Achieving True Freedom
One time, after returning from a nature awareness class, I was walking in a beautiful wooded area. I knew something about this place, but wanted to shift my attention and bring more alertness to my experience. I stopped to look at a bush whose flowers were quite small, but gathered in large clusters. Looking closely, I noticed the actual flowers which were numerous and intricate. Suddenly, my focus adjusted almost like the lens of an automatic camera adjusting to an image. The flowers came alive with movement! Hundreds of tiny insects of the same color as the pedals, were crawling about them! Startled, I leaned back. My sensing eyes had picked up the movement that my perceiving mind had not and adjusted so I could bring them into my conscious awareness! What else was there in my world that I regularly missed? And, why did I see the insects this time?
One of my biggest roles as the head of Way of the Wild is to help people of all ages recognize their innate unlimited potential. By that I mean, to live their lives not enslaved by limiting beliefs. My goal is that they will use limits only as an orienting tool, a way of contextualizing what is happening around them. Through this, they may not allow limitations to become their truth and thus co-opting their identity and freedom. Limitations come out of our need to know. Ambiguity is uncomfortable for most people. Knowing somehow gives us a sense of security and sometimes superiority. We are supposed to “get it.” We have seen others be disparaged for not knowing. Unfortunately, we are sacrificing our awareness and the resultant expansion of our consciousness to our self’s need for security and appreciation in the moment. And, we are giving away our power. Is there a compromise position? Yes, remain open. Don’t be satisfied with what you think you know. Realize that there is always more there than you have perceived and passionately seek for it to be revealed. You are likely sensing more than you are perceiving. Seek out those sensations. Form a relationship with them based in wonder, trust and appreciation. This surely is a great adventure, but one that will keep you humble, protected and is on the path to the heart of wisdom.
Way of the Wild
Welcome to Mary Margaret Sweeney’s website for Way of the Wild! Way of the Wild is dedicated to connecting children, youth and adults deeply to their innate intuitive wisdom and transformative power through developing an intimate relationship with the natural world. Look below for Demonstrations and here for future blogs on nature and intuitive wisdom, indigenous world views for community, hunting and gathering as naturally sacred processes, the role of ceremony in rites of passage, vision quest and other initiatory rites.
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