“The symbol of Goddess gives us permission. She teaches us to embrace the holiness of every natural, ordinary, sensual dying moment. Patriarchy may try to negate body and flee earth with its constant heartbeat of death, but Goddess forces us back to embrace them, to take our human life in our arms and clasp it for the divine life it is – the nice, sanitary, harmonious moment as well as the painful, dark, splintered ones.
If such a consciousness truly is set loose in the world, nothing will be the same. It will free us to be in a sacred body, on a sacred planet, in sacred communion with all of it. It will infect the universe with holiness. We will discover the Divine deep within the earth and the cells of our bodies, and we will lover her there with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
This quote from Sue Monk Kidd has served as a wonderful source of inspiration for me, as I move slowly on my journey through this world.
In working so closely with the land over the past years, I have come to understand the meaning of the holiness of every single living thing.
Last summer, for example, I came across a beautiful Wasp nest in one of the trees.
When I put the photo of it onto my Facebook site I was immediately alerted by several people to destroy the nest and kill the wasps.
Why, I thought, must this thing of beauty be destroyed if it not causing harm to me?
Wasps are pollinators and help keep a balance among pests too, such as aphids.
In the eleven years working the land here, I have never been stung, by bee or wasp. Creatures only attack when under threat!
“If such a consciousness truly is set loose in the world, nothing will be the same.”…and nothing has been the same in this little three acre plot since becoming aware of the deep connectivity between myself and Mother Earth…call her the Goddess if you will…but the Divine presence for me is compassion itself.
“Yet rather than calling the earliest religions, which embraced such an open acceptance of all human sexuality, ‘fertility cults,’ we might consider the religions of today as strange in that they seem to associate shame and even sin with the very process of conceiving new human life. Perhaps centuries from now scholars and historians will be classifying them as ‘sterility cults.”
― Merlin Stone, When God Was a Woman
Much of my journey has involved stripping away layers of religious and cultural imposed identity.
This is a hard task, as one tries not to alienate others.
At times this journey has felt like one is walking on eggshells, attempting to negotiate a path between questioning/understanding and simply being part of family and community.
In search of an understanding of soul… a communion with the sacred…and being unafraid of where that takes me.
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Reblogged this on Bealtaine Cottage.
“There is a love of wild nature in everybody an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.” John Muir … That Mother Love within us all, both man and woman, is the Goddess within, the Divine within us all and within all of nature. ….. Another of my favorite John Muir quotes is: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” His instincts and spiritual insights were correct and have now been proven by science. Having an aversion to killing other living things I’ve never harmed the wasp nests that hang around the eves of my house. I cringed as I watched as neighbors would spray poison on their nests killing the little creatures. Much later I read that they are very useful for the garden. They are pollinators and they also eat various pests. I also learned that they never use the same nest twice so it is safe to remove the nests in the winter when they have abandoned their old nest. Many thanks to kassiane2015 the for word of caution. And so sorry for your pain and suffering from that unfortunate encounter. I had no idea that they made nests on or in the ground. I recall that they do hibernate during the winter in the ground or sometimes compost piles and places of that nature.
I had no idea either! All my life, when I saw wasp nests they were on the sides of buildings. And I did not realize that the insects I know as “yellow Jackets” are actually in the wasp family. (The ones I call wasps are dark in color-no yellow stripes.) But apparently yellow jackets are their mean cousins!) Yellow jackets are known for REALLY going on the offense. It is not enough for them to sting an offender once-they PURSUE and are capable of multiple stings-which I can attest to! The nest in my yard was HUGE! I am embarrassed to say that I ended up calling the company that does my termite control a few days later. I was actually even afraid to pick up my shovel-I just dropped it and ran and left it there. They dug the nest out of the ground and it was MASSIVE in size-HUGE! And there had been NO outward signs of any bees nest! They told me in the future when I’m working outside to pay special attention to the area. If there is a yellow jacket nest underground there you will see some of them coming in and going out at intervals throughout the day-like we do in our homes. They also go dormant at night-but I was so freaked out by that incident I didn’t attempt to do anything further with that particular nest!
Blessed BEE!
Something I’m trying to be aware of doing is asking Nature each time, before I modify the environment, although I’m still not that good at it. If I’m still (i.e. peaceful inside) while working in the garden it comes naturally: “Is it okay to take this weed out or should I leave it for the time being?” (Weed blossoms are much loved by insects and for all I know a particular plant may bring a particular type of insect a sustenance that may not be present in the other flowers.) But if I’m in the “busy” part of my mind, with external thoughts flooding in, then it’s hard to remember that what “I” think would benefit the garden isn’t necessarily what the overall harmony of the garden needs. I remember listening to a lot of the gardening audios by Machaelle Small Wright at Perelandra while she was more focused on the garden there, rather than health, and they helped me a lot. I think she would say “Ask Nature if it wants the bush moved and if so, when and how and where to.” Maybe there is a better timing, for example. (As far as I know yellow jacket nests are annual.) I really appreciated your post because it reminds me that I need to keep asking questions.
Thanks. I was still working full time in those days and had to do everything on my day off. All I thought was move Butterfly bush to a better spot! And now I am retired and have TIME for” meaningful gardening” but health is so bad can’t do much !But when I bought my house is 2001 I made a “pact” with the yellow jackets! I saw a lot of them in the side flower garden (NOW know probably a nest there.) I promised them that I would NOT cut that strip of grass with my Real Mower until the sun started going down and they were in for the night IF they promised to let me alone-and it WORKED until Sept 2009-then all bets were OFF!
Lol, that’s a great story! I guess one has to keep asking, not assume that what’s right right now is necessarily right for tomorrow. I’ve had my health issues too. The biggest lesson for me – learned after I finally realised that modern medicine didn’t have a complete answer – has been that I have to take responsibility for my own health and keep listening – to my body, to the little whispers that come, to the synchronicities, the snippets of information I stumble across and that resonate. I’ve come to believe that it’s the simple things, done consistently, that have the most positive impact. Diet has been huge for me, so has the use of essential oils. And being out in the garden is very healing. If I’m off balance, taking a quiet stroll to listen to the garden always beings me back to my centre.
If you get a chance read the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It is a wonderful book!
Yes it is!
on Labor Day 2009, I was getting ready to move a bush in my front yard to another location. Unbeknownst to me there was a HUGE yellow jacket nest directly under the bush. I stuck my shovel directly into their nest and got bitten all over my legs. 5 bees dove under my shorts and came in the house with me. I later counted 29 bites on my thighs which were almost black in color! ( wonder now if that may have been the beginning of my systemic fungal illness?) But when I thought about what had happened it was probably comparable to sitting in your living room chilling out and all of a sudden a bulldozer comes down through your roof! That is probably how my shovel was perceived by the yellow jackets, which are in the wasp family. Prior to that incident I thought ALL bees made their nests externally on the side of buildings and things. Yellow jackets do subterranean and they are a type of bee that can and WILL sting multiple times and will PURSIE their victims. But like you said animals and insects bite when they feel THREATENED and I guess a shovel poking through your home would be perceived as a THREAT! I learned a lesson that day and I always do careful observation before digging now!
It can be frightening when under attack…both ways! Glad you’re okay!
Reblogged this on Reiki Dawn.
I couldn’t agree more about wasps. I recently wrote a post on my blog (which you actually inspired me to start) in praise of wasps. Everything in nature has a purpose – well, multiple purposes really. A lovely post thank you.
Please post a link to your blog…I’d love to read it!
https://fernenland.wordpress.com/ Enjoy 🙂
“Sterility cults.” That’s good, Colette!