Caring for the Sacred

How do we care for the sacred in life? Many years ago, when I was experiencing certain difficulties, I had a dream. In the dream, a male singer tells me, “I hear that you are not in love with life. You have only one life, you know. You need to love life. Even the mistakes. All of it.” And this created a huge shift in my consciousness.

My dreams have always guided me with their wisdom, showing me where to place my attention. Like a light rising up from the depths of an inner knowing, illuminating a quality I need to live.

More and more, I am shown the importance of gratitude. To live with gratitude.

One day in the shelter circle for women experiencing homelessness, something happened. One of the women, with long hair flowing down her back, had been quietly sitting for the entire hour, listening carefully to what was shared by the others. And then, she spoke up. There were just a few minutes left of our meeting. She said:

I am Native American. I went to a sweat lodge last night. I am grateful. Women are so powerful. I pray for the women at the shelter, that they can be grateful. We have this shelter here. There’s nothing like this up north. That’s why they come here. In a few days I’m going to a ceremony in South Dakota for native women. We pray for all women.

When she was done speaking, the energy in the room felt softer, vulnerable. We finished with a few minutes of silence, and then the women open-heartedly thanked one another, thanked the circle. And this created a sense of wonder that nourished the women. 

I see this over and over again—that the sacred comes alive through our attention. And in this way, I understand how our awareness, our prayers,  interacts with and nourishes something deep inside of life. 

Years later I had another dream that echoes this way of being. In this dream I find a poem that had been left on my bed. The poem begins: “I am calling, calling to the rivers and the hollows, to the places that have forgotten they are sacred.”

This is why it was so essential, many years ago, that I open my heart to life. Life is waiting for us to give back our true strength so that our feet may touch the earth again. It is calling us to remember, so we may know that our deep remembrance with each step, is to care for the sacredness of life. 

Photo with permission of Colette O'Neill  http://bealtainecottage.com