The co-existence of high tech with high consciousness with unity with Nature is something to behold, where we can witness it done well. Certain people seem to be here on the planet to assist with that very complicated process. Patrick is a man I met while sailing in Tahiti and I sensed in him a very unusual being who was here in service to what the planet is up to as she shifts and purifies herself and lightens her load.
 
I could tell you more about Patrick, and it would be a good telling, but I rather leave it with letting this picture speak for itself. You cannot even see his face so, consider him a stand in for many who are here in service to bring different worlds and orientationsi together in harmony, eventually.
 
Getting there, that is a whole other thing. Thank you Patrick, for your help, and for dancing with the fire in such brotherhood, fire being the purifier that it is.

Touch. How we need it. When I say "we", I mean all sentient beings. You can tell someone you love them, and look them in the eye and show it, but there is just something about touch that allows so much bypassing of the mind and goes straight to the heart of what is needed as well as desired.

There is rampant evidence in all the animal kingdoms of the love of touch as an expression of bonding, but dolphins carry it to a whole other level. I have spent hours watching them under water as well as on top of the water, and over and over I am struck by how much they love physical contact.

Strangely enough, many humans are walking around starving for touch. How can this be, you may ask. How hard can it be to 'reach out and touch someone.' Well, in our culture, touch is charged with so many different meanings that it has long since become a very complicated form of communication, and even suspect in many instances. More's the pity, for without it, we are operating at a much lesser level of health and well being. One reason so many people love their pets so much as this is one area where we don't have to monitor our motives in wanting contact. There are some animals that will not allow contact having to do with trauma they have suffered, bu mostly, animals seem to have the philsophy, the more touch, the better.

It is amazing how many problems  automatically lose their grip on us when we are held. Our head can clear and an approach to dealing with things problematical suddenly does not seem remote at all.

So yes, love each other from the heart, but also, can we just make touch safe again. We so need it, and always will.

You cannot visit ancient sites and not hear the past speaking to the present. Granted, it is a different kind of hearing for it resides mostly in the bones which, of all body parts, resonate the most profoundly with truth, especially with timeless truth.

I return to Peru and high in the Andes Mountains over and over because it makes my bones speak to me and tell me things that apply to time present. Looking at this image of these steps, my bones' tongue loosens. Here. I will let you listen in.

My bones -  Do you wonder that everyone soars when they come to this place? And why is that? It is profoundly beautiful, yes, but there is more to it. The world now is hungry for a kind of music that sings in these stones. It is the music of knowing what it means to feel our Divinity in the midst of our human existence.

To know that all earthly struggles are as nothing compared to the privilege of being able to touch in to our Divine inheritance while we are in a physical body on this planet, these stones high in the Andes Mountains will remind you. Hunger, war, oppression of whole peoples as played out throughout human history (and still being played out) cannot hold a candle to what these wise mountains ('apus') in Peru know about how lucky we are to be alive in a body.

Machu Picchu is but one of many places in these mountains where those who came before lived in a state of consciousness that we are trying to re-claim, and indeed are re-claiming in this powerful year of 2013. These forces moving on the face of the earth now are so strong that, to bring the past home again, we do not even have to go to the land where the stones talk to our bones. Seeing images is sufficient to give us the jolt of remembrance.

There is a difference though. Something about putting our feet where so many before us stepped, who carried the Light we are now lookinig to carry, causes a deep unassailable gratitude to flood in. We owe them much, both the people who lived back then and carried the Light, and the stones of Gaia herself. It would be so much harder to make the leaps we are now making, were it not for what got laid down for us by the very ones who walked the stones in this picture. Something to ponder when 'the world is too much with us' during our current challenges.

.

When you love them into being.

 When you quit arguing for why they cannot happen.

When you vividly imagine a world in which they exist.

 When you get out of the way and just think about something else while manifesting is happening.

When you let yourself off your personal hook of feeling you don't deserve it.
 
When you let yourself off your cultural and societal hook of feeling you don't deserve it.

 When you quit falling for false propoganda that says there are all these conditions that must be met before you can have the great good fortune of manifesting what you truly desire (conditions that in truth have nothing to do with such manifesting and usually get in the way).

When you accept that your Higher Self knows better than your mind what is good timing, and what you need to do or be to prepare to receive.

When you develop the habit of being happy with the great good that is already yours.

When you  laugh with a light heart if others scoff  leaving them wondering what is deeply wrong with you, and that is fine with you for them to think that.

