Tend. Tender. Tending.

Hello magnificent and evolving human,

To listen to an audio version of this Missive follow this tiny link.

Tend. Tender. Tending.

These are the words that have been rolling though my being, my mind, my awareness for many weeks now. A song. A gentle directive. A soft tidal pull.

A benevolent mantra bubbling up from deep within, spilling over into my full experience. Directing my attention, my actions, my curiosity.

A deep and potent River flowing through my all.

Tend.

Tender.

Tending.

I am tending to my mind and the things I am telling myself. The old, shopworn, no longer true stories of not enough. Unloved. Unwanted. Unseen. Can’t. Observing with compassionate non-judgment as they dissolve in the direct yet unfocused gaze of this loving tenderness, like fresh snow in hot sun.

Tending to my generous animal body. And perhaps at least for me that’s part of the larger personal message being whispered to me by this unseen corona being sweeping the globe. That this animal body is just that – an animal.

It is the precious vehicle for my Spirit, my Soul. The human-home to experience all I have been in this life, all I am called to do here – in service, in partnership to and with this gorgeous planet, with all who inhabit her, with all who are her.

Tending to my emotions. Letting them flow like a river. Not pushing them down. Or aside. Or making them anything but welcome.

We are being cracked open, us humans. Emotions long and unnaturally held finally being liberated. Human animals were not meant to push emotions down and store them.

Grief is normal. Anger and rage are natural responses to oppression, constriction, manipulation. Fear and terror has held us captive for countless generations. It has been the grim keeper of the status quo.

Shame, the frozen keeper of secrets and spells is melting, being given voice, brought into the circle of awareness. Stories being heard, given honor, respect. Informing us. Reminding us. Unwinding us from oppression both inner and outer.

Freedom is at hand. Whispering encouragement as we humans collectively loosen the shackles. From one another. From ourselves. From our minds, our spirits, our institutions. When one is bound – all are bound.

The elements within us are stirring, moving to form something new. Something completely unknown. Whispers and visions of what is possible call us forward. And although we are still residing in the consciousness of the “problem”, we are also riding the white water of the River expressing within us to a new landscape we have never seen or experienced before.

“With every step the past is dissolving behind me – the future unformed in front of me.” (Words from a dream)

Tending to my Spirit. Being quiet. Listening to the Silence that is packed full of transmissions of nourishment.

Learning at ever deeper levels to allow the unwinding of push, make it happen and force to fall away. The unnatural abyss of longing, the unfulfillment we have come to believe – have been told – can only be satisfied by objects, shiny trinkets, money, power and the siren song of “MORE”.

The energy of this unsustainable world we have been swept up into over eons is slowly but surely losing its fuel. Its false allure. Its power over – us. I see the cracks, the crumbling edges.

Stepping back.

Making small choices.

Drink water. Move body. Cook beautiful food to feed body. Bare feet on the ground. Get outside. Encourage pleasure.

The scent of a flower. The ease of a hot salt and soda bath. The coolness of night air on my bare skin as I gaze at the stars. The scent of dust and pine as I slowly walk the forest on a hot summer day singing and feeling everything.

Clouds against blue sky.

Dancing naked in a rainstorm as it cracks the oppression of a heat wave.

Dear and gentle being…

Sit quietly if you will and gather yourself back in to your most holy and precious Self. Call all of the tendrils of attention you have left splayed in so many directions. Bits and pieces of yourself you have left behind you, perhaps out of ignorance, or shock, disconnection, disinterest or even revulsion, perhaps shame.

Unfulfilled dreams. Old hurts. Grievances. Places of unforgiveness of yourself.

Ribbons of energy thrown out in front of you anchoring you to imaginary futures. Weighed down by worry. Concern. Stones of Despair. Awful images of imagined catastrophes that never came to pass. And never will.

Gossamer threads or even sturdy chains anchored to the sides of you. Holding you tethered to beliefs that are crumbling shells of former sturdy structures that once supported you. Outworn patterns of behavior. Misunderstandings that have bound
your freedom to choose.

To choose

To choose.

Something different.
Something fresh.
Something alive.

Unleash yourself from it all. No need to enumerate or bathe in the muchness of it all. To engage the mind and its minions in parsing and sorting. No benefit to be found in this.

Right now. Open your clenched fist.

Simply for this moment … Call yourself back.

Back home to your body, your tender, fierce animal being-ness.

Back home to your Core. Your Truth. Your Knowing.

Feel your self.

Let yourself unhook from it all. Just. For. This. Moment. You can of course reconfigure it all in an instant, at a later time if you choose.

Call yourself back now and rest into the embrace of the chair. Let it hold you. Cradle you. Support you.

Under the vast sky.

Resting on the ample bosom of the Earth.

Let your bones rest, your muscles unbend and loosen, your viscera unclench and begin to unwind as you let go all that you have carried so, so long. Surrendering it all into the capable arms of the Divine, Great Mystery, the vastness of your own Soul.

Shepherd whatever slivers of awareness you have been monitoring, minding, agitating under the surface of your being – all of it back home to yourself.

Call all attachments, connections, constrictions gently, gently back into your vast and contained Wholeness.

Conduct all of your precious attention back into your body. Your belly. Your sacrum. Your hands. Your feet. Your sternum.

Let your breath tenderly, tenderly, oh so tenderly, dear one, carry you deeper, wider, more fully into your own inner oceany vastness. Listening with soft focus, using all of your myriad senses.

Allow the beautiful, deep and nutritive River of emotions within to move, eddy and swirl of its own intelligent accord.

Lay a gentle hand on your heart and be both young child and compassionate adult for yourself.

And when you are ready, call on the Deva’s, the Angels, the Universal Essences to support you, nourish you, uplift and inform you.

Ask them to remind you that they already inhabit a place within you. That they are an intrinsic and vital component of you.

Request them to assist you to deliciously reorient yourself to their qualities, to this knowing, to experience the fullness and power of their resonant frequency in every particle of your being.

Open yourself gently, slowly, to receive these infinite and abundant gifts.

Ask them to inform and fill the newly emptied spaces within you. To gently redirect your cells, nano-particles and quarks to this orientation. The vast streams of energy within you that constitute your totality, inviting and allowing a new song to be sung.

Calling in….

Strength. Resilience. Wisdom.

Love. Peace. Harmony.

Sanctuary. Rest. Restoration.

Clarity. Flow. Equanimity.

Soul Remembrance. Beauty.

Welcome any other beneficent Soul Quality that taps your shoulder, wishing to come sit with you.

Ask now if you will to deeply integrate this tending of Self. Wrapping yourself in the vastness of your own tender compassion for all the facets of your being.

Resting in Divine Love.

Opening to possibility.

Tend. Tender. Tending.

Simply allowing these words to roll through my being. Feeling the softening, the loosening of my entirety in response to them. Inviting their wisdom to inform me – this dropped into my in-box.

“A good way to become more fearless is to cultivate tenderness. As you expand your capacity to feel compassionate affection, you have less to be afraid of.

That’s the opposite of conventional wisdom, which says you become brave by toughening up, by reinforcing your psychic armor.”

Rob Brezsny (Who’s newsletter always has tidbits of stupendousness – just sayin’).

– In memory of two dear humans who I feel every so often looking over my shoulder, whispering in my ear and cheering me on. They were today. You were potent catalysts, powerful mirrors and treasured companions. Baeleay and Tom – I do miss you. A lot.