The 50 feet tall Sitka Spruce spirits chuckle quietly as I once more pack up my camp and prepare to move onwards into this great Mystery. Slall berries are ripened upon their bushes surrounding Site 10 at Kei Kai Wei Campground, Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Raven has been my predawn awakener with robin red breast bobbing along the well trod earth during the breakfast preparations, easefully discovering my apple cores, tips of green beans,tossed purposefully amidst the green shrubs, with intentions to seed this earth after I leave.
My focus is multifold as I begin the naturally orderly process:discern as to what I really truly need now;give away that which no longer serves purpose joyously; envision the blueprint of the space in the back of my Pearl Rav4; then consciously pack!
It comes with years of travelling with the Bundle,and years of happily chosen ways of camping for 4-5 months most years.The benefits of service as a nomad!
Packing stretches my capacities not only for discernment, but also for higher levels of visual spatial skills, and with much lifting, engages my muscles in that heave HO!
My Rav4, Pearl, becomes a vehicle for great spirit to move onwards, and like a travelling Ba Gua, the fengshui trainings begin to easefully take hold. Everything has its complimentary aspects and everything, once organically decided with what where,slips into place and space.
It takes time as well, to restfully set about this migrational way again.No rushing, no neurotic worry of getting there or will I forget anything.Nomads trust that once we resource what we need and have chosen,we have exactly what we need. In my experiences, likely more than I need and thus, there is opportunity to be generous and to give away.
The reverse is also true. When I came to Quadra, the mystery revealed that I was to camp at Wei Wai Kei and Rav4 contents did not include cooking pots nor a bucket in which to wash dishes. Mid June,I stopped by the local Cove general store and asked for each:2 generous women jumped into the conversation: ‘Folks did not take these two small camping pots in our give away! Here you are!”Similarly for the bucket: ” Is this what you need?” Removing its nails and screws as contents, it became part of my itinerary for $5!
Packing up reminds my heart of such charitable natures and I feel blessed.All that I need is already given to me.
Nothing is ever wasted, simply recycled. I touch each item at different times in my travels, and kinesiologically assess: Is this a YES to keep and it serves,or a NO to give away as I was given to with joy!
The MAPPING of Rav4, Pearl, is very clearly laid out before I move objects.Like the Ba Gua in Feng Shui protocols, everything has a space for a specific reason.The big blue bin of pots pans dishes cooking requirements go into the center, like the Tao of Health, food preparation and eating fulfills my souls needs to stay healthful on the road.
The blue bin of clothes is aligned with seasons and temperatures, heavier clothing now on the bottom, layered with lighter tshirts, shorts, two skirts on top.When weathers shift and I discover a need, or an occasion arises, it is to THRIFT shoppes that GMA goes! And when that is fulfilled, to a THRIFT shoppe, I return!
Two propane stoves are tucked wisely into a blue recycled freezer bag,and due to lessons learned, honored with the space behind the Toyota spare tire, dutifully covered with protection.
Lanterns and art supplies, enlightening in unique ways, are stashed in a large African woven colored basket. While all camping equipment is laid flat beneath again layered. First the rays from my Finnish lineage for the bottom of tents, the bamboo collapsible table, the two tarps,and finally the Mountain Equipment Coop sage green bag with larger tent and poles, then the World Famous bag with my smaller evergreen tent! Bungie cords are my delight and tuck into a cloth bag between the propane stoves and art supplied basket.
Rituals and ceremonies are the raison d’etre of my being so 2 baskets again from the sisters of Africa, are dedicated: one for cacao complete with white garb and golden cups for service, another for larger circles,feted with a large embedded with turquoise and coral beads staff,smudge bowls and sage, palo santos, my obsidian pipe and tobacco in the thirteen moon leather pouch.
Oh YES, just remembered that beneath the lantern and art supplies, dwell my crystals for gridding on full moons and at earth locations calling for such mandalas! How could I have forgotten these living ancestors!
Pillows and two blankets, one from Bolivia and another from Mexico,top the clothing blue bin, while the rolled up mats and 2 sleeping bag stuck in right behind. Truth is I have no view from the passenger side back!
The front seat of the passenger way is for my beautifully invested samsonite travelling office, replete with computer and various headsets and wires to plug intolife somewhere! My current 6 projects are now spread out over this floor of the lodge in which I am retreating to write and to bathe in antarctic salted water!They along with pens and antidotes to emfs live in the samsonite roll it around airports and over gravelly paths bag!
Packing up is such a celebration of all the ways that this universe gives to us.At the foot of my passenger seat, is my overnight nontoxic healthy loving self caring back pack, bought in Liberia, Costa Rica! Layered from bottom up,products are purchased only after reading all labels and being assured of their DO NO HARMness. Thanks to our mother’s training, I always include clean underwear, and to our father, a cloth handkerchief ,and for sweat lodges, a red bandana!
The vertical path in the back of Pearl, Rav4, is for walking sticks found on beaches, two poles for steeper pitched hikes,the circle talking stick, and a bow calling for its string.My incredibly durable yoga mat travels there as well,a giving experience of years of practices, 5 traditions of Om, asanas and the blessings and corrections of many teachers!
Packing up and moving on is such a satisfying experience,with companions of books: Julia Cameron’ Vein of Gold,Mark Woolyn’s It Did not Start With You, and newly,Defiant Spirits: Canadian Art of the group of Seven.Each has a dedicated journal for me to write as I digest the consciousness of authors, artists, respond to inquiries of family constellations, releasing by my sacred fires,the ancestral traumas and then create anew. Wounds into wonders.
These are the days of wonder, my loves. A wondering when these masked faces will reveal what lives beneath them. Days when the inquiry serves a greater mystery:when will we dance together rather than distance from each other.When will our defiant spirits arise from beneath these outwardly thrust fears of illness and death and say: I fearlessly hug you and hold you with my love and kindness.
These are the times, so puuurfect for discerning what it is that we in our hearts desire for our future world, what are our values, what is our stance as we choose to seed for future generations from our NOW.
These are such enriching and completely generous times on earth,for couples and for families, though facing thresholds, to sever ties from that which no longer serves. Rather than feeding hungry ghosts with our creative juices for the sake of some justified ends.
As we enter into these years of Aquarius, the water bearer,we are called to blessing our tears, our waters, our teas,the herbs of our forest floors, the gifts from organic gardens,we are called to pray with thanks for trees, for winged ones,for the sounds of the oceans waves outside my window right now.
For this fulling moon of August, the first of three times to harvest!
Genetically, my beloveds, we have packed up and migrated for generations for many reasons. There are echoes of how to and why running through our bloodlines.And yet, when rising to meet the calling now, as I rest assured that all of my needs are already met, that there is generosity in this world,that there is more than enough for all beings. In these moments,in these very simple movements, we move heaven on earth and clear a path for those yet to come.
Welcome , beloveds, to the harvests gleaned from packing up,moving onwards, knowing that we are fulfilling purposes, and that we attract that which we need.
These are the days of wonder. The days of the dance of divinity. These are the days we were born for. These are the days we trust.
For all of our relations