A high wind blew from the NE across Oregon the other night, carrying smoke from dozens of wildfires with it. The next morning, this is what a friend's view of her yard and the ocean beyond looked like. Really. No filters on the camera - and no fire within miles!
Today it's better here. Looks like a smoggy day in 1970s LA with the sun an orange disk through the haze. The power was back on this morning so I've vacuumed the first layer of ash that blew through the cracks with the 70+ mph winds the other night, but everything feels gritty and I wear a mask outside to filter our the ash, breathing in thru the nose behind the mask and out thru an uncovered mouth - much easier on the lungs when walking. But friends and family are now being evacuated from the fires that the wind started - all over the state.
And, of course, I'm looking at the meaning behind the experience. What's really going on here? What in our consciousness is being made manifest in our experience?
And, again, there are so many levels!
But there's something more, something even deeper, happening here. As I was cleaning up the ash that covered the surfaces of my little house, and looked out the window at the smoke-filled air this morning, I felt a flashback to times when I've been "cleansed by smoke" and thought of the cleansing effect of fire. Perhaps that's what's really happening in all this. If we could but see it and understand it, we might be able to take this whole experience to a new level.
And, of course, I'm looking at the meaning behind the experience. What's really going on here? What in our consciousness is being made manifest in our experience?
And, again, there are so many levels!
- First level of possible explanation - every other region of the continent has had major disasters this year and now it's time for the Pacific Northwest to get its share. Ouch! Don't like that one much! But it is part of our belief system, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were at least part of what's happening here.
- Second level, additional possibility - there's been a huge immigration to Oregon of Californians running away from wildfires. - and guess what! What we resist (or run away from) persists, and they brought what they were avoiding with them. We Oregonians bought into their distress and to some extent are now experiencing the effects of that. Don't like this one much either, but it is how things work: we get what we accept as real and get more of what we have emotions around.
- Third level - as the veil is thinning between dreams and reality, people's fears are becoming their experience immediately and in spades. With the media focusing on all the fires in California, as well as the fires in the "riots" happening in cities when protesters, police, and inciters clash, it's not too surprising that such things are in peoples' minds, and must therefore become their experience.
But there's something more, something even deeper, happening here. As I was cleaning up the ash that covered the surfaces of my little house, and looked out the window at the smoke-filled air this morning, I felt a flashback to times when I've been "cleansed by smoke" and thought of the cleansing effect of fire. Perhaps that's what's really happening in all this. If we could but see it and understand it, we might be able to take this whole experience to a new level.
The cover of my latest ebook reflects this. It's a picture a friend took at a "fire puja" a cleansing ceremony, a time of release and renewal. The light and the heat and the intensity of the experience are all part of the process of letting go of attachments to things of the past and beginning to create - or become - something that's more fully who we are capable of being.
What if all this fire and ash, and all the smoke in the air is just that?
What if we are being cleansed?
What if we are being prepared to become something more than we've allowed ourselves to be thus far?
What if ...?
I'm certain that this is the time when all of us are being called to live and love and see life at a whole new level of being. Knowing that I accept the gift of this smoke and receive the cleansing and opening to new possibility that it offers.
May the light and love and cleansing Spirit of Life fill you and your world, lifting all of us to new heights of being in the days, weeks, and months ahead.
What if all this fire and ash, and all the smoke in the air is just that?
What if we are being cleansed?
What if we are being prepared to become something more than we've allowed ourselves to be thus far?
What if ...?
I'm certain that this is the time when all of us are being called to live and love and see life at a whole new level of being. Knowing that I accept the gift of this smoke and receive the cleansing and opening to new possibility that it offers.
May the light and love and cleansing Spirit of Life fill you and your world, lifting all of us to new heights of being in the days, weeks, and months ahead.
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