This past weekend I ventured outside in the 100+ degree heat (47 straight days!) to check the bird feeders outside of our bedroom windows and much to my surprise looked down amongst the ivy growing wild to find a very long snake skin which had recently been shed since the last time I checked the feeders in the morning.  It was a big one!  In fact, I was so impressed with the snake skin itself that I momentarily forgot that “said snake” could have been very nearby.    I took it as a “sign” from the powers that be that they were reminding me how our old selves can be shed and actually need to be shed so that the new selves/self can grow upwards and out.

A couple of week’s ago a publicist that I work with closely sent me a book to read called, “Shapeshifting Into Higher Consciousness” by Llyn Roberts. The tag line says, “Heal and Transform Yourself and Our World with Ancient Shamanic and Modern Methods.”  Whatever the word “shapeshifting” may conjure up in your mind, Llyn Roberts has a very respected academic background that not only includes her being a prominent teacher of healing and shamanism, but additionally she holds a master’s degree in Tibetan Buddhist and Western Psychology as well as having undergone extensive training with traditional Andean healers, and has been initiated into shamanic circles by Quechua peoples in South America, and in Siberia.  The list goes on and on so suffice it to say, she is someone that you can trust has done her homework and research.  I am thoroughly loving this book and highly recommend for you to read it as well.

Above the opening of Chapter One, Llyn has a quote by Joseph Campbell which says, “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.  The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”

Today in our lives as humans, no matter what culture we come from, we are all feeling the effects of generations of choices which  have been made both good and bad.  For some of us who may be more sensitive than others, right now can feel overwhelming from many standpoints such as the heating up of the planet to the economy if you live in a place that is driven by their economy.  Llyn writes, “As the consequences of wreaking havoc with our host planet play themselves out they look dire.  It is at precisely this time that so many of us are searching for hope.   We are looking for a way out of this nightmare.  But balance will not restore overnight. Humanity has devoted centuries to cultivating societies that see themselves as separate from nature. The deeper solution demands that we live by higher values.  We must dive deeply to reshape the consciousness that got us here in the first place.  This is a journey to our higher human qualities that help us live from our hearts and minds combined. There is opportunity underlying these times of change, which indigenous cultures have long foreseen.”

I don’t know about you, but I sure felt relieved and hopeful after I read that paragraph.  And the timing of reading this paragraph along with my finding the snake skin felt like Mother Earth was tweeting me  that all of the emotional and intellectual storms that I’ve been feeling and we’ve all been going through lately are a reflection of where we are growing through to the next level.  Oddly enough, when I heard my favorite NPR newscaster telling us that the high in Austin was expected to rise to 105 today, I did not feel that usual sink of oppressive despair that I have felt for several weeks now.  I do believe that everything is moving towards our highest good.  When I can hold on to this hope, it somehow gives me room to continue growing and shedding my skin along the way.

Take a moment today to stop and reflect on the messages that Earth is sending you.  Even if you work on the 45th floor of a skyscraper in the middle of New York City, Mother Nature can reach you there as well.  Look for the clouds and birds and/or the glint of the sun off of the Hudson.  We are all related.

mitakue oyasin