08/31/2020
A newsletter addressing our relationship with the natural world, dispelling the illusion of separation and creating deeper relationships with All Life.
What Is Alive In Your Heart!
Our lives are often led by our automatic thinking. The mind just thinks in response, but more often thinks in REACTION to life. When we drop down into our body’s sensations and breath we will know intuitively if these random thoughts make us feel more alive or not..Make us feel more relaxed or not...Makes us feel that something is true in us or not... Or makes us feel more connected to self and others or not...And simply again, makes us feel more alive! So what is Alive in Your Heart!
What Is Alive in Your Heart?
What brings deep connection to you and dissolves the illusion of separation?
What inspires you to strive for deeper relationships with others and the natural world?
What wonder did you have as a child and want to rekindle?
What makes you feel alive?
Keep asking yourself questions like the ones listed above or ones that inspire a deeper connection. Make room for the questions and don't worry about the answers. Just know when you hold questions and feel into what resonates with you on an energetically and sensory physical level, that you will know your truth and the wisdom of the questions you hold will come through you.
Blessings to Your Path. Light and Love to Your Journey!
by Michael Denmeade on July 21st
I am you and you are me!
I was driving with some dear ones in the car to Lake Wappapello State Park. We stopped at a farmer's fruit and veggie stand to get some produce.
It was parked next to a man selling flags that espoused fear and racism by the insignia's, words and pictures. I was beginning to feel upset and angry. Then a truck pulled up with two men in fatigues with a confederate flag and racist bumper stickers.
Now I was outraged and angry. It took everything and my beloved to stop me from confronting them.
Then I realized after a moment of calming myself down. That these my brothers were operating from a different consciousness than me.
And I truly believe WE ARE ALL a part of the web of life. I softened my heart with compassion for myself then for my brothers.
There is an old saying, "a loving person sees a loving world, an angry person sees an angry world. Everyone you meet is your mirror."
“I am you and you are me”, I thought to myself of my dear brothers in fatigues and selling flags of fear and hate. I cannot love or hate something in someone else that I don't love or hate in me.
So I looked deep at my own toxic male patriarchal tendencies with loving kindness. Then I cried to release my grief for holding such anger toward my two brothers.
I am you and you are me! By Michael Denmeade
Presencing the Profane as Spiritual Practice
by Carolyn Griffeth on July 29, 2020
Most mornings Michael and I get on our bikes first thing to awaken our bodies to the new day. Usually, we head-out in different directions, I take the a shady and not-so-litter-filled loop around my neighborhood, he heads the opposite way to honor the great elder power we call Mississippi. Today I spontaneously decided to go along saying, “Show me your sacred space.”
I followed Michael from our home in Old North down Broadway, a corridor of abandoned buildings and industrial services that line the broken-glass-clad road. We turn left on Biddle and then take a steep road downward which has us zig zagging thru gravel, potholes, and occasional barricades. Finally, we find our escape via a casino parking lot and, at last, we are at the riverfront.
Following Michael’s lead, I dismount to greet the sacred waters. Walking over rows of plastic bottles, styrofoam, glass, junk, and occasional driftwood, we arrive at Mississippi’s shores. Michael gets down low making an offering of to***co and cedar along with prayers to all the beings, especially “the swimmers, the waters, and the winged ones, and the first nations people.” He asks forgiveness for the way we have polluted and desecrated this sacred space. I follow suit but find little words …
Next Michael initiates the second half of the ritual: He finds in the vast refuse a five-gallon bucket and begins to picking-up garbage. I do not. Instead, I sit down on a piece of driftwood and watch him. I have come to Michael’s church, but I’m not sure how to participate in it. Much is up for me:
“Why pick-up garbage?” I ask. It would take 200 trash bags to clean up just this area!
“Why visit such a polluted place?” This is why I mostly avoid the riverfront.
“Shouldn’t spiritual practices, especially first thing in the morning, be uplifting and filled with beauty?
I feel impatient and a bit cheated as I watch Michael’s sad ritual which includes walking to a far-off garbage can. “I’m ready to go.” I say, “Can we find a better road home?”
Biking north we immediately encounter an encampment of unhoused people who are just stirring in the light of morning. My gaze falls on a man in a wheel chair. “Really?” Finding the road blocked we turn around and pass the encampment again greeting whoever we can.
Next, we bike up a gravely and potholed road towards downtown. But I need to stop.
“What the ___________!” continued...
Looking over the river and the encampment I can’t help but cry and in crying I feel a child-like heart noticing how the world is so out of alignment with what I know is true. Why have we chosen this dream of reality in which people are discarded and sacred Beings like Mississippi strewn with garbage and polluted with toxic waste?
