Shamanic Sundays with Dr. Tom Pinkson, daughter Kimberly Pinkson, and guests Dr. Michael Kearney and Andrew Smyth.
Hello and welcome to Shamanic Sundays. My name is Kimberly Pinkson and I'm here with my dad, Dr. Tom Pinkson, a psychologist and spiritual medicine teacher who has been a visionary bridge builder, bringing the ancient wisdom and teachings of indigenous elders who mentored him forward to address the challenges of the time.
Thank you for joining us today. Let's get started. Welcome to Shamanic Sundays. Good to be here with you all. Hello, dad and Michael and Andrew and all of our relatives out there in our community with us live today and those of you who will, uh, see or listen to this in the future. So, I'm going to actually start us off with a prayer of gratitude instead of passing that baton over to you, Dad .
Good move. Keep it up. Yeah. I just really feel so grateful to you, Michael Kearney and Andrew Smyth for, for joining us today and want to, just really give so much thanks to our ancestor spirits, to the spirits of the places that each of us finds ourselves in as we're, as we're gathering together here today, for all of our relatives, sentient and otherwise...
the, the swimming, drifting, floating people, the slithering ones, crawling ones, many leggeds, four leggeds, three leggeds, two leggeds, the one legged, the tree people feel especially poignant today, the flying ones. And, and, and just thinking about all that had to happen right in the history of the universe for all of us to be sitting here together today.
The four of us together and our relatives who are joining us here in the community. And, uh, yeah, thank you for being in the flow with us here today. And flow is what we're going to dig into in just a few minutes. But first I want to introduce our guests. So, Andrew Smythe is a, licensed, MA and LMFT therapist.
I don't know if I said that properly, following his desire to explore edges and opportunities for healing in nature. Andrew is a creative change maker. As a therapist, he supports journeys towards reclaiming whole authentic self and finds inspiration from many sources, all highlighting mind body connection and relationship to spirit and our planet through his nature experiences work, including working as a wilderness guide in Utah and leading retreats and nature groups.
He sees firsthand how restoring nature connection and a remembrance of our interdependence can bring renewed hope, joy, and healing. He is committed to stewardship of land and sea, volunteering with numerous nonprofits and, and lives here in Santa Barbara. And we met when he came out on Quest with my dad and I in March of this year.
Michael Kearney was born in Cork, Ireland, and has worked for almost 50 years as a palliative care physician at the bedsides of the seriously ill and dying. He has published four books. Mortally wounded, stories of soul pain, death and healing. A place of healing, working with nature and soul at the end of life.
The nest in the stream and becoming forest. A story of deep belonging. A fable of a young Irish woman who finds an antidote for her climate despair in the wisdom of trees. Michael offers teaching and training and deep resilience through the Becoming Forest project. I'm so honored to have you both here and just the way it's flowed from Andrew, you being on Quest to, to introducing us to Michael.
And then dad, can you talk a moment about how it flowed when you and Michael met? Well, it seems like we're, we're, brothers from a different mother in terms of the paths of our lives and the similarity of a lot of our involvements that have helped us to grow. And so,, thankful, Andrew, to you, introducing us and, and Rod Leaks, healing for you.
And, just, uh, makes my heart sing to, to be able to connect with, uh, Michael and just in the process of reading one of his books. Uh, the place of healing, which is just, uh, so enriching and stimulating and thought provoking and full of wonder and medicine. Recommend that to anybody who wants to go deeper in exploring their shadow and their deeper being and how to integrate the teachings that come from, from facing into our mortality and the suffering of life and the medicine that can transform our lives when we're open to it with humility and attention.
And Michael, so much. Does that so well and his wife and partner equally. So, so wonderful to be here with you. And, I would hope that uh, I, I keep my mouth closed for most of the time since I get to talk every week and give Michael you a good chance to share your wisdom. So thanks for being here.
But just because I'm pretty sure you're going to talk a little. So can you scoot yourself a little closer to the microphone? Yes, dear. Thank you. Andrew, I, I was going to ask you to share, uh, just again, sort of this affirmation of flow. Can you share, about the story of Sam Lee and the. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
The synchronicity of Michael, you sending that email. So, yeah, Kimberly and I, you know, we're at, if you watched the last episode, we're at this random mushroom festival in the middle of, uh, England. And we happen to have connections, uh, through the, the people who are staying with and, uh, this guy, Sam Lee, who sings these very ancient melodies, took us on a journey into the forest to this ancient, uh, yew tree.
