Found on a Day & Adventure with My Son, Orion
With the heat, smoke and fires blazing in the West, and the challenges and changes we’re facing in our world, this message is one to share a key, a treasure that will nourish us all.
We live in a time that requires our presence, our wisdom, our love and faith to imagine a new way forward, to hear and take the actions our heart calls us to and walk with our feet, heart and mind grounded in the mother of all matter, our beloved Mother Earth.
As Mama to my dear son, Orion, I am constantly amazed by his Light, his wisdom and his bright, knowing and deeply loving Heart. His eyes sparkle so. And I am so grateful to him, for him, for coming here, to be in our family, for the opportunity to be his Mama and to love him deeply.
In this essay, I tell about an amazing day we shared together last week, a simple day and an amazing day with a treasure for us all.
This was a day my husband Nate left early for one of his guiding/expedition trips and Orion and I had an Orion and Mama day.
Snuggles, Stuffies, Pancakes & Panda Wisdom
After morning snuggles, Orion jumped into imaginary play with his stuffies. He gave me my big panda bear pillow (from Dani :)) and said I was to be the guardian, guardian of treasure and was to sit upon the mountain top (aka two pillows stacked up). He was playing the part of two other stuffies, Alpacie, a very soft alpaca stuffie, and Biggie, a very cute tiny Bigfoot/Sasquatch stuffie. 🙂
While it started out with Alpacie and Biggie battling with Panda for the treasure, soon they all started talking and became good friends. Guardian Panda described that she was indeed guarding treasure but that most people/animals searching for it, missed it. For it was not a treasure of gold and jewels that most people think of when seeking treasure. It was a treasure of immense, beautiful Qi.
The Guardian Panda explained that as she sat upon the mountain top, she opened her heart and then received the immense Qi from the beauty of the mountains and nature around her. That is what then made her so powerful. Yet her treasure was available to any and everyone, if they stopped, listened, opened their hearts and allowed it to enter.
Then Panda, Alpachie and Biggie had a lively discussion of all different kinds of treasure — such as clean air, good friends, pancake breakfasts (which we were about to have :)), a good night’s sleep, a home to live in, forests to play in, etc. They all felt full of treasure as we concluded the game, and we then went downstairs for pancakes. 🙂
Blue Ninja Missions
After our breakfast and putting on our blue “ninja” hoodies, Orion and I planned our ninja mission for the morning. Orion is very into ninjas currently and is loving learning to make spears, arrows, swords and to train and go on missions. We were going to explore one of our river gravel bars, check out signs for other ninjas, gather Earthgym sticks for my upcoming Earthgym “ninja” class, check on our baby salmon friends, carry clippers to cut away vines on our native trees, and water our baby oak tree we planted on the trail.
It was an awesome adventure and lovely to be along the sparkling waters of the Tolt River. After observing a black wasp with a beautiful iridescent blue abdomen digging in the sand, we headed up the shady side of the gravel bar to an abandoned “ninja” firepit. 🙂 Here we looked for weapons, clues left behind and found a beautiful square stone mosaic that apparently another “ninja” had made. We gathered that we were to choose one of the stones, hold it in our palm and see what message/image came to our mind’s eye. In doing this, we both saw our salmon friends and realized it was time to check on them.
So off we set, first following some deer tracks into the new cottonwood forest that I told Orion was only a few years older than him. Making our way through the trees, we happened upon a huge log – I had seen this before on my wanders, but this time it was different. There were mounds of sawdust under several spots on the log. We looked closer and got so excited!!! This is a huge “castle”/nest of carpenter ants!! There were a myriad of tunnels and openings and so many piles of dust! Amazing what they can do!!
After exploring in awe for a bit, we remembered our stone message and set off to check on the baby salmon.
Two days earlier, Orion and I had explored these pools and started rescuing some of the baby salmon in a very shallow pool that looked like it would dry up in the coming weekend’s forecasted heat. We had successfully caught and moved 12 baby salmon into a calm pool connected with the bigger flowing Tolt River. The day after that, Nate and Orion had returned and realized that there was an ever-so-small trickle of water seeping into this small pool from a bigger pool, and that bigger pool had a very small trickle coming from the main river. So they then moved some stones to create a bigger flow of trickling water to make sure enough fresh water was coming into the pools for these little salmon. Yay! How clever!!
