Fire, Lightning, Rain Shift Perspective

“In truth, it matters less what we do in practice than how we do it and why we do it. The same posture, the same sequence, the same meditation with a different intention takes on an entirely new meaning and will have entirely different outcomes.” “In truth, it matters less what we do in practice than how we do it and why we do it. The same posture, the same sequence, the same meditation with a different intention takes on an entirely new meaning and will have entirely different outcomes.” Donna Farhi

Photo by Martin Liebermann

A number of years ago I was at a cross road.  One of those places where you can see the choices, you can follow the choices to where they lead and you still have no indication which path to take.  Each one a passion, each one full of promise and possibility, and each one having its trials and set backs.  So how do you choose?

I asked a teacher how to choose?  Not looking for an answer of which path to take, but rather how to arrive at the decision myself.  I will never forget the answer.  "If you want to heal the warrior within, where do you begin?  Do you begin in the east of beginnings?  Or the southeast with the healer?  Or the northwest with the teacher?  Or do you begin in the chaos of the northeast where the warrior sits?"  At first the answer seemed more confusing than revealing.  I was told to go to the east and lay down to look upward to see things from a different perspective.  Each step I was told to either to climb a tree to look down or lay upon the earth to look up simply to see things from a different perspective.


I find myself once more at one of those crossroads.  The paths which reveal possibilities endless.  The lesson from so long ago "flooding" back in.  "The same posture, the same sequence, the same meditation with a different intention takes on an entirely new meaning ..."  The intention this weekend was to spend time in ceremony.  Both personal and a larger healing ceremony for healing to honor the Summer Solstice.  The difference this weekend was the weather.  In years past I would have shifted the fire to a small one on the patio if there was a storm approaching.  Remembering the lesson, I made the intention to have my larger ceremony rain or shine.

We started the fire early so that by sunset it was a hot fire that may with stand the rains.  As the afternoon wore on, "Debby" our tropical storm began to show up and make her self present in every way.  Time shifted by the fire as there was no way to tell by the skies when it was dusk.  The fire roared even as the rains came down.  The clouds like a time lapse video as the winds carried them quickly across the skies.  I carried on.  Mother Earth and Grandfather Skies honored, prayers sent, bundles added to the fire, and songs lifted in celebration.


(I am sure that my neighbors now believe I am certifiable as this crazy lady danced and sang around a bonfire during a tropical storm.)


As the fire proceeded, the storm worsened.  The thunder and lightning began.  The skies alight.  It was one of the most beautiful ceremonies to see the elements in all their glory come together for a moment in time.  The winds.  The rains.  The fire.  The dirt beneath my toes.  I became lost in the experience.  


The water from the rain now at my ankles as the moat overflowed, but still the flames of the fire spoke.  So I remained to listen.  And then ...


In a single moment, all the elements came together within to merge and unite.  In a single breath all was one.  My perspective shifted.  Paths fell away to show a single path.  The world stopped. And I am forever changed.


The rain was coming down hard and thunder cracked above when a single strand of lightning came down and kissed the earth.  The electricity surged through the ground and up into my toes that were buried in Mother Earth.  Vibrations fluttering all the way down into my finger tips as the flames danced.  Not an experience I can easily put into words.

I also decided once I returned to this reality, that standing in a pool of water in the middle of a field during a tropical storm with lightning was not the most sane idea.  Shortly after returning inside we lost power and I was left in silence to reflect upon the visions and experience.  Another gift from the Great Spirit.

A simple shift in perspective can reveal so much ...