Some of us feel a strong sensory connection with mother nature. When she rages, her vast energy touches the bones of our own inner landscape.
Recent back-to-back hurricanes in the United States southeast forever changed lives in the wake of these extreme storms. Speaking of the recent Hurricane Helene, North Carolina Governor Ray Cooper described the devastation in his state’s western mountain region. He said, “water went where it has never gone before.” My family members who live in the epicenter of this historic storm agreed. They are hurricane veterans from Florida and even they were amazed by the immense power of the water-saturated Appalachians.
Gaia is forceful as she is majestic. She scares us when she rages. Our patterns of living have changed her patterns of being. The tremendous force behind the fierce winds of climate change are real.
Climate Changes of Inner Landscapes
Fierce hurricane winds, the infected oceans, as well as our parched gardens stressed from intense climate change can feel like a mirror of our own life.
When life transitions happen sometimes internal storms arise. Our inner Gaia and her perceived power can be frightening. Vibrations in our body may surprise us. The tightening in our gut or when ranging headaches happen we are tempted to ignore its presence, take a pill, and push through our day. Sometimes it’s easier to busy ourselves with life’s chores when upset occurs. Even though there’s a part of us that wants to run to the edges of our personal gale to seek protection from the onslaught. Who can blame our avoidance and fear? Yet the message is clear. With internal storms, like the outer ones, mother nature is trying to get our attention.
Restoring Balance
We feel hurricanes deep in our bones. Even writing this essay my core feels uneasy. But wait. There is another voice. It’s speaking from a part of us that longs to restore a healing balance. This “healing call” is in our bodies too waiting for us to acknowledge it.
Mary Oliver’s poem Hurricane so beautifully describes our profoundly interactive experience with nature. She illustrates a hurricane that she lived through – the one that wielded its strength in nature, and the one that created havoc in her life. She repeats the refrain “the back of the hand to everything” to help us feel the stinging pain of her experience. And then, she reveals, something transformed. The trees that were stripped bare by the devastation. “…toward the end of that summer they pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs….” The trees, to her amazement, couldn’t stop reaching for life. Though the blossoms came at the wrong time of year. “For some things there are no wrong seasons,” she wrote. Oliver helps us through the horrific devastation into another space where hope and new life emerges.
How Can Dreams Help
Dreams visualize life force energy. Our dreams can mirror the turbulence of nature in order to bring light to the distress of our inner landscape. And like Oliver’s poem, the images and figures of dreams offer clues to understand the healing messages from our inner wisdom.
Dreams are one way our intuition grabs hold of our attention to illuminate what the storm is trying to say. Remember Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem? He said in part…”There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
Recently in several Dream Circles I ended the sessions by mirroring back the remedial dynamic we formed in our time together. After exploring a difficult dream, we saw that each of us could relate in our own way to the message emerging from the dream narrative. Each of us was touched by memories of our own life transition experience. We felt it’s energy in our bodies. It became clear to all of us that we are not alone. For a short time, our minds and bodies rested in the shared space of others who deeply listened to each other. It’s healing.
In these times it’s important to reach out to a therapist, a life coach, or to a dreamworker. We all desire healing from whatever scary storm is brewing. Ultimately, I believe, we want to radiate our relief and found peace back to Earth so it can experience healing as well. We need each other, and the Earth needs us too.
Join us in the next Dream Circle. There are two spots left in the Thursday Dream Circle. More details here. Register today here.
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