Back in 2018 – on 11/11/18, in fact – I decided to honor our eldest son Karl’s life by committing to posting 1,111 consecutive blog posts. Why 1111? Because he died at the age of 30 on 11/11/11. (You can read more about that in the archives.)
It was a bold decision because ordinarily I had – and continue to have - a hard time imagining what I could possibly write on *any* particular day. But to declare publicly that I would write something every single day for over three years? It was a risk. I wanted to take it, though, and needed to take it because it gave me a purpose, a channel for my grief that hopefully would be more creative and life-affirming than anything else I might do to honor his life.
In spite of my belief that I had nothing to write about, I surprised myself and managed to meet my goal. In fact, I even continued my daily musings for another couple of months, they’d become such an integral part of my daily life.
Paying Attention to Life
I called my commitment to writing each day my “1111 Devotion.” This commitment was a sacred act to me, an opportunity to hold my son in my thoughts each evening as I shared myself, my observations, and my feelings with my cadre of loyal readers.
Most of my posts consisted of sharing a photo or two I would take during my daily walks and the meandering thoughts my encounter with Mother Nature might reveal. Signs, messages, hints from Spirit, Nature, All Life – whatever you might want to call them – the more I walked and wrote and shared what I was seeing and hearing and noticing, the more connected I felt both to my environment and to those people who shared my experiences by reading about them.
My readers and I weathered some stunningly profound events together, from the pandemic to the January 6th insurrection, as well as the mundane, such as car breakdowns and pet antics. We also looked up and witnessed clouds, stars, passing comets, a never-ending variety of meteor showers, and astronomical phenomena – the astrological import I often offered for our mutual consideration. I picked tarot and oracle cards for us when some direct feedback felt needed.
Through this adventure, the consistent theme, in my recollection, was paying attention. As those who’ve attended my Listening Retreats can attest, paying attention is, in my experience anyway, one of the absolute essentials to being a good listener. And I believe that listening is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other and ourselves.
Listening and Healing
I’m beginning this new “Devotion” on Earth Day because I believe the Earth, and everything on Her, has some form of sentience. I believe we are all connected. And I believe we can only survive by remembering and celebrating our interconnectedness.
Ultimately, I believe that the only way we can truly heal Mother Earth is to LISTEN to her. She is making Herself and Her (and thus our) needs abundantly clear to us, via all of her children: plants, animals, oceans, lakes, streams, mountains, volcanoes, forests, prairies, deserts, jungles, and each other. There are so many messages being sent to us every single day, every single moment, really, that it takes quite the concerted effort to IGNORE Her voice. But sadly, as a species, we’re pretty damn good at being ignorant.
I believe that the only way we can heal ourselves is to listen to Her and to the messages our hearts, our Higher Selves, our souls, are sending to us. We are creative beings. We have immense power to effect change – for good or for ill – on the environment and on each other. We also have a myriad of tools that can help us access our INNER knowing – our intuition, our stories, our myths – and help us braid that together with our external knowing - our book learning, our scientific and ‘logical’ knowledge. But we need to access them. We need to listen. And we need to pay attention to the messages we’re receiving.
Our Power is in Paying Attention
We would have to live under a rock not to realize that humanity has brought life here on Earth to a critical survival point. Every day we are being confronted with choices and messages that demand our immediate attention. Often, we don’t quite know which way to turn or what to do.
That’s when it’s most important, in my opinion, to stop what we’re doing, look up at the sky, look down at our feet and the ground upon which we stand, look around and notice the plant and animal life we share this planet with, and PAY ATTENTION. Perhaps the most important way to turn in any given moment is toward something simple, something right before our eyes, something that brings us a sense of awe and wonder.
This is my invitation to you to come and pay attention with me.
Nice to read you again, Lisa!
So glad you are back. We all need a daily walk with Mother Nature.