The Unification of that which is Beyond and that which is Within

The more I integrate both Ecopsychology and Transpersonal psychology into my body, heart and mind, the more I realize how close both are related to each other and to my life, as a whole. There really is this sense of non-duality that exists. When I am outside and feeling the elements, I recognize the intensity of my own subjective experience within the moment. With this first real snow storm and being in the mountains, my awareness heightens knowing the edge of living in this high of an elevation is both magnificent in its intensity and possibly dangerous, the same. I find the Earth, the weather, the elemental factors of nature, teaching me how to "live" in the moment. This is a bridge I see of TP and EP. I am here...tending the fire - constant, mindful, aware that it brings comfort but that it has the potential to get out of control if my awareness is not centered in this "practice" this "tending" process. There is a primal feature, to me, that exists in hauling, chopping, and creating my own fire. I have the option of turning on the natural gas heater. Easy as one two three. But knowing how this fire tends to me as I to it is a connection that brings reciprocal caring forth. My daughter and I thank the wood before we place it into the wood burning stove - for giving it's life to preserve ours and to keep us warm. This warmth brings a certain feeling of satisfaction and relaxation. I find that I can meditate with greater ease on winter days, with fire burning and cold winds blowing against the windows.
The weather is changing and with each change, a "new" feeling births within me. Winter brings deeper contemplation, going within more, tending my own inner fires and setting intentions of a primal care-taking role. I watch my daughter as a mama deer would with her own young... entering a white landscape - open to the elements, wind blowing fiercely against her young skin. I bundle her and tell her to watch the slippery ground, follow the other kids and to pack her layers. Protection feels primitive in a way during the winter. The summer, I let her run and be free(er) because it (feels) less dangerous. I look at ecopsychology as bringing me closer to my innate feelings, my natural senses and to a deeper place of living within and without of my Self. There is an edge to nature that I am drawn to because it, literally, "wake me up." As the cold wind keeps me awake in the moment so does the warm stove within my heart. I do not believe they are separate, at this point. And I, clearly, see and experience that I, too, am not separate either.

bowing by the fire,
Tatiana