One of my favorite songs is, The Course by Ayla Nereo.
The lyrics always strike something so deep within me.
I usually cry and smile and proceed to listen to it five times in a row. It’s been this way ever since it was released.
Over the weekend, I experienced an embodiment of that song.
The lyrics go like this:
“This breath we’ve been given, This life we are tending, This garden we are seeding for the ones yet to come.
Oh, who will fetch the water? Will it be your great granddaughter? My darling, who’ll fetch the water?”
This song speaks to the truth of how we are connected to generations to come. It stops me in my tracks as I wonder… what will my great granddaughter be like?
I move with more intention when that question is in my heart.
Huge shifts in my life have unfolded due to the actions of my great grandmother and the journey she made to the U.S. from Sicily.
An entire new life has opened for me. She gave me this gift and I am now indeed… fetching the water.
Could she feel me then? Did she know I would pick up the bucket?
I arrived at the Women’s Herbalism Symposium and my entire body relaxed.
A full wave of nostalgia carried me through the weekend as I sank into the rhythm of being surrounded by women & children. We cooked, we shared skills and medicine, we wove baskets (my very first medicine basket! 🤗)
We sat in ceremony, sang and drummed by the fire…
And all I could feel was, “oh yeah, I know this.”
It all felt so simple and true and deeply remembered in my bones.
None of it a big deal actually, just us existing within our design.
It was like a giant warm hug for four days straight.
The plants were with us,
our ancestors were with us,
and I could palpably feel the ones yet to come and how our actions weave the future for them.
I went without knowing a soul (my favorite thing to do) and left feeling so naturally part of a family.
An event and land that has been tended in this way for 33 years.
Reminding me of the medicine of holding the long range vision.
We all shed tears and opened our hearts during the Maiden/Mother/Crone Ceremony.
Someone rubbed by back as I rested in the Red Tent ~ my bleed perfectly timed with this gathering.
Skills and support were shared for how we keep our communities healthy from a sovereign place.
I’m in awe and also not at all.
Because it’s all so simple and true.
And we remember how to do this.
We just have to keep remembering.
Sending you love.
Lisa Marie xx
Wow, this is so beautiful! I listened to The Course and it's my new favorite song. I LOVE the thread of belonging, we are both the great-granddaughters and the great-grandmothers. Thank you so much for sharing your work!
...with tears of gratitude...
Your work is so important.