And we all harmonized under this tree, which was Just super beautiful and, yeah, just felt it was just such an amazing experience. And so I come back and Michael sends this email relating, um, connection with nature and mindfulness and being able to really immerse yourself in like a sit spot or a place where you feel in the inner connection and, um, made this reference to Sam Lee and, just.
You know, a week after we had just gotten back from hanging out with, with Sam Lee. So it was just a really potent and it just kind of shows again of like, when you're in that flow and you're listening truly, uh, to where you're supposed to be, the, the universe is like not, it's huge, it's infinite and it's like so close.
It's always, the threads are right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. When I think of like this, this phrase being in a state of flow, I know it was a Hungarian psychologist who actually coined that term. And it was like referencing the creative when you're so deeply engrossed in the creative process and you find this like perfect balance between challenge and skill and just like fully engaged in the present.
And you just feel the The connections with everything with else around you. And so that to me, and I would love to get, dad and Michael, your perspective on this, that really shamanism is also about like, really just tapping into that flow, right? It's like, you know, deeply connecting to the present, aligning with, with spirit, with energy beyond, beyond human, and opening up to that for guidance and healing.
Um, So it just seems really perfect to be like that being the thread that that ties us all together here. Does that sound accurate to you? Yeah. Michael, you on board with that? Yeah, I am very much so. I mean, I'm just thinking, listening to To each of you that um in a way that that's really been my interest since my Very early, you know my my beginning in medicine.
I was um I was a very disillusioned medical student just really quickly, you know the kind of um Halfway through my medical studies, I was at the point of kind of throwing in the towel because somehow it wasn't what I'd hoped at some level, even though I wasn't conscious what I was looking for. Man, I was about to leave my studies.
I was more interested in making movies and, um, kind of writing poetry. And, uh, anyway, what I was discovering as a medical student, wasn't that so. Um, but before I left, somebody said, before you leave medicine, visit this place in London, St. Christopher's hospice. It's a place of healing. And there was something in that phrase, a place of healing.
And so from the very get, I, and I went there and it's, it's, it's St. Christopher's is the first modern hospice. It's where the modern hospice movement began. And so I went there and just, yeah, my sense of being with people, um, In their final days, weeks, um, of life and just the sense of aliveness and wholeness and, and being at peace and being in the flow, um, that, uh, that I experienced just being in their presence.
I just knew that this is what I wanted to, to do. And so I kind of finished my medical studies, but my, my, my whole journey through medicine has been. An interest in understanding what what healing actually means not fixing preventing curing but what what healing means and and and I and I think one way of understanding that is That healing is about coming back into the flow Of how it is of how we deeply are of that deep rhythm that deep harmony and um Um, yeah, you know, um, mortally wounded at Tom mentioned, uh, I boys at you, Kimberly, in your introduction, you kindly mentioned my books, but a mortally wounded is where I talk about what I understand as soul pain, which is kind of at the root of a lot of, suffering, whether it's our physical suffering, whether it's our emotional, psychological, existential suffering, that at the heart of it is a disconnect from the depth of ourselves from the flow.
And, and so my interest all along, and I think it really is akin to what you're describing is how do we come back into the flow? And, and, and fear is such a huge disconnector, you know, fear is such a huge disconnector. So how do we come back into that place? Uh, beyond fear. How do we, yeah, so, so yes. Yeah, I love that.
Uh, it's interesting. You talk about, Well, one thing that's interesting to me is that all three of you, um, have, have gone into healing on, on one level or another and started with a more traditional path of therapy or, you know, being a physician or a, ,therapist. And then, and then you started, there was some moment for each of you that was like, that's not quite enough.
I need to look for something else. And each of you ended up finding, if I may be so presumptuous as to say this and, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but, but you found that something else in connection with nature. So I wonder if you could share, um, uh, dad, we'll start with you. Like, what was that moment for you that, that, that it was like, wow, there's something deeper that I can connect to.
And ties in with, with realizing the, the big nature in us as part of that. Being born in New York City and spending the first five years of my life in New York City, there wasn't a whole lot of nature to experience there. And it wasn't until, We moved out to, uh, from New York City to, uh, Southern California in the late 40s after my dad died to live temporarily with my grandparents.
