Feature article from our December 2024 Newsletter
This time of year can become a turbulent race to the finish line.
Things to buy, people to see, emotions, exhaustion and stress all running as hot as the days.
Family dynamics, relationships and networks can get stressed and time feels rushed with an endless to-do list offering even more pressure.
But... do you hear those cicadas?
On these hot summer days it's like a pulse being kept in the air... throbbing in time to the invisible waves of heat rising.
It's a bumper year.. the birds are having a festive feast everyday.
Sometimes, the noise can be deafening.
And we might get annoyed. "Oh!! Those cicadas are so loud!"
We feel stressed.
A voice inside us might say, "I can't even step outside for a break! I can't even hear myself think! Can't I just have some peace and quiet for one nano-second?"
It feels like nature is against us. Making things harder.
And yet, if we stop for a pause, and begin to listen, perhaps the sound becomes less annoying and more like a chant.
We might tune in and listen more closely... what else can I hear in this sound?
Perhaps individual cicadas singing slightly out of time, slightly off-key... or different rhythms within the whole like the different parts of the choir.
Or maybe even different bird calls getting excited by the song of food, or even traffic noises, cars, trucks, people around us.
What if we begin to allow the sound to pulse through us. To carry us.
We might start to flow with it. We start to ride the waves moving up with the crescendo and down to the micro pause like a space in between the in and out of breath.
A tiny anticipation in us builds as we wait for the next wave.
The cicadas have got our attention. We have tuned in to their frequency.
Finally, grumbling, kicking and screaming we awaken to their beautiful reminder...
Life is moving.
Our soul is calling.
As loud as cicadas.
And here it is. A mindful pause.
Not silent, not perfect.
We can be sweaty and annoyed and stressed out. We may have just yelled at someone, dropped something precious, not finished our Christmas shopping or forgotten something.
We just show up and within the din find a little piece of space. We just listen for a moment.
We feel that actually, those are cicadas are singing a song as sacred as a spiritual chant; a carol; a lullaby.
And we come to bless this moment as we realise we are in it. Alive. Breathing.
There was a story I heard once at one of the Bluegum Rewild camps.
Of a man that would get excited by the sound of cicadas and would love to sit under the trees with the most cicadas to get a 'Cicada massage'.
He said
"They're only too loud if you listen with your ears. Don't do that. Listen with your body and get a massage. Very healthy!"
If you would like to take a conscious pause and tune in to a different frequency and be guided by one of our open-hearted therapists, book in to the clinic this month.
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