. Natures intelligence has been pulsing through us every second of our lives, but we have been blinded to it, severed from it, misdirected in how we think and where we place our attention and value.
What if we collectively call it forth? What if we choose to turn towards the rising tide and not just say yes to it, but give it full permission to take us over and powerfully re-educate us so that we can finally know what we are and what we’re for?
Planetary beings, with planet sized hearts, capable of a planetary love so complete that we cannot allow for anything other than full ecological restoration to be our legacy. That is my new definition of a human being and I for one, know that that is what I am becoming – and if I am, then you are too.
- How do you describe your experience of "liquid fire?" - What practices do you have to connect, maintain, and reconnect to that "liquid fire"? - What stories, personal or otherwise, demonstrate to you this collective calling forth of "liquid fire"?
Love this passage! Redefining the death-like experience of releasing the fearful versions of our stories & allowing "full ecological restoration to be our legacy"... so very beautiful. What is evoked for me here is the image of an artistic living... In fact, it's striking that she talks about nature reeducating us from the toes up (and from the inside out), because apparently recent research shows that humans who grew up to become artists tended to have drawn stick figures differently as children -- namely, feet first. Here's to artfully releasing fear & living bravey.
My association to "liquid fire" is my feeling passionately about something to the extent that I am compelled to speak out about it no matter what others may say or think. Connecting to that liquid fire comes easy for me -- what is difficult is garnering the courage to stand up for what I see and believe. When I have, I have felt good about myself. When I haven't, I feel a deep regret that stays with me for a long time. I think of Margaret Mead saying "Never forget that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." And Abbie Hoffman saying there is no such thing as an innocent bystander -- if you are a bystander, you're not innocent. My calling forth my liquid fire is fostered by reminding myself that I have a right and responsibility to express my viewpoint, my truth.
Wow! 'Planet sized heart' what a depiction of the possibility and motivation to adopt largeness of generosity and compassion :)
