A strong impression from my recent road trip, the Ancient Ones Journey, is COMMUNITY and relationship to place. The time period of the Ancient Ones’ stories during this journey is around 1100 AD all across what we now define as Arizona.
Then, as now, there are the challenges of the physical world as we provide for the needs of our biological selves of water, food and shelter. Then, as now, there are stories of outrageous social injustice. Then, as now, many of us work to co-create the better world we all know is possible.
The chaos of our times calls for profound grief and justifiable outrage. We are part of an immeasurable web of living. We are empathic beings. We are being asked to participate in the transmutation of fear and anger to love and compassion. And to do so without hardening our heart soul spirit essence.
A wisdom from Clarissa Pinkola Estes: “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.”
Editor’s note: Carolyn Shafer is an ordained minister who has offered spiritual energetic services in the Patagonia area community for about 15 years. She has officiated at birth, death, union and dissolution ceremonies as well as performing legal ceremonies for marriages. She can be reached at 520-394-0252 or email at joyfullybecomingcarolyn@gmail.com