A Tiny Bell is Ringing

can you hear it?

A tiny bell is ringing

Ringing

Ringing

Can you hear it?

It is the ancestors, saying

You must remember how to live

Great grandmothers and great aunties,

the old ones who know better

than to be taken in by the bright shine

of modern nonsense

And the large, great ancestress with long braids

whom I met in a village in the dreamtime

She held my face in her two hands

Looked me in the eyes and said

You must remember how to live

She told me without words

that I must sing to Earth

Then she invited me to

be Earth

and see for myself how it feels

I dissolved

And became Earth

And I felt the people in her village

Digging, moving, changing my body

with reverence

And this was good for me

Then I felt myself as Earth today

Eons of abuse

People pretending I have no feelings

Pretending I’m not even here

I need not name the abuses

You know them

You feel them happening still

When I came back to my human body, I wept

Earth showed me:

The moderns don’t even know I’m here,

alive, feeling, giving

even now

When I woke, I knew

I had to say

With every step, to the great mother underfoot

I know you’re there

I say it with my footprints

She loves me to sing a little hum to her

A hum that says

I see you

Great Mother

I care

Sometimes I hum to her

when driving on a busy road

through thickly paved and built-up cityscapes

Through exhaust and sirens and tall buildings and asphalt

I hum without words

I know you are there

She likes that

There is a tiny bell ringing

It is saying

This is an emergency

But instead of saying hurry

Pull higher into your head

Tight and fast

seeking solutions

spinning frantic ideas

The tiny ringing bell says

This is an emergency

So please

Slow down

Sing to me

Feel me pulling you close

You must remember how to live

Let’s love each other well for the time we have

Because a bell is ringing

Ringing

This is an emergency

Ringing

Remember how to live

Ringing

Slow down

Everything and everyone dies

And who knows when?

So in the meantime

Remembering how to live

Includes

Arrive

Be here

Feel

Soften

Breathe

Sing

Weep

Dance

Rest

Make beauty

Love well

Can you hear the bell ringing?

It says

Be fierce enough

to protect what is soft

In the world

And in your heart

It says

Some things have been forgotten

It is up to you to

remember them forward

It says

Scatter seeds for the spring that will certainly come

after the long dark season

that may last for generations

It says

Scatter sacred seeds

Seeds of possibility

Seeds sing too

Seeds dream big dreams

Protect their dreaming

As the bell rings

May we

Learn to listen

Learn to hear

Remember how to live

I’m blessed to have this lovely image hanging above my bed. Thanks to the artist, Jesse White of @seedsofspells