"The circle of life is never truly ashes to ashes or dust to dust.
We will always taste the sweet sweat of home.
We are the fruit of bones." I so love this! And also as a fan of tree hugging it must have felt so good to hug this old, wise tree. I bet it whispered some magical stories to you! 🙏💕
Great write, Jamie. 'The fruit of bones' ~ what a powerful metaphor.
(I've been thinking about bones lately... now that you mention it too I feel inspired to pick up this clue and follow on the trail)
There is loads I resonate with in this piece ~ from the olive groves (in view from the windows of our living room) to the family stories passed on through the generations ~ to the sweet sweat of home.
Thank you Veronika! For me, it was definitely a quest that kept coming back! Something tells me it’s not quite done. Bless you on your own journey home. 🙏❤️
I love the quest, the adventure, and the calling to go there. The grapes…embodying your ancestors. Eating the grapes. This theme has always been interesting for me. I struggle at times with my lineage. I took a dive into it with napkin notes, sketched family trees that included the traumas never spoken about. I tried to go to a graveyard myself and never made it. It was in Germany in a small town. And I did check my dna and learned I am not almost all German. Although I am Northern European pretty exclusively. I wonder about bones. I have always had a sense of soul and how the soul occupies a body and a body is a sacred container of sorts. An art piece. How it feels heavy to be in a body for my soul. Bodies are dense . And then the churches I have been in with their relics, often of bones. Bones that were fought over. Which makes me imagine that perhaps bones and items that people have touched, or that mattered to them, perhaps sing with their frequency like music. So in that cemetery, perhaps you were gifted by a silent song? It seems fun to fulfill such a quest, and beautiful. And a lovely lineage to carry forward. The Greeks seem to embody so much poetry. I think of Greece, especially Ancient Greece, as a place that valued beauty and poetry.
Thank you so much for reading and for reaching out Terra! I even rented a Toyota to get there lol. To me the last thing that turns to dust is bones if it ever does. It seems to stay a little longer. To me, somehow, it’s a body in a soul. That Stardust piece factors in somewhere in those bones. My DNA is half greek and half everything lol. My dad’s mom is adopted so there is a missing hole there. The Greek DNA certainly screams a bit louder and definitely helps me get up and dance. Home may truly only be a place in the heart, but some thing about standing on top of thousands of years of genetic history is definitely a homecoming. Realizing that they decomposed and nourished those grapes was surreal. Definitely the best tasting grapes I’ve ever had. Bless you 🙏❤️
Hi Jamie. It is good to be in touch with you as well. I am in another of those liminal-life spaces of uncertainty, contemplation, and un-knowing. My mind struggles in such places...even to respond to what you say above in a coherent way, which I wish to do. So I will just say, "thank you," which is incredibly incomplete. I am with how much I want to "get" your experience of a "body in a soul" and how maybe it is different for me and for all of us or how I am incompetent to not "get" that better. For me, "getting" something is having a personal experience of it. I love that you rented a Toyota. I love that you took in something with those grapes that was so huge, it is beyond my mind, and yet I know it to be true and so, so very important. And I wonder if I can do the same without my mind "getting it." I wonder about that hole with your adopted grandmother and how, if I was doing my own version of constellation work, I would represent her and represent the hole, which is not empty. I get curious about what is there, even though it looks dark. And this morning, I sit with imaginary energy in my hands to see if I can love something more. Maybe I would hold that "hole" and see if I could simply do that, with love and care and nothing else. It is an all-over-the-place day for me as I think about my own writing for this week, and what I shall write from this place...and about the full moon today, and going back to the US in a week. Life. Amazing. Incredible. Such a blessing. And it takes courage. Thank you for bringing in an ancestral thread, which is something I have struggled to include with the amount of gratitude I desire.
Thanks! That hole is only from an information purpose as my own tests tell me, it’s Scottish. There’s just no names there. It still feels whole.
I hear you on the body in a soul. It was a paradigm that freed me somehow! More to come in the next few weeks. Definitely not preaching, but only sharing in ...cuoreosity. living the questions only. Home is definitely coming home to love. Wherever however whoever whomever. The door always seems to open inside. Bless you on your journey home to the US. Safe travels. See you in the spaces between the words. Enjoy that RAV4 🙏❤️
Well, there is a lot of magic in Scotland. I am glad the hole feels Whole and it sounds like you have a lovely sense of it. Yes. See you in the spaces between the words. Thank you re: the RAV4. It will be fun to drive across the desert in it again to see my uncle.
