Ripening
It’s been just about two weeks since my return from Molokai. Things that I experienced there have been ripening inside me. The land holds you. I felt as if I was being pulled down into it. My time there was rich and fertile, salty and soft.
Many of you who followed along with me during this time discovered what it is to belong to the land where you are. Each land has its own power. I’ve wondered what you discovered about your land, both body and place.
We are a land unto ourselves. Our bodies are graced with hills and valleys, sweet water and stars in our eyes.
On Molokai, I saw double rainbows, watched shooting stars, listened to the birdsong, and walked on the land.
I sat with really lovely, beautiful women, and bathed in open-air tubs.
I felt the softness of the ocean water, water that touched and caressed me in ways my body has longed for.
I ate the most divine food straight out of a garden so filled with love that it radiated through the bell-graced gates.
I stood in the swirl of wind and saltwater where Maui, Lanai, and Molokai meet. Here, I felt energy so strong that I felt fully alive, fully pulsing. I felt a joy of connecting, a joy of opening to the wild forces that are bountiful in a place such as Hawaii.
I felt loved. Land and water and sunshine can do that. Place has power. It has character. It is love.
And in all these things…
Something deep awakened and stirred within me…the wildness of my own soul.
I haven’t quite known how to write about my time on Molokai. Yes, I shared my day-to-day with you. And, other more personal things that occurred have continued to stir deep within the cells of this body and soul.
It is good to wait for the ripening before we speak, write or share about something that has not yet worked its way to fruition.
As I felt words stirring and the desire to write, I was listening to this song, Where Soul Meets Body by Catie Curtis. It’s one of the songs on one of the playlists from the Awaken the Wild eCourse.
As I listened to the lyrics, I realized they were telling the story of my experience of opening to this wild place where soul meets body of self and earth, this place where I came to know the land of my body and the land of the earth as one.
“I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me and
Bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel
Feel what its like to be new…”
I feel new. I feel reborn. I let the sun wrap its arms around me.
“So brown eyes I’ll hold you near.”
I saw, and now see, the brown eyes of this body in the mirror, again, anew each day as if for the first time.
“So brown eyes I’ll hold you near
Cause you’re the only sound I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through this atmosphere.”
Like beautiful globes of fruit, we ripen as we live. We are filled with juice so sweet and love so deep. Coming to know oneself anew is learning to listen to the sound of your own voice, the beat of your  heart, the longing in your belly, the calling of your own soul…the melody that only you are singing.
This is the divine spark within you that sings the song you are here to sing.
“…if the silence takes you,
Then I hope it takes me too.”
This relationship within, between lover and beloved, is the virgin reborn, a woman coming to know herself unto herself. Standing on her own, a whole being, she can truly be in relationship with a world longing to love her.
“I do believe its true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So brown eyes I’ll hold you near
Cause you’re the only sound I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through this atmosphere“
And, even though we walk our own paths and have miles to go, we can meet in this place. If the silence takes you, I long to have it take me, too. I can hold you. Here we stand together, whole women, each of us unto ourselves, learning to be wholly and holy real with each other. We’re discovering this together.
And, in this discovery, we also learn how to be wholly and holy real with men, in whatever way we find ourselves in relationship with them.
Whole beings knowing, honoring and loving whole beings.
And, You?
What’s the melody softly soaring through the atmosphere of your soul? Quiet the inner voices that fear you hearing the song you are here to sing, and take some time to listen. ‘Cause I want to hear you sing it.
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I couldn’t find a great version of Catie singing this song, and even though this is a Death Cab for Cuties song, I love her version. And, if you want to hear the audio, please sign up for Awaken the Wild. It’s my treat. Women and men have loved, and are loving, this eCourse. I hope you will and do.
