LET MOTHER NATURE TAKE CARE OF IT

Article written by Sarah Diedrick

“A relationship, or even a single conversation, with a tree, butterfly, cloud, heron, moose, or trout is going to fire up dimensions of your wildness, of your soul, that might not have been unleashed through association with even the most exotic human” – Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft

I had been home sick for almost four days when I decided a strong dose of nature would do me good. I wandered down to the lake and sat on a bench right on the edge of the water. I pulled my goddess oracle cards with the intention of bringing clarity to a sticky situation I have been steeped in for a few months. I pulled four goddesses: Blodeuwedd for betrayal, Lady of Beasts for relationship, Lakshmi for abundance and Amaterasu for beauty.

I don’t think the goddess could have been more on point. When I saw all the goddesses—their beauty and their meaning–staring back at me, something started to stir inside of me. I burst out into tears, weeping on the bench as I placed my hands over the cards. Then I turned toward the frozen lake and the robust mountains lining its far edges. I cried out to Mother Nature and started to speak to her. I said all the things I had kept inside of me all these months. I let out my shame and guilt. I faced exactly what had been sitting in front of me all along. I expressed myself—raw and real—letting words spill from me, words I had no idea were bubbling below my surface.

I was having an intimate conversation with nature. When I had nothing left to say, I stared out at her with teary eyes like I was staring into the eyes of a person and waiting for their response. She didn’t speak back. Instead, she did something much more powerful and healing than that. She simply offered me the space, the stillness and the silence to clearly see the truth of the situation, to speak it and to finally release it.

When I teach yoga I often say to my students, “Let the earth take it for you.” Mother Earth has a way of absorbing our wounds and recycling them into seeds of potential and incredible growth. I came home after that conversation and felt lighter. Something inside me had shifted. I was cleansed. All those thousands of little channels, those rivers, running through my deepest layers were no longer blocked. They flowed.

Speaking to nature, uninhibited, is incredibly healing. When we commune with Mother Earth, an exchange of energy happens. She lovingly accepts our truths, our untended wounds and our celebrations because she knows that all of it is valuable. All of it. She honors the entirety of our experience. And in ways—seen or unseen, felt or unfelt—she gives us back the gift of deeper connection. She allows us space to shed layers, debris and excess information so we can sort out the truth of the matter and come in closer contact with our highest truth. She speaks to our inner wise woman, to the voice of deep and ancient knowing. She is that voice.

Let the Earth take it for you. Be in constant conversation with her. Let her absorb your wounds. Let her celebrate you. Let her hold you in your laughter and your tears. Let her soften you in your pain so you can digest all the flavors of your experience. And always remember to listen back, to honor and give gratitude for her exquisitely healing powers. She knows you at your core. She is blended into all of your divine feminine qualities. The more we communicate with her, the more we can remember and illuminate those qualities.