“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.” – E.B. White
On Sunday, August 16, 12,000 lightning strikes started 560 fires in hot and dry California. The photos of lightning over our bay were beautiful and stunning – but then…By Wednesday, our cars and decks were covered with ask that looked like snow. The sky was orange. Right now, we have over 70,000 people evacuated (of a population of 273,000 in Santa Cruz County), and the CZU Lightning Complex Fire has burned over 70,000 acres, threatening thousands of homes in our beautiful Santa Cruz mountains.
I have been meditating and praying and healing alot this week. We are all praying for gentle rain, praying to keep people and animals and homes safe. Early last week I was focusing on trying to find and coalesce moisture in our air to help bring the fog and rain, but I just could not find it. Our part of the earth felt so very hot and dry.
This is an interesting fire. It was started by nature, not by a negligent power company, not by arson or a camp fire – but by nature. As I was meditating yesterday, and holding our beautiful state and County between my hands, I was asking for help from Mother Earth, help from Gaia, the Earth Goddess, Mother of all life. I realized we assume that because the lightning was from Mother Earth, it was meant to shake things up. That somehow our Earth is upset and creating storms and fires.
But what if – WHAT IF – it was not intentional? WHAT IF it is Mother Earth out of balance, and we can help her come back into balance. To balance Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Bring in gentle water to balance the fire and soothe the dry earth, and clear the smokey air. WHAT IF we are caught up in our usual literal black & white thinking? Fire is bad, rain is good. Not necessarily. One area in California was warning of flash floods.
We all get out of balance, and we do what we can to come back to our center – with good food, water, exercise, enough sleep, meditation, gratitude, some rest, and hopefully some fun… Our Mother Earth clearly needs help coming into balance, and I find that as I hold her between my hands and send love and healing, I can feel her calming and balancing.
When I work with clients, much of what I do is offer them the energy their body/mind/spirit/emotions need to heal themselves. I trust the body knows what to do. I trust our Mother Earth knows what to do.
Yes, we need to pray for rain. But how about we also focus on finding our inner balance, however that works for you. AS WITHIN SO WITHOUT! As we find our balance within, we help our neighbors and our planet find balance.
I hope you join me in holding our precious planet between your hands, and sending her love, inviting her to find her balance? And helping yourself to find YOUR balance.