Last Tuesday, I really went for it - I shared my true feelings and observations about what we’ve lost by allowing corporations to insert their interfaces between ourselves, the world and all that we love.
Last Saturday I was invited to offer a short meditation for an in-person event that was outdoors. Thank goodness I accepted that invitation, because the ensuing experience made me remember something important.
Let me set the scene…
We are outside, on a warm day, under the shade of trees in someone’s nice, big backyard here in Southern California. Everyone is sitting in chairs, eating and drinking around a big table. It’s a very friendly, casual vibe. There are a lot of different kinds of sparkling water available. Some of the folks here know each other really well and some are meeting the group for the first or second time.
After a bit, I get to start my little meditation - which was focused on our heart’s energy fields - and at one point I invite everyone to allow aspects of the natural world to mix and mingle with their heart’s energy field; and then notice the effects.
As soon as I began to speak this invitation, I swear, the birdsong got louder and the breeze became so noticeable (caressing our skin and ruffling the leaves on the trees) it was almost like the wind itself was another guest at the party.
And that made me remember - nature knows we are here.
Even when we’ve forgotten her for days, weeks, years, Nature never turns away from us when we turn towards her. And, when we turn towards her, we turn towards the best parts of ourselves and one another.
A few weeks ago, in our weekly practice space, I shared a short dharma talk related to Vision 3 from 99 VISIONS. (If you don’t know, in that paid space each Friday I offer an audio version of one of the meditations from 99 VISIONS as well as a short audio talk to offer context and other teachings. These two weekly audio offering make up the framework for our practice and are also included in the Streamer’s library.)
Let me share with you this little talk related to Vision 3 - Animal -
We are SO in our heads these days. As I wrote last week, how can we not be? From the macro to the micro, our minds are being stimulated into overdrive.
Animal meditations* (and meditation in general) can really bring us back into our bodies, enliven our senses and wake us up to what life is really about.
These are all good antidotes to too much time spent in the head or in the phone.
I know it is really easy to abandon a meditation practice. By offering something inspirational every week that we can listen to and do “together”, I am hoping to create a framework that keeps us coming back to collect the gifts our meditation practice always wants to give us.
“I love the new 99 Visions process (in the Friday Substack)! Everything about it, the little Dharma talk, the use of the sweet illustrations from the book (which I do have) in the webpage's design, the setting of intention over time - it is all most welcome and I am so grateful to connect with your work.
When I walk my dog, I sometimes bring my phone with the sole purpose of listening to one of your meditations, as a sit down break, turn around point. My dog's name is Dug and he likes your meditations too!”
- Anita
Of course, animals and nature are not the only antidotes. Our July Free Page is LOADED with three meditations to help us clarify who we are (HOUSE), where we are (TIMELINE) and what energies will be a great match for us (MEADOW).
“Your Timeline mediation is AMAZING and is by far my favorite ❤
I did it yesterday and cannot get over how powerful it was. SO powerful that I am still feeling the incredible energy from it today.”
- Brandy
“I did Timeline last night and I was kind of speechless when I came out of it ... in awe”
- Amanda
Lest you think I’m becoming a luddite, as I said last week, but probably should repeat here - I do sometimes have fun on the internet.
Like getting messages like this -
“The internet somehow brought you and your meditations to my awareness. I am so grateful for this! And here I can have a positive social interaction by epressing my gratitude. Thank you, Jessica Snow, for being a ray of sunlight, warming me in the cold, distorted digital world. Your meditations are helping!”
- Paul
And, I do make magic on the internet, as do many people I know.
I’m just calling this out because it’s just so out of balance - too much thinking, not enough living; I feel like our little human nervous systems just can’t take it much longer.
I also am very aware that the online space could (and probably will) become even louder and more un-hinged as we progress through the rest of 2024.
Fortunately, we ARE magical people and we do have magical tools. I am here to highlight and offer those tools and encourage us to use them. If not now, when?
Until next time,
Jess
* Animal meditations are one of my specialties. In both the Streamer’s library and in the $5 shop you’ll find different kinds of animal meditations - MORE THAN HUMAN, FAMILIAR, HER LOVE, ANIMAL, BIG CAT, SERPENTINE, WOLF, FUR + FLOWERS, BIRDS + BOXES, WILD HORSES, THE HAWK - I’m probably missing some, but that’s a good start…
"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful."
- Alice Walker
“I finally understand how all timelines are one timeline. Everything is right here, right now.”
- Kelly Oxford
Daisies
Go ahead: say what you're thinking. The garden
is not the real world. Machines
are the real world. Say frankly what any fool
could read in your face: it makes sense
to avoid us, to resist
nostalgia. It is
not modern enough, the sound the wind makes
stirring a meadow of daisies: the mind
cannot shine following it. And the mind
wants to shine, plainly, as
machines shine, and not
grow deep, as, for example, roots. It is very touching,
all the same, to see you cautiously
approaching the meadow's border in early morning,
when no one could possibly
be watching you. The longer you stand at the edge,
the more nervous you seem. No one wants to hear
impressions of the natural world: you will be
laughed at again; scorn will be piled on you.
As for what you're actually
hearing this morning: think twice
before you tell anyone what was said in this field
and by whom.
- Louise Glück
“Yet, as I knelt there, I did hear something. Not a sound, but a sort of silence, a faint hum like the space between note and note in a song. I waited for it to fade into the air, for my mind to right itself. But it went on.
I had a wild thought there, beneath that sky.
“I will eat these herbs. Then whatever is truly in me, let it be out, at last!!”
- Madeline Miller, Circe
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
– Anne Lamott
“I really believe that there is only and always magic on the other side of taking care of yourself, but sometimes taking care of yourself requires you to be brave if it means that you’re going to be an outlier, that you’re going to do something other people are mostly not doing.”
- Anna Fusco, Lord Cowboy
"All the time I was getting closer to animals and nature, and as a result, closer to myself and more and more in tune with the spiritual power."
- Jane Goodall
“What does this wildish intuition do? Like the wolf, intuition has claws that pry things open and pin things down, it has eyes that an see through the shields of persona, it has ears that hear beyond the range of mundane human hearing. With this formidable psychic tools a person takes on a shrewd and even precognitive animal consciousness, one that deepens her humanity and sharpens her ability to move confidently in the outer world…
…To be strong does not mean to sprout muscles and flex. It means meeting one’s own numinosity without fleeing, actively living with the wild nature in one’s own way. It means being able to learn, to be able to stand what we now know. It means to stand and live.”
– Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Gaia has no church because she doesn’t need one. Nor is there a need for any ritual other than high-focus care for a plant, wild animal, the bees or any form of nature within your orb. Heirloom seeds are more valuable than hymns.”
MINDFUL
Every day
I see or I hear
Something
That more or less
Kills me
With delight,
That leaves me
Like a needle
In the haystack
Of light.
It is what I was born for –
To look, to listen,
To lose myself
Inside this soft world –
To instruct myself
Over and over
In joy,
And acclamation.
Nor am I talking
About the exceptional,
The fearful, the dreadful,
The very extravagant –
But of the ordinary,
The common, the very drab,
The daily presentation.
Oh good scholar,
I say to myself,
How can you help
But grow wise
With such teachings
As these –
The untrimmable light
Of the world,
The ocean’s shine,
The prayers that are made
Out of grass?
- Mary Oliver
A joy, thank you always for sharing 🌈