It’s interesting if you ask me, the way it all works. I have never listened as closely to myself as I do now. Never followed or even allowed my own pace as I do now, never trusted my intuition and my gut feeling as much as I do now and never before has it All made as much sense as it does now. In the first part of What Mama Earth Showed Me I ended with the words ‘I am discovering what all of this is leading me to. Throughout the process I am simply going with the Flow. Following the example of the river. Uncovering, learning, honoring, dancing, celebrating and creating while doing so.’
What has become clear to me is that the disconnection started my journey. I didn’t know where to find my connection with myself so I went looking for it in other people, other countries, different practices and different costumes. Why, I or maybe a lot of us do not look closer to home is a question I am still finding the answer to. Maybe it is because the grass always seems to be greener somewhere else, or maybe it´s because ‘other’ and ‘different’ sounds more exciting to the searching heart. The obvious answer, to look right in front of you, might almost be too obvious to be true. But a journey is never lost. Other and different turns bring new insights, new lessons, new eye openers and for that I am always so immensely grateful. No time is ever lost. I believe you always arrive somewhere when you are meant to be there. Otherwise, you might not even see, hear, smell, taste, feel or sense what you do in that moment when you do.
Quite some years ago it All started with Mother Earth. It all started with my interest in her and in the cultures, religions even, that celebrate and honor her. Such things I wasn’t going to find here, I was certain. Those practices belonged to far away lands and to cultures that us Europeans many years ago tried their hardest to put an end to. When I arrived home I felt disgusted by our history. Didn’t they see the beauty surrounding us? How could you not celebrate and honor that?
And then it hit me hard. Wasn’t I doing the same? I also could not see the beauty surrounding me. I realized my connection to this natural body of land, did not exist. You can try to blame factors outside of yourself but that never works. You always end up pointing the finger at yourself. I, myself was responsible for the disconnection. For the lack of knowledge of what surrounds me. Of the natural world that holds me, which lets me breathe. And that’s where the journey continued.
The past two years have been exciting, eye opening, scary, challenging and uplifting. It All slowly started to bring me back to myself. To the very core of my being. I slowly started to allow myself to follow my own pace. Through this practice many things were born, in the space of allowance and acceptance. The longing for the knowledge of Ancient Wisdom and Costumes of these natural body of lands I live upon; of my home land, blazed like a dancing, excited and hungry fire. So I searched, read, walked, photographed, drew and painted, wrote and looked for information which holds the Ancient Wisdom of this land. I looked into native Flora and Fauna, into archaeological finds, ancient stories and celebrations… In meditation I focused on rebuilding the connection with the part of Mama Earth that wraps around us here and day by day it grows stronger. My search is nowhere near being over. I am still learning as I go and above all the question that comes to me is why do I find all of this so important?
Why do I find the connection to Mother Earth so important? Why do I believe we should celebrate and honor her? Why do I want to bring this damaged connection to the forefront? Why do I believe this Ancient Wisdom is of such high value and importance for everyone? I am still looking for the answers to these questions that truly ring a bell in my purest form of my being. So for now I let them be questions and dance along to my own pace. Which quite profoundly tells me to simply draw and paint and to hit the repeat button over and over again for now.
IJsselvrouw 