My mother took me to, uh, Yosemite. I was five years old and, uh, totally blew out the circuits in my, my mind about the huge mountains. And I got to see bear and deer and, and huge trees and mountains that were as high as the sky. And I felt such a, um, uh, overwhelming sense of, of joy. really, uh, sensing the power, the beauty, the majesty of it all that just really spoke to me.
And, uh, of course, as an adult and many years later, I returned to Yosemite back country on wilderness quest for many, many years. But when, when I was, um, My mother remarried three years after my dad died, and we moved back to the state of Maryland and lived in an area where there was, where the neighborhood was surrounded by woods.
And I just remember the, the, the deep peace, uh, that I would experience when I would go walking out in those woods anytime of the year and lying down in the earth, looking up at the sky and just being with the trees and nature. And it just gave me a great deal of peace. didn't feel when I wasn't in the woods with, uh, with nature.
So I didn't have any intellectual understanding of it at the time, eight, nine, 10 years old. I just knew that if I wanted that peace, that I needed to go out and be in the, in the woods. And so that was kind of my entry to, As an adult, what I can phrase as the healing transformational power of being with the energy that comes out of Mother Earth and through the manifestations of nature above and below and around and within.
And that this is a source of Spirit's grace manifesting to help us remember the truth of how we're all connected. And I think the original, there's so much violence in the world, I think the original source of violence is the fear that comes from, like Michael you were talking about, the disconnection.
The, the Buddha would call it the ignorance of forgetting who and what we are and thinking the entirety of our being as our bodies and physical bodies and our ego identity and the stories. And so we've disconnected from, in our awareness, from The, the essence of our being, the, the, the Alaha, the sacred unity that we have and we live in, that's, that's, uh, the, the oneness in which we all, cosmic manifestation lives in and returning whatever helps us to return to an awareness of that connection and sacred unity is, is healing, healing for the soul.
Michael, if you could, um, you know, share, continue in that vein of, of sharing, like, how you found this connection, um, and also tie in, um, your work with be, becoming forest and, and what that, that means. And what I love about it is that it's not. Um, you know, one of our, one of our guests just was talking about living in a city.
And so we don't all have the privilege of walking out into a forest or, you know, to, to literally feel like we are in, in one with nature. So if you wanted to share anything about that too. Yeah. Thanks. Um, yeah, listening to, uh, your story, Tom kind of just reminds me of, um, of kind of maybe when I first realized, um, how healing nature is.
Um, I mean, I grew up in Ireland, um, just, just a bit of personal history that's kind of relevant to the story is that, um, I actually was separated from my mother for most of my first year of life. She, when I was three months old, she, um, she got tuberculosis while she was away on holidays and, nearly died.
And anyway, it was. Uh, was luckily enough, uh, recovered, but she was out of my life for nine of the first 12 months of my life. And, and so it kind of, there is that sort of separation at the kind of core of my, uh, of my psyche. And, um, so it's relevant to the story in the sense that it was when I went, to boarding school when I was 12 years old.
I went to boarding school and I experienced the most profound homesickness, um, and, uh, heart pain and soul pain. And, um, and where I found consolation was the boarding school was actually on 900 acres of land. Old, you know, blessing he had with old growth, um, you know, ancient Irish oak forest. And, um, I, I just wandered out on my own again, again, and again, and, um, sat under the trees, walked among the trees, um, stopped by the lake, um, you know, and just found consolation there, deep, deep, deep consolation and healing.
Um, and, um, and, and I've continued to, to experience that, you know, uh, in my book, The Nest in the Stream, I talk about how I experienced mid career that I was burned out. And again, uh, it was, it was, it was in nature that, that I was healed. And, uh, came back into that. And, um, so, and, and I've tried to bring that into my work and that's what, you know, what I was so encouraged about when I discovered that at the very, at the very heart of, of, of Western medicine, um, You know, we, we, we talk about Hippocrates, we, the Hippocratic tradition, which is, which is medicine as we know it in our healthcare systems in the West, which is, um, rational, materialistic, based on linear causality, uh, find out what's going on, intervene, fix it.
