Honoring the expansion of time
We are often taught that time is a thief, stealing moments and leaving us with nothing but memories. When living life we, as a collective, feel if we aren't moving forward we aren't progressing. What I have come to learn from nature, from my herd in the pasture and from riding, life is not linear - it is cyclical. The sun rises, the sun sets, the moon waxes and wanes, the tides wash in and out, nighttime to morning, seasons come and pass, life is a cycle of energy moving, spiraling collecting and releasing. It is beautiful when we slow down and take it all in. This lesson has taught me about time and tending grief. My relationship with time has felt heavy as my family shifts into children that are more grown then small, my son is 20, my daughter 14. Within this shift there is a feeling of grief - where did the time go, there is a feeling of guilt, why did I not cherish it all more. I remind myself - I am not losing a child; I am gaining the arrival of the adult they are becoming.
The Wisdom of the Cycle
Life is a spiral, we haven't lost the years. We are simply standing on a different tier of the same circle. The love we give is the very foundation of the love coming.
Lessons on grief and guilt. Shadow lessons are often lessons I bring to nature and to my herd, I ask, I wait, I listen, I watch. What I have learned? From the seasons, the beautiful sunsets over the pasture watching my horses graze and embrace the shift from day to night and night to day - time is coming not going, the spring grass is coming, the horses patiently wait for the rain to stop knowing the sun will shine again, they process loss, disappointment and grief by letting it go with grace and so much beauty. The herd knows the beauty of rich experiences are here to cherish now in this moment. Time isn't going time is coming.
Lessons from the Herd
Horses are masters of the "now," they also possess a rhythmic patience. They don't mourn the sunset because they aren't attached to the light; they are attached to the flow. Breathwork lesson from the herd :
Grief becomes a form of "releasing" (the exhale).
Grace becomes the "collecting" (the inhale).
Inhale Grace, Exhale Release.
When I watch the horses wait for the rain to stop, they aren't wishing the time away; they are simply existing in the "coming" of the sun.
with love and gratitude in every breath for the love within me and surrounding me,
xoxo
Kim
My prayer to Time—God, Creator of Love: I pray in gratitude. I pray to the North, to the winds of time. Carry me to connection and love. In the South, I ground into Mother Earth and the benevolent love she offers. I pray the wind will carry me softly, quietly and gently to Grandmother Water in the West to surrender to the clarity of truth and evolution. I pray the wind will carry me to the eternal flame of Grandfather Fire in the East to a new beginning of an old cycle that will never end: a cycle of love, of joy, and of connection to Creation. Aho and Amen.
