How to be with the grief of ecological loss
Gosh we're being are asked us to hold a lot right now. To hold the duality and complexity of being a human in these times.
The fires here in Oregon are burning through land I’ve had profound relationship with over the last 15 years. I’ve visited these lands on the east side of Mt. Hood every year to wildcraft plants, to be with the wild meadows, to find clarity and perspective from the mountain.
I was just there last month with the thought, “please don’t let these lands burn this year.” And here we are.
The heartbreak of acceptance. The heartbreak of watching, helpless. The heartbreak of loving something so deeply and knowing it will never be the same.
These times will continue to be hard, as we move through a period of incredible loss and transition. As old systems crumble, as we gather our courage to be bearers of light for the world we are birthing.
We’ll be asked again and again to be with our despair and our grief and our longing for something different, and to also be present with the glimmers of beauty around us. The small moments of shared joy, the gratitude for the teachings and medicine of Earth and these bodies that get to experience this life.
The moments where we feel so damn lucky to be alive to help steer the world towards tenderness and unification and love.
There is incredible alchemy that happens when we can hold all of it. This is what the heart chakra does. The heart can be our biggest teacher right now in unifying polarity, in unifying opposites within our selves, in being a cauldron to welcome the whole. Without negating anything. Without losing part of our humanity.
I am trying to remind myself that fires purify. That this world is so out of balance, but the fire burns down the old to make away for the new. That fire is a force of nature, and just like our bodies, Nature does what she can to bring Herself back into balance, even when it doesn’t feel like in the moment. We’ve been so out of balance.
But of course this doesn’t negate the real devastation of watching land I love burn.
How to hold both grief and beauty simultaneously
So how do we be with all this? Because being with it all is the way through.
Not trying to bypass the depth of loss with spiritual platitudes.
Not staying in the realm of blame and attack for who is at fault to distract us from the pain.
Not staying in a narrow view of what’s happening on a material level but allowing the realm of spirit to also teach and inform us.
Can we be with all of it without abandoning our bodies and our felt experience? Without abandoning the Earth? Without abandoning our spiritual selves?
This is far beyond simple.
But to start, one of the biggest things to practice is to not abandon ourselves. To be really present with what’s happening so the emotions can flow through, so they don’t get stuck in our bodies. So we can feel, and move and keep ourselves in connection, in relationship.
Be lovingly present with all of it. Allow yourself to hold your heart as it unthaws, or dance and move in anger, or surrender into the waves of grief.
And then, you have access to your power. You claim your agency back from blame and fight and freeze. You align with your center.
The true the prayers can flow. The aligned action can emerge. The way your soul wants to show up can be felt. Because only then are we present in authentic connection with ourselves and Life.
Investigating our heart space and holding multitudes is what we practice in Golden Stone Immersion. We excavate the outdated stories, reclaim specific types of power through each of the chakras, and reweave ourselves back into the Oceanic Power of the Earth.
This re-harmonizes our inner terrain. We deepen our relationship with the Earth body again. And we become more fully ourselves. More fully alive, pulsing with The Magic of Life.
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