 I know you already know all this, but just in case you forgot something crucial . . . .

This picture was taken from a night time experience in the open ocean with dolphins in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, of all places. It was very dark and moonless so my vision was  hampered, but along with that diminished sight came an intensification of my other senses, including those beyond the five!
 
Strangely, I felt much more able to connect with the dolphins with limited vision. It was like being on the other side of the looking glass. I could FEEL their consciousness, and it felt very mutual. I remember much body contact with the dolphins, and there was sort of an other worldly feel to the whole experience. My consciousness shifted dramatically without the usual visual cues I am used to having to reign me in.

Here on Tybee Island, when I have kayaked at night around dolphins, I have noticed the same phenomenon. Somehow, communication cross species is enhanced by less vision. I do not totally understand  how this is so but that is my experience.

In the middle of the open ocean, on a dark moonless night, in the midst of about five dolphins who were as curious about me as I was about them, I felt absolutely zero fear. I think this is what dolphins do for humans. They shift us away from the fear levels we are used to dwelling within to one degree or another, and we get to discover what life is like without that vibration. That is a major teaching/training, and they are in service to help us get the lesson, I am convinced.

On this particular occasion, not only was I happy and comfortable with the dolphins in the big ocean in the dark with no land in sight, I also strongly felt something about to happen, if I stayed with them, like they were taking me to a certain destination. But alas, I was far from the boat, and others on the boat were alarmed and calling me back, so I turned to swim back, with the dolphins accompanying me all the way back to the vessel bobbing in the middle of nowhere. It was with regret that I climbed back on the boat, but I felt it was the right thing to do. 

I will wonder, for the rest of my life, what would have happened if I had just swum away with those dolphins.

Ever since Peter Tompkins' The Secret Lives of Plants came out, the whistle was blown and it became  a fact that plants have consciousness. Of course, shamen have known this forever, being on very intimate terms with the hightly evolved and highly knowledgable plant kingdom.

My Saturday night cedar fire burning friend here on Tybee and I have had our own indoctrination. Someone gave her a Datura plant about which we both knew little to nothing. When the first bloom happened, it was a momentous occasion.
 
The scent the Datura plant put out at night, under the moon, and the size of the blossom were awe inspiring. I remember putting my face into the blossom and deeply inhaling. I also remember taking some of the plant home to see if I could get it to root which means I touched the juice in the stem. Then it began.
 
I remember sleeping and having amazing dreams and being unable to wake up. I felt drugged. The next day, likewise, I could not stop sleeping and again, having these vivid dreams. Finally, after 24 hours, the effect wore off. In the mean time, I went online and researched this plant. Come to find out, it has been considered by shamen to be a powerful teacher and transformer and is not to be toyed with. I gained a great deal of respect. But I also fell in love. After that initial experience, my friend and I both were able to 'hear' the plant's consciousness. To this day, out of nowhere I will smell that indescribable scent and know that consciousness is with me
 
Of course I was not imbibing the plant, merely touching it and breathing in its aroma, but that was sufficient to knock me back on my heels. That has never happened again even though I have smelled and touched the plant many times. That was just some kind of opening that took place.

My guess is that all plants are available to be communicated with. Dr. Bach, who originated flower essence remedies got his information directly from the flowering plants. It is speculated that the way shamen discovered which two plants had to be combined to create the teachings of Ayahuasca came directly from the plants. The odds of that combination being discovered randomly are minimal to none. Who knows how many experiences of humankind discovering what is edible and what is poisonous to eat  came from the plants themselves. Back in the old days, when humans had not become as scientifically oriented, we had another power - the ability to attune to Nature in a very intimate way. 

You never know. It may be time to reclaim that capacity. I would go so far as to say it IS time to reclaim all of our forgotten connections with the natural world, and be the better for it. We can have the best of ALL of our brain's capacities now. This is where evolution has been bringing us all along.

In the meantime, I humbly listen to the lessons from Datura. She is wise, she is.

Cracking the code of Nature speaking to us provides one of the greatest joys of living, at least in my world. I discovered several years back that, as one example, dolphins seem to be wanting to reward my intense interest in them by speaking to me in bubbles. It took me a while to figure this out since they blow bubbles all the time anyhow. How could I tell there was something deliberate going on?

Easy. They would repeatedly come up and look at me as if to say," did you get that?"