So this day, Orion and I checked on the flows and cleared some more to increase the flow of the water. I felt so happy, so fulfilled in doing this simple task of love. And so in awe of the beauty of this river and all the life it nourishes.
Ninja – Protecting Place, Salmon and Treasure
Then Orion had an idea. He wanted to dive into another ninja game, and while we had been ninjas traveling together, he now wanted to switch things up. He asked if I would be a “bad” ninja looking for treasure and he would be a good ninja protecting this place, the salmon and the treasure.
So there I was, with my stick in hand, looking under this stone and that for gold. I was intent on finding treasure. Orion jumped out and we battled. Then we paused. I said I was looking for treasure and that I wanted the gold. Orion set down his stick and looked me in the eyes. He explained the treasure here was different. It wasn’t about gold.
“Here,” Orion said, “the treasure is Peace. That is real treasure.”
Wow. What did he just say? Peace?
Wow. Yes, that is real treasure.
Peace is a most beautiful treasure.
I stood in the cool, flowing waters by the salmon pools as I let these wise words from my son sink in….
Peace is our Treasure. Yes.
In a world that has burning, flooding and people who are battling, there is also Peace.
Peace
Peace is a part of the natural world, a part of our Earth. It’s part of the fabric of Harmony of living in right relationship with all our Relations.
Many of us humans require remembering this, and part of that remembering is coming home to our Mother, our Earth Mother. Connecting deeply with Nature by being in nature, listening, observing, playing, loving, climbing, wandering in Nature — all with our eyes, hearts and Soles/Souls open. In this way, not only do we gather connection, wisdom, insight, joy and abundant Qi from our Earth and Life, we begin to receive, awaken, and weave into the fabric of Peace. Our real Treasure.
There, by the salmon pools next to the flowing Tolt River, in that moment, I felt Peace. I felt and received this beautiful Treasure.
We transitioned from our game and picked a shady spot by the salmon pools to sit. I hadn’t slept much the night before and needed to rest. I suggested we sit or lay down and do some “sit spot” — sitting quietly and listening, observing, smelling, being in that moment, in our body and senses and awake to the life around us.
We relaxed.
I lay on the Earth, looking through the cottonwood leaves into the blue sky. A leaf let go and twirled to the flat waters of the river. It floated smoothly like a boat until, when reaching the rapids over the stones, it glided gracefully over the rocks and down around the river’s bend.
Peace.
I listened and filled my cells with the simultaneous music of the trickling fresh flowing water into the pools in front of us, and the sounds of the faster, fuller moving waters of the Tolt River behind us.
Peace.
Stellar’s Jay flew and landed in one of the water pools just east of us. He splashed and dipped. He fluffed and shaked his stunning blue feathers while bathing in these clear waters.
Peace.
And then,…Great Blue Heron came.
I slowly sat up and looked down river. Just 30 feet west of us on this little peninsula of a gravel bar between the salmon pools and the main river was Great Blue Heron. Beautiful and majestic, she arrived and stood. Relaxed, she ruffled her feathers, looked around, opened her beak, and relaxed again. Both Orion and I watched in awe. After a while, she opened her grand wings and flew her magnificent body silently past us and across the river. Wow.
Peace.
Orion’s tummy was starting to tell him it was lunch time, so I unpacked our lunch, he sat on my lap and we began our meal. As we ate, we both looked up and saw a beautiful big leaf maple tree on the bank leading up to the trail. One of its leaves just happened to be standing straight up as it swayed back and forth. It swayed back and forth so fervently, it seemed to be enthusiastically waving and saying “Hello!” We both laughed with delight! As soon as we noticed it, it seemed to feel shy. The breeze shifted and the leaf turned downward. Then we’d look away. When looking back at it, the breeze shifted again and the leaf was yet again waving enthusiastically at us!! Haha! This happened several times and gave us much Joy.
Peace.
Indeed this place is filled with Peace.
And, me and my son, Orion, in giving our presence and love, feeling our connection and deep belonging to these lands and waters, we both received and weaved into this living fabric of Peace. That is a real Treasure. And a Treasure that nourishes us all.
May you feel Peace. May you be Peace. May you weave Peace.
Thank you for the gift of Peace you are and for the Peace you are weaving into our fabric of Life.
