Joy of Aliveness
One of the most important things I did recently was make birthday cake.
It was for a 16 year old who is like a nephew. His father had died four days before.
Birthday cakes are holy to me, especially when circumstances are very sad.
The glowing candles affirm for me that the fire of life still burns. It’s been an important time for me to remember the joy of aliveness, even when life includes catastrophe.
When talking with this boy’s grandmother about her son, so often we return to her grief about a time in his life when he lost his ease and joy in life. That loss of joy was the beginning of two decades of struggle.
I’ve had my own quest to figure out how to rejoice in aliveness when life can seem so horribly untrustworthy. That despair was spiritually entwined with my major illness nearly two decades ago.
While it’s a bit of a miracle that I survived the whole thing, to me the more precious miracle is that I also learned to trust life – to rejoice in life – along the way.
I’m passionate about aligning myself with the greater intelligence of life.
Living in alignment with the seasons
Learning how to balance rest and activity
Working with the creative cycles of beginnings, endings, and endless transformation
These things are important to me because they make life so much easier. They remind me there is a greater pattern to life than our human foibles and cruelties.
Every season has something to teach us about how to live well.
If you want to live a more aligned life or feel more joy in aliveness, learning from the seasons is a great place to start.
That’s why the seasons are the organizing principle for the Grandmothers’ Garden circle. This class has five seasonal topics:
Finding your place in a linage of ancestors (early fall)
Relating to the dark (late fall)
Purifying your energy and dreaming (winter)
Healing with the land (spring)
Healing with the body (summer)
You will gain tools to integrate body, spirit, ancestors, and land all together with the seasons – giving you a comprehensive foundation to live your most meaningful life.
Regardless of circumstances, may you live with joy!
Emily
p.s. Space is limited and spots are filling quickly, claim your spot in the healing refuge of Grandmothers’ Garden today.
