After October’s Penelope Smith retreat on animal communication, Wildlife, The Earth and Us: Learning From Wild Teachers, we received the following poem from retreat participant Wendy Haskell. We wanted to share the profound impact Earthfire and its residents had on her.
Autumn’s Dance
What?
As the leaves fall, there are whispers in the wind?
There are voices in the trees I’ve missed?
Messages in bird songs too deaf to hear?
Blind to the intuition of earth’s animals?
Have I lived with an unconscious ear to life?
Unaware of the sentient spirits of all living things?
Disregarding Mother Nature’s balanced comings, goings, returnings?
Ignoring a profound inspirable life web we cannot see?
Has “civilization” been misleading, – brandishing false answers?
Obfuscating the mystery of ever-present energy as it aligns, shapes, connects?
Are we, Alas! only microcosms integral to a mysterious Universal Whole?
Do we travel that great cyclical journey of stars and space
as do these soaring color/cast leaves, spinning in cycles through our Autumn air?
So I ask:
As the soul of the earth in Autumn’s season
spins in a colorful dance of change and transformation,
do I remain unconscious of the energy vibrations and intelligence
in this Universal dance to which I do not yet have all the steps?
The plants and animals around me may be best suited to set me straight.
In stillness with them – if I listen,
Perhaps I can recover.