Then I started studying the different kinds of bubbles they would blow before surfacing and asking me "did you get that?". I wrote about that investigation in my book entitled The Chronicles of the Savannah River Dolphins (see my website about this book). But then . . . this other discovery occurred. When the bubbles would pop right next to me, I COULD FEEL THE ENERGY HELD IN THE BUBBLE THAT CAME FROM THE AIR BEING INSIDE THE DOLPHIN! I would feel a wave of euphoria. It was only after I noticed this a number of times that I connected the dots. I also feel that wave when a dolphin exhales on me.

These discoveries are what I live for. I know there is much more to come to help elucidate the human/dolphin connection. Being able to explore in the ocean with these amazing beings is about as good as it gets. On a daily basis for half the year during the time when the dolphins are in my' backyard', I find myself  'knocking on heaven's door.' There are always new breakthroughs on this scavenger hunt and I promise you I will share what I find as soon as I find it. Mama Earth wants us to remember these old connections, and make them new again. This "New Earth" since Dec.21,2012 is the perfect birthing ground for such breakthroughs.

Masters of the nap. That is what cats are. They nap often and well and they live for a long time.

Being a master of napping is not just a matter of being able to sleep for short periods here and there during the day. It is the QUALITY of their napping that is enviable. They go deep. They drop all cares and their bodies and psyches get a complete break.

Interestingly, a cat can go from deep sleep to instantaneous hyper alertness in a nano second. Now that is a trick. For humans, frequently you have the light sleepers that can wake up quickly, and the deep sleepers who have to take their time in surfacing from their sleepy depths.

Some people say they cannot nap, and if they try, they sleep too long and feel worse afterwards. So naps appear not to be an equal opportunity employer. I for one thrive on short bursts of sleep here and there, as needed. I always feel I could leap from tall buildings after 10 - 20 minutes of timing out. It has always been thus for me and, I know we are all different.

I do believe for those that can and do nap, your body and spirit benefit thereby and just that ongoing habit of rejuvenation I suspect adds years to your life. Add to that a strong sense of your purpose (why you are here in the first place) and a feeling of joy that you participate in easily and frequently and, we are all going to live to be as old as Methusla, whoever he was.

Whatever sets you apart, we need you to honor it. It is no accident, whatever our 'differentness' is. Within it lies tremendous opportunity. When I think of all the years I spent not knowing that what set me apart was what was best about me (especially as a teenager who is so driven by need to be accepted), it makes me really want to underscore this message.

It is the age old story of the hawk brought up by chickens that does not know how to honor its hawkness, and can't, really, until he or she figures out that they are a  hawk. Whatever you need to do to explore more deeply into the truth of your own nature, do so.

I also want to add that for all of us, even at our most un-self-knowing of times in our life, there have ALWAYS been those in our circle who DID see us and recognize us for who we essentially are. Oftentimes, we do not notice them, but in retrospect, they are always there, adding their blessing. They may be a teacher, a neighbor or even an animal, but they help keep us alive long enough to figure ourselves out.

So now that you are "all growed up" and you know who you are, thank you so much for what you bring forward that is much needed that was not recognized by you and others in your sphere when you were young.

You leap. That's what. When you feel the spirit and become ignited with sudden and intense awareness of who you are and what you are here for, I defy you to hold still.
 
There is a time and a place to be in the still center of your being but in that electrical moment of feeling such a knowing that you MUST, you simply must follow a particular path with all the passion of a wildly beating heart, then by all means, do so.
 
This is not a case of just any old inspiration we are talking about  A powerful quickening is about something you were born for . .  this very thing, whatever it is. However wild and wooly and alien from what your friends and family know and think and believe, this is your life force being guided by something larger than your own thoughts of what you might think is appropriate for one such as yourself.

If you drop the ball, and let the fire of your creative impetus burn out and pass without doing much with it, it will return. What is yours will simply refuse to leave you alone so, when you are taken over by what I call a great inner quickening, congratulations. You are at least acknowledging truth and standing in the center of a very pivotal spot.  Life will support you if you take this great surge of enthusiasm and do what you can with it given where you are in your development. Yes, you will have to ground this energy, and give it structure and commitment and a vision to follow, but the source of the quickening will never abandon you.
 
Of this I am sure - not only is your quickening about something you need to do and express to feel happy and fulfilled, it is about something the world very much needs. So, be like this dolphin and use the energy to hurtle yourself into what is above you, waiting to be actualized. 

For everything, there is a season, and when you are quickened, it is time to leap.