I am also in a liminal, unknowing, cocoon, transitory phase of life right now. You are not alone. The only thing I find I can do during this time (because I do get frustrated with the lack of clarity) is to surrender. To lean into the silence even more, let go, and deepen my faith 🙏🏽
That is beautiful and the way. Surrender seems key to so much. I love your words about leaning into the silence even more...letting go...deepening faith. Things are shifting today. They do, they just feel like they won't when I am back in the discomfort of the between space where nothing is happening and lots is happening. Today a question came to me as I walked on the beach. "What if you just do what makes you happy?" It sounds possibly, trite. Or obvious. Or silly when one is in the midst of discomfort. But in that particular moment, it felt like a good question. I would like to live it more.
Methinks there are no missing holes, just not seen but always felt, always there, tapping in, tapping your shoulder. Perhaps you are a descendent of a poet, musician, a traveler, a tinker, a lover, a warrior, a holy human. All of them have names. Geraldine
Thank you so much and I love that list! Yes to it all. It definitely feels familiar. It’s crazy. I was on a trip to Scotland to follow the footsteps of my wife’s ancestors and I felt a crazy sense of belonging. More than anywhere until that Greek trip. Lo and behold on the ancestry DNA tests that so-called missing “whole” is Scottish. Our bones don’t tell lies 🙏❤️
We are all sacred containers for the divine to express itself through us. I like what you are exploring here Terra. Thank you for taking the time to share. It is fascinating to think about all the stories that came before us, to make us, us. All those pivotal moments that shaped our ancestors lives and led them to become who they were. I’m also aware of the fact that there is a side to our ancestors we do not know of, untold stories that died with them. The secrets that died with their bodies but continue to be carried in their spirit and in ours. We are all stories wrapped in skin. I wrote about ancestors recently too if you’d like to read: https://open.substack.com/pub/soulwisdom/p/ancestors-and-ancestars?r=a9uns&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
But I guess it is still one tree at a time - all that work.
I have just been listening to a podcast of Iain McGilchrist on Unherd in London recorded a little while ago. Part of Iain's thesis ... poetry is where conversation can hear the music.
Your writing here is so evocative and sensuous. Just beautiful.
I listened to your voice for the first time today. Gosh how strange it is to connect on that level with a perfect stranger. There is something kind of exposing about it, to listen to someone's voice. I almost blushed. 😊. Do you know what I mean? It's like uncovering the layers. Without sounding too weird or stalky here!! Hard to convey this in writing. The power of attaching one's words to one's voice. Also discovered you are Canadian which is nice to know.
Love a good tree hug. Trees are such wise and powerful souls.
Thank you so much, Jo for your kind words and encouragement. Thanks for connecting to the words in the journey I shared . Thanks for listening to my voice. I agree it just adds one more piece of connection. I find it so much easier to tell a bit of a story and context with each article, as opposed to just reading it to script. There’s some thing about reading poetry out loud that just opens up to heart and is a portal to presence. I appreciate your support! Yep, the white stuff is starting to fall up here in the great white north! It adds a whole other layer to that sweet dark journey inside. Bless you. 🙏❤️
"The circle of life is never truly ashes to ashes or dust to dust.
We will always taste the sweet sweat of home.
We are the fruit of bones." I so love this! And also as a fan of tree hugging it must have felt so good to hug this old, wise tree. I bet it whispered some magical stories to you! 🙏💕
Thank you so much Sadhbh! Beyond magic! Home
Great write, Jamie. 'The fruit of bones' ~ what a powerful metaphor.
(I've been thinking about bones lately... now that you mention it too I feel inspired to pick up this clue and follow on the trail)
There is loads I resonate with in this piece ~ from the olive groves (in view from the windows of our living room) to the family stories passed on through the generations ~ to the sweet sweat of home.
Thank you for such an inspiring piece.
