Awakenings on the Wind

I had an awakening this past week at Anasazi with regard to why I seek change so frequently and it is different, more clarified, than it ever was before. The awakening I had was in reference to what I have previously called my addiction to novelty, to change.

At Anasazi one of the Windwalkers spoke of the Path of Light and outlined it for the entire boys band. The Path of Light speaks of the physical aspects of making fire and busting a coal with a bow, drill, socket and spindle.

What tools are necessary in order to create fire:

• bow
• drill
• socket
• spindle

What do you get as a result:

• a live coal

What must then be done:

• the coal must be nurtured

What do you get as a result of that nurturing:

• fire
• the capacity to cook and prepare food
• ability to cleanse objects and sanitize them
• community
• rid campsite of bugs
• protection from animals and darkness
• light
• peace
• hope
• dryness
• heat

That was the physical side of the Path of Light and then we talked of the spiritual implications of the Path of Light and it is in that discussion where my awakening occured. Where the coal is what we are trying to get in order to obtain the benefits listed above on the physical side awakenings are what we are trying to get in order to continue to enjoy the spiritual benefits of living and I will explore them below:

What tools are necessary in order to create an Awakening (this is different for each person):

• time in nature
• reading
• journaling
• hard experiences
• seminars
• remembering past experiences, events or emotions
• new experiences
• listening
• pondering
• discussion
• prayer
• visiting other cultures
• learning new languages
• exploring other religions

What do you get as a result:

• an awakening

What must then be done:

• our awakenings must be nurtured through action - through an honoring of the sense we received

What do you get as a result of that nurturing, that action and that honored sense:

• knowledge
• light
• peace
• hope
• influence
• experience
• calmness
• honesty
• trust
• empowerment
• confidence
• more awakenings

In my life I have found that I personally recieve awakenings through nature, reading, pondering, listening, passing through hard experiences, experiencing new things, visiting other cultures, exploring other religions, learning new languages, and attending seminars which cause me to think and question life. As I do these things awakenings come into my life.

It is to these awakenings that I am, in a sense, addicted for it is them that I seek. I am not addicted simply to novelty and constant change but to the experience of the awakening and the wisdom accompanying it. I want wisdom and am seeking to fill my life with people, places, and things which cause such awakenings to happen in my life. Wisdom is the result of an awakening and great wisdom the result of a life built around the events which produce them.

I find it interesting above that on both the physical and spiritual side of the Path of Light three things are present in both: light, peace and hope. If you could have those three things or any of the other benefits above in your life constantly - what would you give up in order to experience it? Would anything be worth the sacrifice of constant light, peace and hope? What have you sacrificed the light, peace and hope in your life for? Is it worth it?

Here are a few observations I made regarding the light of the fire and of the moon respectively. I hope they give you something to think on or at least a different way to see the world.

• We either add to the light or subtract from it. In a fire each particle adds or subtracts to the final outcome. So it is in life, each of us add or subtract to the light, warmth and magnificence of the whole.

• Although the moon be somber in the light it casts there are many details which cannot be seen unless by its light. The moon does nothing but reflect the light of the sun and yet that same light gives new meaning and new experience to the same world. So it is in life and thus it is with man. Some times it is only in the night time of our lives, when we are unable to sleep, that we fully see the patterns of our lunar selves and shadows. The amount of light present changes the experience of the moment. In the brihgt light of the noonday sun we cannot see the shadows which surround us nor guess what monsters lurk in the shadows nearby. We are blissfully unaware that as the light decreases the shadows increase and take ground as rapidly as the light dissipates. In our lives the light is either growing or it is shrinking, it is for that reason that the moon is present - to remind us of the promise that the sun will rise again.

As I looked up at the sky this past week I wondered a wondering I have often had. Why was I not born and why did I not live in an earlier age when the vast wilderness of this and other countries was yet wild and untamed? This past week an awakening stirred in my heart as I looked up in the sky and the answer distilled upon my soul as the dews distilling from heaven.

