(lightly edited transcript) Image thanks to: Robin Somes / Hawthorn tree, near Pig Bush (CC 2.0)
(Audio MP3 below)
Journeying for some people is sort of a difficult concept to understand. Many people think that they do a journey and then that assists them here and then, that problem might be solved or the journey is the “thing”.
But for us ‘Journeying’ is the thing. If you look at the idea of journeying as a tree, so this tree starts as a seed. The seed is planted and if it’s given the right environment, nourishment and so on, it can grow.
Just like when you are journeying, if you have a problem or something that you want to work on, it could be one small thing which could be part of a larger thing, it could be something that you feel is a stand-alone, or you could see it as your life long work. But whatever happens, that journey, about whatever it is needs to start with a seed, which is planted and then nourished. Now what we would call the seed that is planted is ‘The Intention’.
We would say that the very first Intention especially if you are thinking of it as your life work, or you have a series of experiences that you want to understand, the intention of the very first journey, that’s the ‘seed’, and the seed will germinate if it is nourished, if it is watered, if given space, if it is put in the right environment.
So, the journey that you do, your first journey with your Intention, which is the seed, it’s really important that it is not forced. That it is allowed to flow and it is not directed in a particular way.
So why we’re telling you to like this? Because we come back to the Intention.
The Intention needs to be developed, it needs to be honed, but it needs to be absolutely your intention. It cannot be something given to you by somebody else who knows a little bit about you, or who think they know a little bit about you, or a lot about you. It needs to ‘really resonate’ with you. When we say that it can’t be given to you by somebody, of course, it can be given to you by somebody, but it needs to resonate with you. If it doesn’t resonate with you, it doesn’t really feel like this is mine. I own this. Then the seed will not germinate correctly.
What does that mean?
If you see a tree where it might have shallow roots or it’s meant to have deep roots or it grows in a way that is not natural to it, it generally would grow straight up and this one is growing all over the place. Perhaps it has some disease before it even really starts to take hold.
This is the type of thing, if the Intention, the seed is not yours and is not really speaking to you and resonating with you, it might germinate but what is it going to germinate?
So, it’s very important that the first journey that you do, has an Intention that is yours, that ‘really resonates’ with you and is completely meaningful to you.
Initially, we said not to be given to you by others, but we have corrected ourselves. It can be given to you, but because sometimes you need help, you need it to be honed, but it needs to resonate with you.
As the tree grows you know it comes out of the ground, breaks the ground and the shoot comes up and it meets the sun and the elements and depending on the type of tree it is and when it was planted and the environment, it is opening out itself out into, again it will determine how well the tree can grow.
And again, we come back to the journeying.
Some people see an issue in their life or they see a problem and they want to work on it. They want to fix it, they want to deal with it they want it to happen now and they are just sick of it.
So, they may have done other work and they may not have done other work.
Journeying is an interesting way to work on your problems and work on things that you want to change because it can be quite subtle, can be quite dramatic but it can also be quite gentle.
If you are pushing your journeying work or your healing work, if you are not allowing processing to occur, let’s say you have a journey and you had some positively wonderful things and then you go to somebody else and somebody else and somebody else, all of these different things, and now different modalities are all piling in on top of the journey, the work that happened in the journey, well, you haven’t actually allowed that journeying-work to process.
Then you are bringing your problem, your issue whatever you are working on into an environment that isn’t ready, isn’t right for it. Isn’t the right climate, isn’t the right temperature, not the right amount of water, not the right amount of space, however, you want to look at it because there is too many things going on. Too much is happening to it. Too many demands on it, on the tree, on the journey, on the processing, so it can’t actually do it’s work.
So, when the tree firsts shoots up, it needs to have the right environment for it to flourish in. It’s the same thing with the journey. When you first start and you have your intention and then you have your journey and things happen and things that the shoot comes through the earth and you are seeing the earth in a different way. You are experiencing things differently. It is very important that what comes out is going to be treated with love and respect and really honoured and kept in a safe, place in an environment where it can thrive.
And then the tree itself starts to grow and you know you have shoots and leaves and you have branches coming out. It starts to grow up, it might fruit, it might flower, it might go through seasons where you have a deciduous tree so the leaves die and it’s there and it comes back again.
This is exactly what happens when you are journeying. You will have these moments where you are growing and strong and there are branches coming out everywhere. There are new thoughts, new adventures, new ways of being and then it flowers, it’s a beautiful time for you and everything is wonderful and then all of the leaves start to die. The flowers fall off. The leaves fall off and there is the bare tree.
This is the most difficult time for most people because it looks like all of the work that they have done up to this part. All of that hard work with their journeying, processing, with understanding, their thinking, nourishing, trying, changing and so on, it looks like it was a complete waste of time and nothing has changed, because they’re now in a time where things are bare. Things are barren. Things are not what they were and it feels like everything is going backwards.
This is the time when it’s really important to keep going. It’s really important to accept that there’s not going to be any growth, any journey. There is going to be times when things do look dire, when things don’t seem to be the best, or what they could be or that they are anywhere near where they were.
These times are incredibly important because just like the tree, it is like wintering or hibernation. So, you have sluffed off all of those things, all of those things that you held dear, the flowers, the leaves, all of that you sluffed off and you are bare.
This is an opportunity for brighter colours, more flowers, fruit, bigger leaves, a stronger tree and this period of hibernation is this period of re-assessing, it really cements and solidifies all of the work that’s gone on before so that when you come out of the winter, when you allow yourself to flourish again as we said, the leaves are bigger and greener, the flower’s colours are bold and the fruit is sweeter. The tree is bigger and this process can happen time and time again.
The thing with journeying is knowing that there is a rhythm. There is a rhythm of coming in and hibernating, growing, coming out and seeming to flourish and thrive and then going back into this hibernation period, this feeling of perhaps loss and you keep moving.
This is important because there is not one step or there is not just one movement to a healing or to a development.
If you just want to develop to A, or develop to B from A, and you want to stay at B, journeying is not truly the right thing for you because journeying says to you: Let’s go to B and when we have done and experienced all we can in B, C is beckoning. So, we must move to C! and so on and so on. That space in between is like the hibernation and then the growth, and then we are at C. And then we once have been in C and we have seen everything that there is to see and experience that and we have made our energetic movements, and we have made our developments and we have taken ourselves and made ourselves different or moved to another state of being, it is only natural that you want to keep going!
So, journeying is really like this. Really like a tree, which starts with the seed germinating, and growing into the right environment and developing and then dying off and then developing, slowing down and then developing and going through a winter and it goes on and on and on.
So, if you are in this situation where you are journeying and you are feeling that there are these ups and downs, just think of it like a tree and trees are designed to live for a really long time! They are designed to continue to grow.
There is no stopping point with a tree! It just keeps growing. It might not keep growing up but it will keep fruiting, it will keep flowering, it will keep producing leaves, it will keep doing that. There is no time limit if you like, of course, most trees do come to a time when they can no longer sustain themselves, but they have been through a lot. They have developed, they have grown and they have seen. They have journeyed fully in their life!
The human has that ability, has that freedom and that gift to do that as well.
Thank you
Mother Sha-Riah
All rights reserved © 2020 Brad and Caroline Dunn.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download