As you are drawn into the stillness and depth of December notice the quiet nature brings. This invitation to slow down even in the hustle and bustle of holidays, time with family and friends can be a present! Go ahead and be with the trees, the cold air, the breeze and the sound of your feet on the snow or slushy ground. Take some time to walk with the stillness of earth and nature among the trees, maybe find a forest, a meadow, or a park to take a stroll. Take time to sit by a fire and absorb the smell of the wood, the sound of the crackling embers, and the glow of the fire. We invite you to notice your breathe as you exhale, let the cold chill warm your heart and touch your soul.

Some invitations to connect with yourslef and the natural world:

Allow yourself to take a moment and gaze out the window and be with all that you see in nature and be ‘with’ and part of the natural world.

Grab a friend take a walk, giggle, sing and maybe just listen to the sounds of the time of quiet, stillness, and low light.

Notice the barren ground and trees without leaves be with the stillness and while you notice remember there is not nothing going on—the trees and earth may be resting yet transfomation is always occurring. Be with the mystical in the natural world.

Darker days, cooler temperatures, the landscape turning to hues of gray and brown. What is nature inviting in us as we transition into winter? This is a time of year to turn inward, slow down, create space to begin to nurture dreams. This is an opportunity to expand consciousness and ponder what needs attending in us. What lies dormant and ready to be contacted? Some say it is a time to nurture the light within our own darkness.

We invite you to take time to meditate, dream, sit in stillness, walk in nature without an agenda. Listen for the whisper and calling of your healing and initiation.

Join us on January 24th at Sacajawea Retreat Center in Apple Valley as we collaborate with nature to explore your internal process with you.

We had a couple of amazing experiences on our retreat and fall workshop. For the retreat we had amazing weather, swimming comfortably in a northern Minnesota lake on the last weekend of September, drumming and dancing, using the sauna and restoring our souls.

The fall workshop at Eastman Nature Center was also beautiful fall weather with all of the fall colors and sunshine. We worked on clearing the sludge of our ancestral lines, the family legacies that keep us mired in familiar patters that no longer serve us. We often don’t think of healing the patterns we inherit from our ancestors, the epigenetic or transgenerational wounding. But what a gift we give our descendants when he heal. Some say it goes both ways, and the ancestors also heal. The best part is how we get to be free of the no longer helpful lineage experiences and live more authentically. At the workshop drumming assisted releasing that sludge and a sense of calm with some playfulness permeated the group.

Thanks to all who participated. We hope to see you again soon

What beauty do we overlook as we navigate through life? Do you notice the mushrooms, the moss, the tiny flowers as you visit the woods? Or do you only see that which is big and right in front of your face? Stop, look, take in the intricate detail of the minute structure, color, form of these beauties lying along the forest floor. So much goes into their existence – they breath, take in water, sunlight, grow, transform, decay, decompose, and begin again.

Can we also honor the unique organization of all living things…….. human, plant form, and animal? Whether we are seen or not seen- we each have a make up that deserves to be honored and recognized. We invite you to start seeing more magnificence in the world. The brilliance of nature has so much to teach us.

Will you listen to the messages with us? We would love to hold space for you to slow down, sit with yourself, and hear what the woods wants to communicate to you- join us for our September 27th Weekend Retreat or our October 11th workshop to explore your true nature. www.amidstthetrees.com

Hey wow hi its June 2024 and I am here writing another June blog-I feel very lucky.

Such a difference a year makes, last June I wrote about water and there was such a lack of it in our world in MN.  Now we have a literal overflow.  Nature, she chooses, and we are sometimes along for the ride. The green is spectacular in the trees, plants and grasses.  The smell and feel of rain helps me find my center in my soul.  

I am grateful for walking on squishy ground and soggy sidewalks.  As I notice the opposite, I am super smiley when I feel the sun on my face and soak up the rays of her warmth.  Summer brings all of this and more.  Opportunities to hear nature, feel cool breezes, hear birds chirping, and see some much life all around us.  

I have been lucky on my way to the barn at Hold Your Horses to watch eagle parents raise two babies in a big nest next to the road.  The last week I have seen the eaglets standing on the side of the nest looking out over the horizon.  I believe they are just fledging and learning to fly-I can’t wait.  Now they look like they just rolled out of bed with their bed head and funky feathers coming in.  I hope I can stand on the edge of my comfort zone each day and continue to learn to soar and fly with whatever life hands me.

What helps you to land deeper in your soul?

How do you relate to the sound of raindrops on your skin?

How can you keep flying even when the rain pounds hard on your skin?

In blessings for summer and each of you I offer you dewy rain that kisses your toes as you walk on the morning grass.

Molly

What does it even mean to connect with Nature? Being that we all have our own unique way we navigate the world and how we see the world, there is a plethora of ways to connect with nature.

Do you stop and watch the ant crawling on the sidewalk? stand in awe of the moon as it rises each night? feel the breeze touch your cheek on a windy day? listen to the crashing of the waves of lake superior?

So many ways to connect. For some it is laying on the earth and sensing into nourishment of the grounding energy. Or for others it is leaning against a tree and feeling into it’s cellular rhythm. Or do you like to find a big lava rock (like those in the boundary waters) and allow the whole weight of your body to give way to the support of it’s sturdiness? Perhaps you are very mindful of how you take in connection with nature. However, it is not necessary to sign up for a forest bathing class or work hard to get the benefits of nature. Did you know that (according to a study by the University of Essex) that just 5 minutes in nature can significantly start to reduce stress levels? Being in nature can have many health benefits like reducing anxiety, lowering blood pressure, enhancing immune system function, and boosting self esteem and mood.

So- take advantage of your lunch break, eat outside, step out to get the mail during the day, stand outside when you let the dog out, bring greenery into your office or home, move your workout outside, do yoga in the park. Let yourself explore and take in nature the way it works for you.

If you would like some guided immersion into the natural world- join us at one of our workshops. There will be plenty of opportunity to commune with nature. We would love to have you come out and play with us at Eastman Nature Center on June 7th. Hope to see you there!

I travelled to see the eclipse in totality this month. The experience of taking it in through all of the sense is so different than seeing it on a screen. The visual, of course, is spectacular but there is more. The sensation of the temperature dropping, it becoming darker in the middle of the day, the songs of the birds changing from their normal chatter all add to the experience. In the pasture I was sitting in, the cows broke through the fence and the snakes became very active in the pond, moving like lightening to and fro. It seemed as if there was a void of time, 4 minutes of a pause, of possibility, the possibility of shifting something that seemed permanent. The felt sense of reality as we know it, to actually be an illusion, woven in the tapestry of something much bigger than us and what we know. And then the eclipse is complete and we are back in the pasture, trees dotting the landscape, we are breathing the air, listening to the cows moo, back to our own thoughts but yet somehow changed. Changed once again by the power and magnificence of nature.

Snow

Cool               White         Cleansing

Crisp           Quiet

Fresh             Silent             New

Delighting in the beauty of the magical shapes of the snowflake

Falling silently

Feeling into the freshness

Sensing into the bite of the crisp air

Basking in the clean slate of the whole earth being blanketed with white

Melting away everything and clearing the cells of the brain, the body

Dropping into the whiteness

Stillness

Refreshed

Love

Love

Love

Feeling so much gratitude for the gift nature shared with us this spring

Join us in June for our next Restorative Workshop- as we revel in the changing season and light of summer. Hope to see you at Eastman Nature Center on June 7th.