I have always found that the six degrees of separation is fascinating to me. There are so many times that I have discovered that someone I know knows someone else that I know. This is not simply because I am a social butterfly. It is because people are actually more closely connected than they think they are. For example, I know a number of professional hockey players. This is not because I enjoy hockey. I never really watch it, even though my partner is all over that, especially when his team is doing well. It is because I know people who know people who know them…and I can honestly say that, as strange as it may sound, these guys really LIKE me! The closest connection was with a player whose sister was my late wife’s best friend. Then there was a player whose wife (at the time) was my friend. And then another who was friends with a buddy I was visiting. This seems very strange for someone who knows basically nothing about hockey with the one exception that the Habs relied far too much on Price as a golie and had to up their defensive game. But I picked up on that just because the T.V. was on in the background while I was working in the kitchen and my partner was watching the game. I should mention that I do not know any players of any other sports as I have not had opportunity to meet them. And I am not name-droopping because I think that the practice of name-dropping is uncouth.
One of my X-wives was someone that I had heard about through four different friends before we actully met. The rest is history, but suffice it to say that, without knowing one another, we had many people in common as time revealed. And perhaps it is because I work as a Shaman and know a LOT of people now, but the interwovenness of the many connections seems to just be growing as time goes on. I am comfortable with that.
What I have found, however, is that my connection with Nature is something that has always been there. From the time I was a wee boy I have seen Nature as a sentient being, one with all sorts of beings interwoven into the tapestry of it. Fairies, gnomes, elves, sprites, animals, trees, plants and so on are all a part of that tapestry. Thus I have a comfortable resonance with each. But I only experience that because of my connection to the Earth. Whether out on a hike in the woods, riding horseback on a trail, or weeding my garden, I am constantly aware of my connection to the Earth. When the wind blows I hear its voice and listen. I think that is why my Spirit Guides and Ancestral Spirits enjoy me so much…I listen. I don’t clutter my mind with all the B.S. of the hustle and bustle of life. Even when driving on a freeway I can feel that connection, and that connection is incredibly old and incredibly deep.
I have learned over the years that my connection with people (beautiful as those connections may be) will never be as stable as my connection to the Earth. Relationships can be transient. But the Earth is a constant. That may also feed into why I do not fear death. Because when the only thing that is constant is the Earth, then death of everything in its own time and place becomes an inevitability, not something that can ever be avoided. As much as it pains me to have to cut down a diseased tree, I also know that for the rest to survive it has to go. And I know it will be replaced by a new sapling along the way.
This does not mean that I view people as replaceable. Every single person on this planet has some value, even if others cannot see what that value is. But when a relationship has run its course, I find that, after a time of grief, I simpy move on, without any regrets about the ending of the relationship. The space that the relationship took in my life soon gets filled with a different relationship. The connections continue to weave their way through my life, allowing me to experience the richness of diversity. It is interesting, though, that when a relationship ends the first thing I want to do is go for a walk in Nature. Being a city dweller, that usually means a trip to the park. As I walk I process the experience of the relationship and its conclusion, and I feel the support of the spirits of Nature all around me. I sit with my back to a tree and feel the Earth’s energy flow up through my body, grounding and stabilizing me. This is a wonderful gift that I can experience whenever I want to, and a wonderful, ongoing relationship that will not end until the day that I am no longer living and move into a different state of being wherein I can experience it in a different way. That level of connection and consistency is something that I absolutely love.