But that's only part of the story at the very root of, of Western medicine is It is another figure or another two figures, actually it's, uh, the God of healing and the Greek God of healing Escalipius and his daughter Hygieia and the healing ritual of dream incubation and dream incubation was where the person who was ill, um, after a time of preparation, when the time was right, um, slept on the earth and whatever dream they had that night was, um, Was a visit was seen as a visit from the god or from hygieia and was the healing event So it was working with nature for the healing of suffering and recognizing that that's where healing comes from And hippocrates recognized that he saw yeah, we can fix things.
We can we can drain an abscess We can we can fix a broken bone, but we can't heal the soul. You know, we can't heal the psyche You need to go to Asclepius and Hygieia and you need to lie on the earth and open to what comes towards you. And, um, and so you asked about becoming forest. Well, becoming forest is about my attempt to, to bring some, some of, some of this thinking.
Um, and, and, and what I've learned. Away from the bedside as a, as a kind of a doctor, but to bring it, um, to bring it to, to bring it, especially my hope is to bring some of this teaching and wisdom of the healing, the healing power of, of, of the earth and of nature and of, of, of making that reconnection and opening and dropping into, um, Making that our, again, our basis of operation, you know, because we were so disconnected and hurling around in our, in our own story.
And so, um, and so it's a, it's, it's a, it's a, a fictional piece, the story of a young girl, um, who, uh, whose grandfather gives her a task. He was a palliative care hospice doctor, and he saw that that if someone had had a sense of deep inner rootedness, which in terms of our conversation, if somebody was really rooted in the earth, um, kind of felt that rootedness kind of really felt, you know, you know, in, in, in, in their being, in their, you know, in their body at that, that sense of interdependence and interconnectedness, um, somehow the fear dropped away and somehow they could face even the greatest uncertainty of all death with, uh, with openness and curiosity.
And so, uh, he wants to pass on this teaching, which he calls a teaching about deep security, deep inner security, uh, In a way that young people can understand as they face such an uncertain future, um, because of our world on fire. And, um, and so that's what the story in the book is. Aisling going on a quest to, first of all, understand what does this mean for herself in her own experience.
And then to try and find a way of passing it on and And, uh, I don't want to give away the whole story, but, um, right. We want people to go get your book and read your book. But she, she does find her answer in the wisdom of trees. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and Andrew, you bring the, the work with trees and, and connecting people to nature, into your work with, with your clients.
And, and I love Michael, what you said about, you know, the young people, um, Being in this world on fire. And I think it's not just the young people. It's many of us of many generations. Um, and there's, there's a lot of pain and in the world and are in people's lives. And so Andrew, do you, um, could you share a little bit about what trees and nature connection mean to you and how you use that to, to guide people in your work?
Yeah. Um, it's interesting. I kind of have like a similar story in terms of. I think it's funny. It's to me how, when you're kind of in that period of soul pain and, um, in some way, the dark night of the soul being in that space where you really don't know what's happening and you don't have a choice. Um, certain things, you know, whether it's nature or people kind of show up in those moments and I think, you know, Michael and Tom and you can really, you kind of both showed up in in this way that I feel just, just so grateful and so appreciative.
And, um, yeah, it's, it's kind of very humbling for me to even like be on this podcast with you guys, because, um, yeah, there's, It's hard. I think I've always found sanctuary in nature and, you know, it's, it's, it's there in this way, um, without any judgment or without any kind of, um, you know, you don't, you just get to be and you just get to listen and you just get to observe and there's no expectation.
There's, there's just what is. And, um, with humans, you know, it gets a little more complicated. Um, through my own process of becoming a therapist and, you know, doing, doing everything by the book and doing everything right and getting the office and, um, you know, people from the outside. look in and they're like, Oh, it looks like, you know, you're doing great.
And, you know, the reality is, um, you leave the office just exhausted. And, you know, I've been through like my, my fourth chair, switching chairs, cause I thought it was the chair for my back pain and, um, all these realities that we're so conditioned in the Western society to believe, you know, it's, it's the stuff.
What's that? I said, it's the stuff that's causing. Yeah. Physical matter. It's, um, it's not generational. It's not, um, you know, we don't even talk about soul. And so I think the beautiful thing about nature and bringing you know, this Western culture and, and youth and, um, people that know there's something deeper than kind of this, this exterior image that we are always so conditioned to put up.
Um, it's like nature allows you to kind of, it's like this introduction to that deeper source. Um, and it's, and it's not judging and it's doesn't have expectation and it's got all the time in the world. You know, for you, um, which is, yeah, it's just really, I think time in itself is, It's hard to get that space and, and nature provides it.