Thank you Veronika! For me, it was definitely a quest that kept coming back! Something tells me it’s not quite done. Bless you on your own journey home. 🙏❤️
I love the quest, the adventure, and the calling to go there. The grapes…embodying your ancestors. Eating the grapes. This theme has always been interesting for me. I struggle at times with my lineage. I took a dive into it with napkin notes, sketched family trees that included the traumas never spoken about. I tried to go to a graveyard myself and never made it. It was in Germany in a small town. And I did check my dna and learned I am not almost all German. Although I am Northern European pretty exclusively. I wonder about bones. I have always had a sense of soul and how the soul occupies a body and a body is a sacred container of sorts. An art piece. How it feels heavy to be in a body for my soul. Bodies are dense . And then the churches I have been in with their relics, often of bones. Bones that were fought over. Which makes me imagine that perhaps bones and items that people have touched, or that mattered to them, perhaps sing with their frequency like music. So in that cemetery, perhaps you were gifted by a silent song? It seems fun to fulfill such a quest, and beautiful. And a lovely lineage to carry forward. The Greeks seem to embody so much poetry. I think of Greece, especially Ancient Greece, as a place that valued beauty and poetry.
Thank you so much for reading and for reaching out Terra! I even rented a Toyota to get there lol. To me the last thing that turns to dust is bones if it ever does. It seems to stay a little longer. To me, somehow, it’s a body in a soul. That Stardust piece factors in somewhere in those bones. My DNA is half greek and half everything lol. My dad’s mom is adopted so there is a missing hole there. The Greek DNA certainly screams a bit louder and definitely helps me get up and dance. Home may truly only be a place in the heart, but some thing about standing on top of thousands of years of genetic history is definitely a homecoming. Realizing that they decomposed and nourished those grapes was surreal. Definitely the best tasting grapes I’ve ever had. Bless you 🙏❤️
Hi Jamie. It is good to be in touch with you as well. I am in another of those liminal-life spaces of uncertainty, contemplation, and un-knowing. My mind struggles in such places...even to respond to what you say above in a coherent way, which I wish to do. So I will just say, "thank you," which is incredibly incomplete. I am with how much I want to "get" your experience of a "body in a soul" and how maybe it is different for me and for all of us or how I am incompetent to not "get" that better. For me, "getting" something is having a personal experience of it. I love that you rented a Toyota. I love that you took in something with those grapes that was so huge, it is beyond my mind, and yet I know it to be true and so, so very important. And I wonder if I can do the same without my mind "getting it." I wonder about that hole with your adopted grandmother and how, if I was doing my own version of constellation work, I would represent her and represent the hole, which is not empty. I get curious about what is there, even though it looks dark. And this morning, I sit with imaginary energy in my hands to see if I can love something more. Maybe I would hold that "hole" and see if I could simply do that, with love and care and nothing else. It is an all-over-the-place day for me as I think about my own writing for this week, and what I shall write from this place...and about the full moon today, and going back to the US in a week. Life. Amazing. Incredible. Such a blessing. And it takes courage. Thank you for bringing in an ancestral thread, which is something I have struggled to include with the amount of gratitude I desire.
Thanks! That hole is only from an information purpose as my own tests tell me, it’s Scottish. There’s just no names there. It still feels whole.
I hear you on the body in a soul. It was a paradigm that freed me somehow! More to come in the next few weeks. Definitely not preaching, but only sharing in ...cuoreosity. living the questions only. Home is definitely coming home to love. Wherever however whoever whomever. The door always seems to open inside. Bless you on your journey home to the US. Safe travels. See you in the spaces between the words. Enjoy that RAV4 🙏❤️
Well, there is a lot of magic in Scotland. I am glad the hole feels Whole and it sounds like you have a lovely sense of it. Yes. See you in the spaces between the words. Thank you re: the RAV4. It will be fun to drive across the desert in it again to see my uncle.
Safe travels 🙏❤️
I am also in a liminal, unknowing, cocoon, transitory phase of life right now. You are not alone. The only thing I find I can do during this time (because I do get frustrated with the lack of clarity) is to surrender. To lean into the silence even more, let go, and deepen my faith 🙏🏽
That is beautiful and the way. Surrender seems key to so much. I love your words about leaning into the silence even more...letting go...deepening faith. Things are shifting today. They do, they just feel like they won't when I am back in the discomfort of the between space where nothing is happening and lots is happening. Today a question came to me as I walked on the beach. "What if you just do what makes you happy?" It sounds possibly, trite. Or obvious. Or silly when one is in the midst of discomfort. But in that particular moment, it felt like a good question. I would like to live it more.
