The Plants Say…
I talk too much
Offer too many potential solutions
CBT, narrative, somatic, psychoanalytic, Christian, Vedic, Shamanic
I read too much
Kindle, Audible, Little Free Library books
Can’t even remember the names of the authors
I write too much
Medium, Al Jazeera, Dwell, Wall Street Journal, the lit rags, CNN, another blog
Hoping to live forever through black on white
I place too much faith in data and knowledge
In clever and impressive talk
Not enough in kindness or dreams
We live in a bullshit world…you know it and I know it
But we play the game…awards, certificates, publication, funding, CSR, investments, reviews, house, car, offspring
Please world, believe in me
Because if you don’t, maybe I won’t exist
We play the game, pretending this life, this stage, this name, this body, is reality
I forget…
Visibility is not presence
To be seen, heard and acknowledged is a survival skill
Presence is the heart’s response to suffering
Cut the bullshit say the shrooms, mama aya, huachuma, santa maria
Be quiet, shhh…
Stop sharing what’s in your head
Come join the tribe of silence
Be still and open your heart
If you don’t, life will rip it open…as it should be — so open… fully, more fully, more fully open, ouch
The plants say:
Understand the economy of suffering and joy
Hold your suffering just a moment longer to lighten the load for your dying brother
Hold your joy just a moment longer to uplift your crying sister
But hold only your own suffering
Your job is not to hold their suffering (though sometimes it may be). Your job is just to hold the space
The plants say:
There is no right medicine or wrong medicine
No your medicine or my medicine
Only medicine
And good people serve good medicine
The plants say:
Stay awake
If you can’t, then just stay (in your body, on this planet, don’t leave yet)
and make yourself as comfortable and as useful as your cage will let you
If you feel good enough, why chase feeling better?
Enough is enough is enough
During my initiation, I saw so much — razzle dazzle, a phantasmagoric lightshow. Guides, healers, magicians, ancestors, spirit animals, ghosts
A few more ceremonies later, I saw them not
“Where are you all? Why can’t I see you now?”
“Because” I hear, “We are in your heart and in your bones”
When you are terrified, choose love
When you are losing, choose love
When you are dying, choose love
Always choose love
Trust us and we’ll bring you home
