The truck was frozen in place, refusing to start until the rising sun brought enough warmth to get us on the road. Along with my four-legged friend, I was moving my belongings to a new place to call home. Life felt turned inside out and upside down. There was a whirlwind of packing up piles of boxes only to unpack them all again. It soon became evident that many things in the house were not working quite right. So much cleaning and repair were needed.

Exhausted and trying to find my footing, I questioned if I could stay. And then there was Jasmine who loved everything about everything from the moment she leapt out of the car. Tail wagging, nose to the ground, she followed trails of invisible scents and collected countless stories along the way. She barked with coyotes and befriended the neighbors’ dogs. She walked out on the ice along the riverbank to find open water to drink. She curled up to rest in sun-warmed piles of dried cottonwood leaves.

I was spending my days washing walls and floors and fixtures, cleaning up years of accumulated grime and dust. I cleared trash from the land and disharmonious energies from the house. I waited and waited for repairmen to show up. There were times I could laugh about the crazy circumstances. More often than not, I was weighted down by discouragement and doubts.

Jasmine was fully in the adventure of being alive. There was not even a hint of holding back her passionate presence in her self, in her life, in her newfound place on the land. Touched by her exuberance, my complaints and distress became harder to justify. Jasmine’s enchantment with life so naturally flowed, shaping her relationship with the world all around.

Such big love is not found by putting on rosy-colored glasses. Jasmine was keenly aware, investigating things close up and gathering immense fields of information. She chose what to engage with, what to move away from, what to speak about, and how to claim her space. She was steady and clear in being who she was, no matter the circumstance.

Side by side with Jasmine, I became all the more aware of how judgments and Stress were imprisoning and only served to shut things down. Things like…

Joy.
Creativity.
Awareness.
Curiosity.
Acceptance.
Gratitude.
Passion.
Purpose.
Potentials.
Beauty.
Healing.
Mystery and magic.
The weaving of Relationships with who and what actually exist within and all around.

A loving world is built by remembering Love,
by reawakening Love,
living in Love,
in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

Originally Published on https://joannedodgson.com/blog

JoAnne Dodgson Ceremonial Healing

JoAnne Dodgson’s life is centered in the lineage of Ka Ta See and the path of the kala keh nah seh ~  medicine storyteller, weaver of webs of balance, healer, teacher, and ceremonial guide. She offers ceremonial healing, apprenticeships, and retreats to remember our belonging and weave harmony in our relationships with ourselves, each other, our earth, and web of life.

JoAnne has been learning, living, and sharing the ways of the kala keh nah seh for over twenty years. She has a doctorate in Counseling Psychology with a specialty in Holistic Health. As a therapist and community activist, she worked in trauma healing centers and college counseling centers. She has been on the faculty in Transpersonal Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Holistic Health programs. Earlier in her career, JoAnne was a teacher in public schools and residential programs for adolescents. She also served as the director of a women’s shelter.

To share her passion for the healing medicine of stories, JoAnne has written several books including Spirit of Chocolate: A Woman’s Journey to the Rainforest in Search of Her Dreams and UnLeashing Love. She lives in the enchanted desert mesas of New Mexico.