What is the state of your heart, in this moment?
I really love how the question takes me inside. Connects to a listening… a receptivity…
I’ve recently completed a Soul Quest with Purpose Guide Institute whilst hiking the Larapinta Trail on Arrernte Country. Carrying everything for survival in one backpack. Connecting to land. To soul. The images on the track. Her vision. I spent 12- hours solo time in nature… communing… dancing… singing… asking direct questions about soul’s purpose for me. Consciously creating a clearing for some unknown force, or energy, to come through. In all her completeness. Being in the wild, I was cradled by ancient gums, their roots, the floor of the river bed & the melody of birds singing their song. I felt nature’s holding and lack of self-consciousness. The humbleness of her grandeur.
Part of the Purpose Discovery course, too, was holding counsel for the ecological crisis we find ourselves in today (see Climate Change as Spiritual Practice with Jonathon Gustin & Joanna Macy). Daring to bare witness to what’s arising in our hearts and connecting to the loss, and losses, that are currently taking place in our ecology. And connecting to some fundamental human failure to love and care for all beings. I can sense the lack of love potentially in my Great Grandparents, my Grand Father… their hearts… this impact, this chronic impact of a closed down heart and disconnection from humanity and all living beings. I see the endless shootings in the States, images of the Ukraine war and images relating to the global pandemic … and my heart contracts… how extreme the level of disconnection to soul, to life, and to the truth that what we do here, how we choose to live our lives, the choices we make… matters.
Matters now and for future generations.
So if I come back to what is in my heart right now?
It’s to take more care. I think Mother Teresa said, “do small things with great love”. I also feel in touch with the messiness of life and the truth that there is no beginning or end… to any prayer, intention or discovery. Who wakes up in the morning does not exist in the night. Life is starting to feel more like a flowing river. Going nowhere.
Thank you for reading my first blog. I’ve intentionally broken paradigm and made it personal. I have intentions of creating soul circles and spaces to share from heart, and soul. Feel free to contact me if it’s something you’re interested in joining me in.
Let’s end on the question, again –
What is the state of your heart, right now?
I’d like to give thanks to Anahata Giri One Heart Yoga, my purpose discovery guide, for embodying wisdom, tenderness and faith to keep going and sharing the quote below with me. Also, my dear friends who agreed to hold space in my soul circle as I stepped into the mystery and who inspired this first blog by resurfacing this question at our lunch on the weekend.
All love,
Caroline Browne x
I acknowledge the Boonwurrung People, First People of the Bays and Southeast Victoria, on whose land I live and work.
The photograph was taken by me at Udepata (Ellery Creek).
“So let us pick up the stories over which we stumble, friends, and build altars.”