I turned off the car, took one conscious breath, and sat a moment.
Finding a space of peace within as I let my busy mind and active body settle from my morning. Silently, I breathed away those thoughts which competed for my scattered attention. Encouraged by my newfound peace, my eyes focused on what stood before me. A beautiful tree of red situated next to a smaller tree of yellow.
Such beauty in these Fall colors! They had not been present last time I parked my car before them. Or had they? I didn’t know.
So often racing from one space to another. I didn’t notice them yesterday, but these delightful colors were definitely present today.
I breathed in appreciation of the artistry dancing in the breeze before me.
My eyes slowly wandered to the left and took a moment to process the mix of colors around me. A beautiful holly tree with glistening green leaves. So vibrantly alive. These sturdy green leaves reflected the light as if diamonds had taken a pause in flight to wink at me.
I couldn’t help but noticing how generously the natural world shared beauty, diversity, and support.
Woven into the green holly leaves were splashes of red. The branches of the neighboring tree had come to visit, rest, and share in the beautification of this tiny patch of nature. I wondered if the red leaves understood the holly’s desire to adorn herself. Or if it was a beautiful friendship where the holly enjoyed both the brilliant red leaves and the stark naked branches in winter of her neighbor.
I don’t know how long I sat there. Creatively exploring the intent and friendship of the trees before me.
Smiling, I realized that this decorative gift of red was to be repaid in time. Day after day the red leaves would flutter in the breeze, leaving branches of brown unadorned. No longer offering a gift of color to the holly, roles would reverse as the receiver became the giver.
Throughout the winter, the vibrant holly tree would cradle the naked branches and adorn them with leaves of green and diamond lights.
I figured then that the sun and breeze conspired to dance this model of reciprocal giving. So its graceful movement and reflecting light might catch the fancy of a distracted driver who parked before it.
Such a generous lesson before me.
One that had been missed over many, many years of parking in that spot. Funny thing. In the days that followed, I found generous weavings of red, orange, brown, and green everywhere I went. When I was distracted by mindless, unimportant thoughts, dancing forests, alive with color, reminded me to breathe deeply. To open my eyes to the gifts of beauty, generosity, and magical light existing everywhere.
Reminding me to share my beautiful light with others.
To dance in harmony with others across all seasons. With all manner of support. Sometimes giving. Sometimes receiving. Always grateful for this generous exchange. In the Andean Medicine tradition and Peruvian culture, this generous exchange is called Ayni.
Reciprocity or the mutual exchange of energy, care, and love is the way of life for those in many indigenous cultures. Underlying this core principle is the understanding that all things are connected in the Universe.
This energy of giving and receiving is happening all the time across and between the cosmos, Earth, peoples, nature, and all creatures.
When you recognize this interconnectivity within life, your thoughts, words, and deeds align with Ayni. “What I do for you, I also do for me.” You care for the community in relationship with the wide world as this is essential to your wellbeing.
All of life, apart from we humans, practice Ayni. This generous friendship of trees is only one example.
If you’d like to learn more about the beautiful principles guiding the interconnected life of the cosmos and Earth, you can explore any wisdom tradition that holds this value. By whatever name it is called.
I often teach the Art of Becoming classes for women which explore Ayni, Beauty, Wisdom, and Love.
These classes and retreats journeys into the Andean cosmovision, use the Andean Medicine Wheel as a Map, and wise guardians to provide guidance on your life journey.
You may always learn more by visiting these pages: Andean Energy Medicine, Workshops, or Classes and Retreats.
Peace be with you and with all. No exceptions.
Vast forests of aspen are all interconnected by roots and, get this, are one genetic individual. Genetically identical, a forest of aspen is really one organism. Dr. Michael Grant at University of Colorado studied an aspen clone in Utah consisting of a calculated 47,000 tree trunks covering 106 acres. Doing the math, it weighed in at 13 million pounds. Just because we look different than frogs, an iceberg, or Marie living in Ireland doesn’t mean we can’t act as if we’re one big organism. Energetically, we are.
Learn the one essential skill that allows you to face any challenge with confidence, sturdiness, and inner calm.
More than a technique. It’s a game changer.
Life has a rhythm. It speeds up and slows down according to mysterious forces.
Your personal rhythm dances with the celestial bodies, seasons of the year, developmental phases, and the pulse of your Soulful evolutionary process. Living in harmony with these rhythms is in many ways hard to understand as it is a complicated and deeply personal process. Your rhythm dances with everyone’s rhythm in the grand Cosmic Dance.
When standing at a crossroad in your life, it’s natural to seek answers. To search for certainty about your next steps. To want assurance that the decision you are making will lead you in the right direction, with the best possible outcome. Here’s where your mind jumps in.
There are conversations you may instinctively avoid. Death. Dying. The journey beyond are among them. The final exhale. The closing of the body. The long walk home. The next place of being. In many ancient traditions, this is not an ending, but a sacred passage—a birth into new realms of being. Yet here, in this fast-moving world, death often remains veiled in silence, wrapped in fear, and avoided in conversation.
There are conversations you may instinctively avoid. Death. Dying. The journey beyond are among them. The final exhale. The closing of the body. The long walk home. The next place of being. In many ancient traditions, this is not an ending, but a sacred passage—a birth into new realms of being. Yet here, in this fast-moving world, death often remains veiled in silence, wrapped in fear, and avoided in conversation.
I was playing the game “Headbands” with my dog the other day. Playing board games and interactive games like charades are good fun. Given my kid has flown the coop, we hoodwinked our dog to play a rousing game of Headbands with us. We even let Milo choose the first card, but he seemed to have a hard time guessing what his card said.
As you celebrated the Summer Solstice and the New Moon this past week, our beloved shamans who are South of the Equator were celebrating the Winter Solstice in Cusco, Peru. Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, takes place on June 24th to commemorate the beginning of the Inca New Year and the Winter Solstice. Originating in the 15th century by Emperor Pachakuti, Inti Raymi was created as major Inca festival to honor the sun god Inti.