Yeah. And so how, how can we, like, for those of our listeners, I know we, we have, um, you know, one of our, our regular community members lives in, um, Dubai and another, um, in New York and, um, And so, you know, other cities around the world, but like you don't, if we, you don't have, have that, and you really are missing the ocean and the trees.
And like, what are some ways that we can find connection to nature and feel that rooting and anchoring and resiliency when we don't have the opportunity to actually go out physically and immerse ourselves in it. I don't know, Michael knows this very well. Well, I'm not sure I do, but thanks, Andrew. I mean, yeah, what I was just thinking, you see, you know, your question sort of speaks to, um, how in my work, I've been, Working with people like that who just haven't had access to outer nature because they're in intensive care, um, or because they're, you know, in, in a hospice bed and, um, just without access to the, the outside, um, I'm lucky enough to work in a hospice here in town, still part time where people can actually open the doors and wheel their beds out onto the patio, out onto the Trees.
So, you know, some people have that, that blessing and that, that, but, um, you know, we, we are nature, um, and. Yeah, I think while I found, you know, consolation in, in, in spending time under the trees and spending time lying on the earth, um, I've also been interested in how I can help people who can't get out of the intensive care unit or out of their room or their hospice bed.
How can I help them to make that connection? And I think we can think about inner, inner nature connection as well as outer nature connection. And so I've, um, I've been interested in developing. meditation practices, um, as well as other things. I mean, for example, one thing that I've done with hospice patients is bringing in a bowl of, uh, a big wooden bowl that I have, but filling it with just this most beautiful, um, uh, earth, um, and bringing it in and just, Encouraging, inviting, and then encouraging someone just if they're interested just to kind of close your eyes and put your hands into the earth and, and just bring all your awareness into your fingertips and into the palms of your hands and just, you know, open the doors of your touch.
So I love that. That's such a great. That's so great, Michael, because we all could somewhere find some earth or some sand and just the science behind literally putting our hands into that. And the microbes that go into our bodies through that are so healing. And, you know, we're so instead we're using our antibacterial cleansers and the power instead of, you know, digging in and connecting.
I love that. Yeah. Sorry. I kind of interjected in my excitement. No, no, no. That's it. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's it really. And just that our imagination then, even if we don't have access to, to a bowl of earth or to, um, but although, you know, water, uh, Or, you know, sound earth. It's it's it's the imaginative ways of bringing that into our indoors But the other way is through our imagination and that's where i've kind of been interested in developing, um guided meditations that work very much with the imagination um And, um, and, and just to kind of just a little shout out just to say that I have some of those meditations available on my website and they're, they're free and they're so if anybody's interested just to listen to what I'm talking about those are there.
Yeah, we'll put that, um, in the show, show notes, um, for sure. So everyone can, can find where to find you and your work and yours too. Andrew, dad, did you want to add something? Well, just building on what Michael, you just shared, uh, brings to memory, uh, Many years ago, a friend from undergraduate work that I hadn't seen for, you know, 30 years or something was close to her deathbed, and she'd been an avid hiker and enjoyed, a person who enjoyed being in nature.
And her husband, who I also knew from graduate school, undergraduate school, called me in to try to help her. with her, her final time. And she was grieving that she was not able to travel in nature anymore. And I happen to have my, uh, drum with me, you know, and I mentioned to her, I said, well, you know, there's more to you than your physical body.
And there's a part of you, Michael, you're speaking about your imagination. There's a part of you, Um, that can travel. It's not limited to your physical body, and if you'd like, I can, uh, give you a steady drumbeat here to let your, your, your awareness attune with the, with the vibration of the drum, which can open a doorway in your imagination for, uh, the part of you that's more than your physical body to travel to wherever you want to go in nature, that you can do that with the drum.
And she never experienced that. And she thought that was, that's, that's an interesting idea. Um, I can't get out of my bed and great physical suffering. So what do I have to lose? So she closed her eyes and she said, yeah, let's go for it and started the drumbeat. And she just, uh, yeah. She came back from her experience of connecting with nature from her, from almost literally her deathbed with joy, with this big smile on her face and happiness.