Thank you, Michael for taking me to witness all these things first thing on a Sunday morning!
Arriving home, I don’t say to Michael that I am happy I went with him. I am not happy, I am deeply disturbed. Yet I am grateful to feel my grief and outrage, because it awakens my caring. My grief feels like dormant love in me stirring…re-awakening. Still, a part of me wants to discourage Michael from visiting the Holy in this place where she is suffering.
Yet he assures me that as he picks-up garbage on Mississippi’s shore, it is like kissing the Mother he loves. He offers her prayers and asks for forgiveness from all of us.
I trust that this is what he must do to be true to the child’s heart within him, who refuses to look away and be hardened.
Word: Confluence
By Michael Denmeade
The word confluence according to google dictionary means: 1. The junction of two rivers, especially rivers of approximately equal width; 2. The act or process of merging; 3. Coming together
So how do we come together with equanimity? Where can we meet equally so our merging can bring forth a greater truth, a greater reality that holds space for all beings-human and other than human? So many great thinkers of our time talk about this New Emergence. Beloveds and great minds like Joanna Macy, environmental activist, scholar and author, speak so eloquently, mired in hope not despair, of what she calls the Great Turning. It is in tune with many indigenous prophecies about this time we are living in. One is the merging or coming together of the eagle and the condor that represent the awakening mind and open heart. This time of global warming, pandemics, social upheaval may very well be this time the prophecies and great minds are talking about. But she encourages us not to despair, but to know this is all part of a Great Turning to a higher and evolving consciousness. So how do we connect with one another across the divides of race, color, cultural ethnicity, creeds, religions, and sexual identity? How do we stem the social isolation that our own egoic minds have created? So many questions with not so easy answers. I have found a simple solution that is not often the easiest. But it goes like this. The more I allow my heart to be cracked open, the more compassion I feel, then my mind follows suit with more compassionate thoughts. Which in turn seems to give rise to what I call, a higher heart consciousness. Is that what is meant by the prophecy of the eagle (mind) and the condor (heart) and coming together? Hmmm? Time will tell. So I ask you. Is your mind (eagle) and heart (condor) merging like the great confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri?
My Offerings…
This next piece is a big jump for me. As it is not easy for me to stand at the front of the line, ask for what I need or put myself out there. This I call My Offerings...What I feel called at this auspicious time we are all living in to offer to the world. We all have unique gifts that our soul has conspired WITH US to be. After many years of training, learning, developing skillful means and deep listening, this is what feels most alive in me to offer to the world.
Deep Listening to the Soul and Soul Relating.....Through deep relaxation, and meditation into the stillness so one can hear their soul’s calling. ..Through Deep sensing and awareness of body, breath and mind...Through guided journey’s into the imaginal realm. Dreams and journeys have been portals that the soul often speaks to us through.
Sacred Ritual and Ceremony.....Through reverent Acts of humbling oneself, and connecting to the vast and infinite field of support of both our ancestral lineage (spirit helpers, guides and well ancestors); and to the spirit helpers and ancestors of the land on which we live. It is this Calling In from a place of humility and deep connection that sacred ritual and ceremony creates a sacred vessel for us to then pray, be grateful and ask for support.
Equal Energy Exchange
Many ritualists, ceremonialists and keepers of sacred space for individuals charge $100-$300 per session. In my heart of hearts I can’t charge a set fee or range of fees as I want to be accessible to All who feel called to receive guidance and support in listening to their soul. At this stage of my life it feels more in alignment for me to say, “offer what feels most resonant to you.” I trust the support and infinite resource of the Universe to provide exactly what I need as It has done my whole life. That does not mean there shouldn’t be some sort of equal energy exchange, be it green energy (money) or barter. Again, each of us being sovereign beings know what value to give to sacred space holding.
Alas, if you feel moved, deeply moved to make an offering to support my work in the world or because you feel moved by this newsletter you can send a gift to my paypal account is paypal.me/MDenmeade
Lastly...
I know that I am on a journey. Step by step walking sacredly on holy ground. Witnessing and seeing the Divine Nature in All Beings. Seeing the Divine Nature in the two-legged, four-legged, creeper-crawlers, mammals, stone people, standing tall people, plant people, winged-ones and swimmers. I honor the Spirit of Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandmother Moon, Grandfather Sun and the Sacred Waters-The Great Mother Liquid. And I see the Divine Nature in Me. Connected to All life waking up from the Illusion of separation. A Ho Mitakuye Oyasin-All My Relations.
To Be Continued...
Go to paypal.me/MDenmeade and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.
