Awakened Living: Women Are Like Trees

Dear Lovely Friends,

For the past two years, I have been writing a monthly column for Michigan Woman's Forum entitled "Pockets of Peace." It has been a joy to create a "peace practice" each month for women to explore their inner realms and uncover a place of ever-present inner calm.

This month I created a practice that invites you to see yourself like a tree—someone who is so solid and grounded that your peace will be virtually unshakable no matter what is happening in your life or the world at large. I invite you to read this newest "Pocket of Peace: Rootedness - An Antidote to Distress" ...

     Women are like trees, wrote Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés in her landmark book, Women Who Run With the Wolves. Her direct remark was this: “The tree is considered immortal, for its seeds will live on, its root system shelters and revivifies, it is home to an entire food chain of life. Like a woman, a tree also has its seasons and its stages of growth: it has its winter, it has its spring.”*
     Have you ever felt like a tree? One moment a sturdy shelter, a thing of glory, then in the next, a victim of buffeting winds, tattered by the storms of life? Leaves (your efforts) wildly tossed. Branches (your emotions) split open from stress? Trunk (your heart) struck by lightning and ruptured to the core? I know I have.
     And, yet, I have also felt the towering strength of a tree within me; the solidity that is ever-present if I have a mind to notice it and to call upon it. In fact, when I think of a tree, or imagine myself to actually be a tree, I immediately feel more peaceful and calm, at ease with what life offers me. I sense we can all feel this way, taking nature’s lead by embracing a tree’s fortitude as our own.

Read the rest here ...

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I've posted my Fall Calendar of Events so I invite you to take a look.

We'll be gathering for Autumn Equinox in September, retreating with Metta (loving-kindness) practice in October, and celebrating the holiness of home in November. It feels like the most exciting season to me—one of color and soul and community coming together. Please join me!

Click here to learn more.

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My recent Tele-Class, "Celebrating Ourselves, Even in Difficult Times" is now available on podcast for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!