And it's just a testimony to how we can learn how to use the mind. And your meditations, Michael, uh, helping to do exactly that in a way to help us transcend the physical body identification and suffering it may be going through to access this deeper part of ourselves that, that does transcend our physical being and access ourselves to the resources that we can experience even in our deathbed physical suffering to open our hearts and be, uh, Open our minds and hearts to the, to the presence of love, the presence of spirit, even as we're going through and through difficult times.
So, uh, and also just one other thought, uh, connecting with what you were talking about earlier, Michael, the one of the reasons I go on vision quest over for over 50 years now is to do precisely what you were speaking about in the old way of healing, to lie on mother earth's body. Thanks. And as I was taught to, uh, incubate a great dream, incubate a medicine dream that can bring you guidance and insight and power to be able to live your life and your integrity and authenticity and walk your heart path to completion.
So there's so many intertwinings of our lives and our experiences that have brought us, actually, I had an image in meditation a couple of days ago, you and I, and, uh, And, and Andrew and Kimberly and, and Rod that we, they've, that we've taken different, uh, paths and, and some similar paths up to the top of the mountain.
And we found ourselves, oh, look who's here, . And we found ourselves at the top of the mountain all seeing and understanding and valuing and working to try to integrate and, and share with others what we've learned from what we've seen, been gifted by grace to see and understand, uh, in our, and to share with others in a good way.
And hopefully we're doing that through this. Through this program that came out of Kimberly's Visioning.
Gosh, I feel I want to do this again with the three of you. There's just so much richness. Andrew, would you share, do you have access to that poem that you shared with me a few days ago? Do you have that with you? Yeah. Kimberly, could I just jump in? Yeah, please. Just really quick with a quote, uh, before we, and I'd love to, I'm looking forward to Andrew's poem, but, um, I wanted to, you know, cause I've been lucky enough to, to, to, to be on vision quest as well on a number of occasions and just lie on the earth and, um, And wait and open, um, and, um, and listen.
It's a quote that actually is from the American novelist Henry Miller. And it's when he, um, he visited Epidaurus, which is the kind of center, the birthplace of ancient healing. It's, it's, uh, it's, uh, It's the center of Escalipian healing of temple healing in ancient Greece. And he had a sort of an epiphany experience when he was there.
And he, he, he writes about this and he talks about peace and he's not talking about the cessation of hostilities. He's talking about that peace of heart that passeth all understanding. And he says, how do we get there? And he says, I know what the cure is. It's healing. to relinquish, to surrender, to let go so that our little hearts can beat in unison with the great heart of the world.
Oh my gosh. That's beautiful. Hmm. May it be so. Thank you. Yeah.
Yeah, Andrew's poem. Um, well, it's not my poem. I didn't write it.
But, uh, David Waggoner did. It's called Lost. Alright,
stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost. Whenever you are lost. is called here and you must treat it as powerful stranger you must ask permission to know it and be known the forest breathes listen it answers and have made this place around you if you leave it you may come back again saying here no two trees are the same to raven no two branches are the same to run If what a tree or bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost.
Stand still. The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you. And that's by David Wagoner. I love that. Thank you. The last part of it, to me, just feels so powerful. So I just want to repeat that. Um, of the forest. The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you. And, and that goes back to me.
I think of what, what some of our guests were sharing. And many of us, we don't have access to, as we said, physically go there. But I also think of just the, the network of the roots, right? How would they go out into the, the, the world wide world? What's it called? The wood wide web. Um, and so I just have this image of maybe we can't all actually lay on the earth.
Today, or any point in the next few weeks or months, but if we could just open our hearts and minds to that intention, telling the trees that we are here, that we're listening, that we're opening and, and we're, we're, we want them to find us and like what gifts might come to us by, by opening that invitation.
And thanking them for what they do for us. We wouldn't be here without the tree people and the work they do to create that transformation of carbon dioxide to oxygen. We wouldn't be here when the first, first, uh, plants came out, first beings came out of mother earth, came out of mother ocean on the, on the mother earth.
It was an in hospital environment and the work that the plants did and the trees did, uh, growing out of the plants transformed the whole energy field of the mother earth to where it is today. The flourishing of life and diversity that we experience today could, could happen. And which is of course threatened by our, our ignorance and arrogance and how we're behaving and the need to wake up and remember who we are, what we are and, and how we're all interconnected.
