Into the Woods
The love within you is your fiercest protector
Welcome to the fortnightly Sunday letter, traversing nature, being human, story, season and compost.
Hello and welcome to this Sundays fortnightly letter,
Here is a beautiful quote that greatly touched me this week, its by the amazing writer and poet Andrea Gibson -
“The love within you is your fiercest protector”
Look out into the wild, at each more than human nature being- the nettle, the ivy, the ash, the rowan, the oak, the snowdrop, the robin, the worm, the raven, the fox and the fungi.
See how all are moved and guided by the wild will that as far as I can see, is deeply infused with love; pure, beautiful, platonic, supportive love. A love that inhabits all beings, ourselves included, and guides and wills us to be alive and thriving.
This love, is love of self, love of living a full and beautiful life, love of thriving, love of bringing the medicine of who we are into the world, love of the vessel this will and love inhabits, love of the bigger picture and balance of nature.
This love cannot be taken or destroyed, for this love is your wild self, it is an essential part of you, like your liver, your skin, your senses or your breath.
Even if you have been told you are unlovable, or that self love is stupid, or that you are undeserving. Even then, this love doesn’t dissipate, it may be hidden below the layers of handed down beliefs and habits and stories, but still it’s there, because its your very fabric, your innate way of being, living and growing.
You are love, and it wants to fiercely protect you and guide you, like it guides all the beings of the wild it inhabits.
“At the centre of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want”
- Lao Tzu
There is no where that you will find the kind of love that is available to you from you. You are your greatest love story.
And as the above quote by Lao Tzu says, you know, deep within who you are and you know what you want and need, there is a will inside that wants to be allowed to support this knowing. Supporting your gifts, your medicine, your beauty and your truth to unfurl and unfold into the light of day, into the wonderment of your life.
Many people think they cannot possibly access the kind of love they hold within themselves for themselves.
Thinking that they will wait until they are prettier, changed their weight, got a better job, have a nicer arse, have achieved something of merit, before they can possibly open to self love.
They have learnt that love is something they got externally after they have achieved something, or that love is very conditional. Or that the poor excuse for a being that they are, is not yet worthy of love, and so, they should be left out in the cold without that love, until they have learnt to be better, cleverer, wiser, funnier, more worthy.
Yet the love and the will within you, as I said before, is you, and it is there for you right now in this very moment, with all the crinkles, creases, soft bits, hard bits, shadows and light and distortions and joy that we may hold. And this love, is the thing that will ultimately help you to move, shift, alchemise and grow beyond what is stopping you from being whole, from being you.
What are your thoughts………….
Thank you for being here, it means so very much.
Much warmth and wild wonderment to you all
Brigit xxxx
Coming up……
February New Moon online gathering 7.30pm - 9.00 on the theme of Imbolc.
The link and further description will be emailed out on Monday (tomorrow).
In depth post on Imbolc to arrive on Imbolc
The essence of February to arrive at the beginning of the month
A new retreat on ‘rewilding the self’ coming up in September at the Sharpham Estate, more details later this week.
This is beautifully expressed Brigit. Yes this love that infuses all things, that is all things, showing itself in manifest life, in actions and fruiting.
Always there because without it our life would cease to be. Each of our cells a crucible for this love, this life, this spirit, this force. Withdraw this a little, through judgement, self criticism, bad advice, all the things you mention above and the cell and its function dims. Withdraw it completely and that is perhaps Death, when the soul, the light leaves the physical body.
And yes, as you say, this love, this light is therefore our very life! It is bringing us into being moment by moment. It will press against our shadows and self doubt. It will rise to meet us if we look for it. It is our very life force. Serving us, giving us life. Being Life.
Our journey here is to live it out to its fullest. To flower, just as our kin do in the plant kingdom. To weave with all the other beings and hold our essential place in the web of life, just as our kin in the animal kingdom do.
To shine with the unique and perfect structure of our own being, just as our kin in the mineral kingdom do. And, in our humanness, to have the opportunity to weave all these together with conscious love, intent and joy!
Thank you for all your writings and sharings Brigit, I love reading them and sharing them.
Deep bow to the luminous stream of life and love that flows through us all and to the medicine we are to eachother...
Emily XXX
I see love in my urban landscape in the lost toy I find along the roadway; a single mitten lying on the path; a dried up Christmas trees at the curb, waiting to be composted.
Abandoned, but once loved objects, that retain their love in our memories of them.