Photo Martha Brettschneider / Damselwings Photography
This Sunday morning feels like the space between breaths – exhaling the first half of 2025 and enjoying the stillness before the inhale to power me through the second half.
Instead of my usual meditation spot in my office, I chose to come outside and anchor my attention on birdsong for my focus practice. Somewhere in the midst of the various trills, warbles, peeps, and twitters, inspiration ignited to continue my listening with my camera.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the various channels I use to listen, as I’ve been re-reading Mark Nepo’s Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred. My contemplation on listening deepened when a friend shared that she doesn’t have any more elders in her life to go to for guidance – a bittersweet consequence of living long enough to become the oldest generation in your family.
Our Innate Access to Sage Wisdom
We do, however, have access every day to the most powerful source of wisdom we could find – the Wiser Elder Self that lives inside us. We can access our Wiser Elder Self with our Sage Navigate power, first by grounding ourselves in presence and then asking “At the end of my life looking back, what’s most important right now? How will I have wanted to show up in the world in this moment?”
Nature is another conduit to this wisdom. When we quiet our thinking brain through sensory based practices, it’s like cleaning the wax out of our ears to be able to hear Nature’s frequency. I don’t know how this all works and I don’t need to. But my personal experience feels like there’s a close partnership between Nature and my Wiser Elder Self to give me the guidance I need when I tune in with curiosity and deep listening.
This morning, for example, my camera lens was drawn not to the pretty pink petals, but to the stem that holds the fleeting beauty, and seems to somehow amplify the light.
Message Received
What do I need to prioritize to stay strong and clear-headed to support all that I want to hold and contribute to the world?
I need to build and maintain the strength of my core — my body, my spirit, and my mental fitness muscles, which are like hearing aids for the messages that Nature and my Wiser Elder Self offer up to light the way.
After receiving the memo, another gift arrived. Somewhere in the midst of writing this to share with you, I realized the Universe’s sense of humor in the name of the flower that attracted my focus: Cosmos.
If you feel ready to strengthen the mental muscles required to lead your life as your wisest, most empowered self, I still have one more spot open in my 12-Week Mental Fitness Training starting Monday, July 7. Fill out this survey to see if it’s a good fit for you.
