nurture | heartfelt healing
Photo by Sebastian Fissore, www.sebafissore.com.ar
stillness in death valley I have never been to a desert environment, let alone in such an environment to camp for 10 days.
loads of sunscreen, hats with big brims, sunglasses and cool clothing. Stillness surrounded us.
I participated in a “Death Lodge,” focusing on apology, reconciliation and forgiveness. So imagine a Death Lodge in Death Valley. What does that mean?
We received information about the animals of the desert that we could encounter, scorpions being the No. 1 possibility. Then there were the side winding rattlesnakes, coyotes, kit foxes, pumas, owls, ravens, bats, bees and flies. I was met by bats, bees and flies and heard coyotes and owls at night, not unlike the High Country.
I walked up a mountain with sharp stones and soon found a path that would be like a deer path in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Who made this path? There were no deer, yet I was ecstatic I was safe on this pathway. In life, it is I who usually takes the path less traveled. This path was easy. How many paths had I not walked that would have been easier for me?
We all came with the intention of healing some part of ourselves that would open up space for being more connected with people in our lives that we had disconnected with or been angry with.
I retraced my steps and then took a different path back – only to find myself off the deer-like path and descending on a treacherous, steep, slippery slope with jagged rocks.
We headed into the south our first day. The south on the Medicine Wheel represents childhood, innocence, the physical, passion and any childhood wounds we may have buried deep down.
I had to pause frequently, placing my feet very gingerly in the next spot down. I guess I was meant to go this way as I found a deflated helium balloon stuck in the crevices of the rocks. The balloon was faded yet I could see the irises and the message, “Happy Mother’s Day.”
The death I was entertaining was not physical, but rather a death of old patterns that blocked me from living a full and joyful life. I was with 12 other participants, two leaders and three assistants with whom I opened my heart. I thought I would be surrounded by cacti. I didn’t see one my whole trip. Instead, I witnessed a dark sky with thousands of bright and twinkling stars, a crescent moon that lit our way in the darkness, stones and more stones, hard sandy ground, creosote bushes, and, did I mention, stones? During the day, the sky was mostly a cloudless bright blue and the sun was the most intense I have ever absorbed. There was no shade. We dressed in
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MAY 2011 | AAWMAG.COM
I realized I was still holding onto the core belief that I was not worthy or acceptable – to myself or to others. So
I took that belief with me and let the environment speak.
How odd to be in the desert, eight miles from a small town and two and