Yeah. When, when we were, um, thank you. When, when we were in England a few weeks ago, the gentleman that we were doing some work with, Giles Hutchins, he was talking about the, the plants and the trees feeling us. As we walk toward them like they know we're coming toward them before we. Even our, you know, I, I've been raised in a way that as I go into outer nature, I give thanks and thank the trees and the plants and the animals and the spirits of the place.
But it never, um, I don't know that I'd thought of it in that exact way that like they feel us coming. And so the more that we can come to them, whether it's, you know, through the, the cosmic rays, if you will, or physically going to them, um, with gratitude and opening up. Michael, would you, um, we just have a few minutes left here.
Would you, would you lead us? And, and, um, I know it's, it's not always the nicest thing to say in a short little meditation when you could lead us for hours of, of, um, something, but just if you could lead us in a couple of moments of, of dropping in, connecting to, to the, the, the web of trees and little slice of becoming forest.
Okay, I will. I'll try. And as you say, yeah, usually kind of, but I usually it's a little longer, but I'll try and do this in maybe three or four minutes. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay.
So just close your eyes and allow your awareness to drop down into your body
and allow your body to drop down into the earth,
into the sensations of firmness and solidity. Okay. And just sense into that contact, that sense of rootedness,
that sense of being held
for just a few moments. Allow yourself to rest in this sense of contact, of connection, of being held.
When you're ready, allow your awareness to rise up and fill the whole space of your body from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head, mindfully aware.
And as you're mindfully aware within your body. I invite you to notice wherever in your body you're most aware of the movement and sensations of breath. And
I invite you to notice, feel, everything about the rising breath, all the way through the rising breath.
To notice and feel everything about the falling breath. all the way through the falling breath,
and in between breaths, the felt sense of your body on the earth,
rising breath, falling breath, earth body.
And as your body continues to breathe,
I invite you to know that with the rising breath, You're receiving oxygen from the leaves, and the trees, and the forests around you.
To know that with the falling breath, you're releasing carbon dioxide to the leaves, and the trees, and the forest around you.
You're breathing in, Is leafs breathing out,
you're breathing out, leafs breathing in.
Our breath, our breathing, is not just ours. Our breath, our breathing, is a reciprocal exchange between the leaves of our lungs. the lungs of the leaves.
So for now, simply let go of words and thoughts and concepts and allow your awareness fall back into your body to alight once more on the gentle rise and fall of the body's breathing.
Body is breathing all by itself.
Heart is beating all by itself.
Simply allow yourself, allow your awareness to be carried. in this effortless reciprocal flow.
Something glorious happens when we bring our awareness to what already is.
Blessing breath with our awareness. We're saying yes
to the great mystery. at the heart of life.
And may all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings everywhere be free. May I become all that I need to become to best enable this to happen. for all our relations.
For all our relations. Thank you so much. That was so beautiful. That, that phrase, our breath is not just ours and that you're breathing out as leaves breathing in. And the reciprocity of that is such a beautiful thing. And we, um, we need to, close up here for the day with some space constraints and sharing, but any last words that you'd like to share, Dad?
Gratitude, Michael, Andrew, for great being with you. Thank you for what you bring through your work in the world and, and, uh, everybody listening, caring, enlighten, love that we are out into the world for the healing of the sacred who may it be so. Thank you. Andrew, any, any closing words that you want to add?
No, just deep gratitude. Yeah. Thank you so much, Michael. Echo that just deep gratitude. Just really, really beautiful to be here with, with each of you and with everyone who's connected. And, and if, if we, we would love, um, to see some photos of any of you with your hands in the earth or in the sand or, you know, the water.
If you, you have the inclination to share that and, um, just again, we'll put in the show notes, how to contact, um, follow, read, learn, connect with, uh, work with, um, Michael and Andrew, and, and I just want to. Invite everyone as we move out into the week because shamanic Sundays. We really started it to to give some principles that we can all carry into the week ahead and and so if we just move forward with the thought that our breath is Not just ours like that like tears me up thinking of that.
So Thank you. Thank you, Kimberly. All right. Bye. We'll see you all again soon. Take care. Bye. Thank you. Bye. Thanks again for joining us today. Make sure to check back regularly for more inspiration. And if you enjoyed this, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review on Apple podcasts telling us what you learned.
Also share it with a friend via text or email. Remember most of all, you are a sacred, worthy, luminous being. And we are so thrilled to share this regenerative journey with you.
