July 5

PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 5: “When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.” ― John O’Donohue

This quote reminds me of feeding deer one time in Colorado. I was so awestruck at the experience! I still remember it with great awe.

I was with one of my medicine teachers and learning how to walk in the woods with gentle steps on the Mother. We met so many animals that were not afraid of us, because we walked with mindfulness and gentleness and at the pace of Nature.

Those of you who know me are aware of the pace of my walking when I am walking in the world. It is usually quite fast. But I do not do this in Nature, because I learned how to walk mindfully and deliberately, giving each footstep its measurement and consideration.

Anyway, I had some blueberries and cherries with me on my hike in Colorado and fed them to a small pack of deer we encountered. They were so stunning! Deer medicine is all about gentleness…I could feel it coming from them…trust and sweetness. I have never forgotten. Right up there with the top ten of my favorite memories in this lifetime.

Nature is an ongoing practice of patience for me. She cannot be rushed or hurried; which is the lesson of life that we are given over and over. I am grateful for my love of Nature and the teachings she has given me.

When I live in the Nature of my heart, I am not in a hurry for anything. There is nothing but the pace of life to deal with. Our culture has shape-shifted so much of life into an endless game of waiting, for traffic, for our place in the line, for the next and the next and the next.

I do not need to participate in that dynamic. When I don’t, I am at peace, and can remember the feeling of feeding those deer. Of being present with them.

The greatest moments in our lives are not those when we gain something material, or get another degree, or achieve some monument to man and ego; but when we are totally present to a miracle of life, to the exact time when that miracle occurs.

Seldom do I create these opportunities for a miracle. I just need to be awake and alive at the exact moment it happens, along with centered presence of being and mind and heart. That is my only task; to bring my heart and presence to all that I encounter.

I have probably missed many opportunities to be present to a miracle. My ongoing prayer is to meet as many of them, in their moment, as I can. To be present to where I am and what is going on around me.
They are everywhere, all I need to do is let go of my impatience and sit still with what IS…the challenge is on!