Find Me Here!
Circling Seedkeepers
  • Home
    • About Me
  • Sacred Circling
  • Listening to the Heart Blog
  • Original Art and Poems
  • Offerings
    • Raise The Vibration Ecstatic Dancing
    • Birth Blessings
    • Heart-Centered Living Guide
    • Ceremony Offerings >
      • Funerals
      • Weddings
      • Naming
    • For Young Women
    • For Adult Women
  • Upcoming Events
    • In The News
  • Resources

Listening to the Heart Blog

Living, exploring, expressing, spiraling the journey of womanhood one breath at a time, one day at a time, one achievement at a time, one blessing at a time.

Subscribe to my mailing list

The Crumbling Edge

4/8/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Painting by Echo Lew http://www.echolew.com/Gallery-art.html
The Crumbling Edge

She leads me to the crumbling edge–
nudges me with feline boldness
to plunge

breast forward into the yawning
canyon of shamelessness where I gasp
through a mingling of pleasure and giddy terror.

She coaxes me into a darkness
rippled with light
promises, and benign danger.

Rounded hips weave a figure eight,
as rhythmic incantations unlock
invisible gates to a delicious thunder.

A pulse of divine surges
golden current from the fiery bowl
of my soft belly to the sacred place

where my feet kiss the earth;
a tiny door opens into the cathedral
of my chest, with the courtesy
of a tempest's entrance.

Like a spent magnolia petal, I fall

deeper in love with my curves,
my own lusciousness, my hungering 
breath, my messy emotions.

The she-wolf howls with her pack;
the hawk soars alone on ever-spiraling updrafts;
and the changing woman waxes a sickle in the night,

as inter-dimensional helixes merge
into the eternal circle of her song.
She leads me to the crumbling edge–

~Suzette Winona Summers
0 Comments

Calling All Elders

4/3/2014

4 Comments

 
PictureThanks to San Hartman for the photo. http://sanhartman.weebly.com/
For several years I have been longing for the wisdom of elders. Recently, while sitting in a circle of women ranging in age from 30-something to 60-something, I heard a similar longing voiced by all. In my own self-absorption I failed to realize that women older than myself were also feeling the ache of the lost elders.

In general, I think our society has forgotten the value of elders, and in so doing, many elders have forgotten, or never realized, their own value. In a world where youth is privileged is it any surprise that elders have forgotten their value? Without our listening, encouraging ears, elders are unlikely to share their wisdom with us... and in this present world, we desperately need their voices.

When I speak of elders, I do not only mean people older than myself, but people who, through deep self-exploration and the overcoming of hardships, have gained a level of wisdom, strength, and clarity of sight so that their presence in the world serves as a guiding light  for future generations.

An elder I am friends with recently said, "We are all elders to someone." Those words resonate deeply, and are an important consideration. Often the term "elder" connotes someone much older, but the truth is that anyone, either chronologically older, or experientially older, can be considered an elder. And so, we all have insights and wisdom to share; some simply don't recognize their value, or are not given the opportunity to share their wisdom. That being said, I think it is important to value those older than us, and listen deeply to their heart song. There are many songs to learn, many skills to be preserved, many stories to be shared in those who have lived for many moons.

Today, we stand on the threshold of a world disintegrating at the hands of pollution, corporate greed, and wide spread apathy. Even so,  many are beginning to wake up, and I think those awakening are doing so because of the support of ancestors (seen and unseen) and elders. One reason we have fallen so far from a place that honors the earth, human life, and personal interactions is that we have devalued our elders, and in so doing have failed to allow them to convey their wisdom. Arrogance has told us that our stories are more important; our desires are more valuable; our insights more significant. We have lost their stories, their songs, their wisdom. We have forgotten that though a body changes, the spirit is eternal, valuable, and wise. I believe when we turn our attention to listening, encouraging, and honoring our elders' wisdom we will see that our elders will flourish with a vibrance ready to sew their seeds in the fertile soil of our hearts and lives; and from these seeds a new earth will begin to rise up.

So, how do we call the elders forth? How do we remind them of their value? How do we encourage our elders to share their wisdom with us? 

We can sit with them in circle. A circle of two perhaps. We can sip tea, or coffee, do artwork, or ask them questions about relationships, children, our fears, our dreams. If we listen, if we share, if we make time for them, I believe the world will shift, our hearts will open, and a world in harmony will spring up stronger and more sustainable than ever.

 "...it is up to us learn how to sing again in that ancient way, so that we might be the ancestors that our descendants will sing to."    ~ Craig Paterson of Temple Wind Flute

4 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Suzette Winona Summers M.A. is a mother, writer, artist, and circler of women following the call of her heart to empower herself, her sisters, and the world. Suzette embraces her purpose of birthing a new world through one breath at a time, one step at a time, walking through fear, disappointments, and difficulties into the light of a new day. 

    Archives

    November 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Air
    Authenticity
    Balance
    Beadwork
    Blessings
    Ceremony
    Circling
    Concrete
    Dance
    Divine Feminine
    Divine Masculine
    Dreams
    Earth
    Ecstatic Dance
    Fire
    Generations
    Going Within
    Healing
    Introspection
    Mothering
    Patience
    Prayer
    Rebirth
    Spirit
    Symptoms
    Teaching
    Trusting The Process
    Vulnerability
    Water
    Winter

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.