Forget about enlightenment.
Sit down wherever you are
And listen to the wind singing in your veins.
Feel the love, the longing, the fear in your bones.
Open your heart to who you are, right now,
Not who you would like to be,
Not the saint you are striving to become,
But the being right here before you, inside you, around you.
All of you is holy.
You are already more and less
Than whatever you can know.
Breathe out,
Touch in,
Let go.
By John Welwood
thank you...
Beautiful.
Methinks there are no missing holes, just not seen but always felt, always there, tapping in, tapping your shoulder. Perhaps you are a descendent of a poet, musician, a traveler, a tinker, a lover, a warrior, a holy human. All of them have names. Geraldine
Thank you so much and I love that list! Yes to it all. It definitely feels familiar. It’s crazy. I was on a trip to Scotland to follow the footsteps of my wife’s ancestors and I felt a crazy sense of belonging. More than anywhere until that Greek trip. Lo and behold on the ancestry DNA tests that so-called missing “whole” is Scottish. Our bones don’t tell lies 🙏❤️
Of course you do! I have a wee bit of the Scottish as well, they got around and traversed the Earth. Boom
We are all sacred containers for the divine to express itself through us. I like what you are exploring here Terra. Thank you for taking the time to share. It is fascinating to think about all the stories that came before us, to make us, us. All those pivotal moments that shaped our ancestors lives and led them to become who they were. I’m also aware of the fact that there is a side to our ancestors we do not know of, untold stories that died with them. The secrets that died with their bodies but continue to be carried in their spirit and in ours. We are all stories wrapped in skin. I wrote about ancestors recently too if you’d like to read: https://open.substack.com/pub/soulwisdom/p/ancestors-and-ancestars?r=a9uns&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I will go look. Thank you so much!
Yellow flowers are the let out clause.
But I guess it is still one tree at a time - all that work.
I have just been listening to a podcast of Iain McGilchrist on Unherd in London recorded a little while ago. Part of Iain's thesis ... poetry is where conversation can hear the music.
So , thank you.
(link to Iain McG if anyone can spare an hour https://youtu.be/v4IeuIg9nGY? )
PS My memories of Greece are over five decades old - yes, tired lands and villages mostly of grandparents, but Arcadia was not always so
Ah Arcadia. Thank you so much for reading and for commenting. I will check out your share. Thank you so much. Bless you 🙏❤️
Your writing here is so evocative and sensuous. Just beautiful.
I listened to your voice for the first time today. Gosh how strange it is to connect on that level with a perfect stranger. There is something kind of exposing about it, to listen to someone's voice. I almost blushed. 😊. Do you know what I mean? It's like uncovering the layers. Without sounding too weird or stalky here!! Hard to convey this in writing. The power of attaching one's words to one's voice. Also discovered you are Canadian which is nice to know.
Love a good tree hug. Trees are such wise and powerful souls.
Jo 🙏
Thank you so much, Jo for your kind words and encouragement. Thanks for connecting to the words in the journey I shared . Thanks for listening to my voice. I agree it just adds one more piece of connection. I find it so much easier to tell a bit of a story and context with each article, as opposed to just reading it to script. There’s some thing about reading poetry out loud that just opens up to heart and is a portal to presence. I appreciate your support! Yep, the white stuff is starting to fall up here in the great white north! It adds a whole other layer to that sweet dark journey inside. Bless you. 🙏❤️
We are indeed the fruits of their bones. This is beautifully expressed Jamie. I recently wrote about honouring our ancestors too as I was thinking about the day of the dead: https://open.substack.com/pub/soulwisdom/p/ancestors-and-ancestars?r=a9uns&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thanks so much for reading! I’ll definitely check this out
Love it... I'd love to go around the Greek Islands in the next 5 years. Every time I go, I feel content and at peace.
It’s definitely a place I’d enjoy cigars, calamari, and a hell of a lot of writing 🙏❤️