My skills and talents, the ones that I uniquely possess as I do, as well as the weaknesses I must surmount in order to maximize my potential could not have been used or surmounted to the degree they can be in our era today. The potential for growth that I personally hold would have been stifled had I been born earlier or later in this world. That sense hit me hard as I looked up. I believe in a higher power that orchestrates all things and I believe that I am here today because there are things I have to learn and unique gifts I have to give the world. I believe we all have that same possibility. Each of us has unique gifts to share as well as unique opportunities to overcome our weaknesses and this is the age which we have been given... why? Because it is where the most growth will occur and where we will become all that we can become - if we so choose.

And a final closing thought from my week:

What we seek evades us, what we become pursues us. We cannot be, have or do anything we have not become.

I am Walks with the Wind and I have spoken.

**Walks with the Wind was the name I was gifted with and was honored to receive as a trail name. The giving of a name is a sacred ceremony giving a belonging place to an individual showing acceptance of them into a family, group or community. When I talk of the things I have learned on the Trail I will close ceremonially in honor and recognition of the name I was gifted.**

Listening to the Simplicity of the Desert

It is nearly time I head back out onto the trail to experience the beauty of nature for another week. Many lessons struck me as I walked and hiked through nature in weeks past. Simplicity is manifest in the raw beauty and power of nature. In the desert such beauty and power is manifest ten fold as the contrast between the desert and the areas surrounding water are experienced.
Last week as we rested in the shade of a canyon wall a few hours before noon I began to think of the shade. Although the shade is perfect and exactly what we needed at the time it serves its purpose with time. It can also, however, become extremely seductive and lull us into a sense of comfort, ease, and security. It is in such moments that we see that if we stay in the shade too long there will arrive a moment when the sun will shine away our shady retreat with a vengeance and we will be left at the mercy of the sun, no closer to our final destination. It is the forward motion which saves us. Shade is no reason to stop but a moment in the desert. Where there is water more extended pauses can be taken but the desert claims all who lull away their time in carnal security... much like life.

People, places, things, and experience in our lifves are not there for us to enjoy forever, simply there to give us shade, water or direction along the path toward the mesas of our lives. If we sit in the shade of a canyon it is not long before the sun reaches its zenith and there be not shade left under which to rest. Better to keep moving until water is found... surrounding water there is always shade.

We need water badly and when hiking in the desert staying hydrated is a very important thing... more important than anything else. The body can survive without food for more than a month but without water less than three days. We need water and cannot miss an opportunity to fill up when in the desert. After having missed an opportunity we cannot go back and make that decision again. At a certain point it becomes farther to go back than to go forward and the thirst of that decision must be endured. The consequences of that one moment have become clearly distilled in our minds and felt in our bodies as we hike in the desert. One day hiking the entire group ran out of water just before noon and did not make it to water again until after five pm that same evening. Needless to say everyone felt a little under the weather, dehydrated and probably suffering to some degree from heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

Water solved all ills within a few hours. After having missed the opportunity to fill up it became counter productive to go back... we could not change that moment but we can and did learn from it. No one, after that moment was dehydrated the rest of the week.

Another simple truth communicated to me this week through the experience of walking the trail was the need for good friends. When the heat is upon us we would stop our forward walking and remain in the comfort of the shade. It will be our friends and those around us who influence us for good or ill. When we drop on a rock in the shade of the canyon wall to catch our breath for a moment will they drop alongside and remain there or will they rest a moment and encourage the continuation of the journey so that the final destination can be reached and real relaxation begin? Will they push you on the sustaining necessities of life in the desert: water, food, shade and shelter?

Who do you surround yourself with in life? Are they the advocates of hanging out and of passing hours mindlessly playing video games or pursuing the frivolities of life? Or do they, rather, encourage the pursuit of excellence in life, of education, of growth, of learning, and the building up of the relationships which surround us. Choose your friends wisely for they have a large impact on what occurs in our lives and what final destinations we shall reach. Do they encourage your growth and walk with you or ask of you things which will cause backward walking in your life?

Seek the simplicity in nature and in life... learn from the lessons which surround us each and every day. Listen to the sacred wind as it rustles through the leaves of your life and find wisdom therein.

I am Walks with the Wind and I have spoken.