“…we cannot hurry the river…we have to move with its current…”

“…we cannot hurry the river…we have to move with its current…” Miriam Rose Ungunmerr.

Wherever you are in the world, hello! It’s been a while since I wrote…

I’m back. Back to routine, back to service and back to “normality” after taking some time off. Time for the simplicity of stillness - time for Dadirri - Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness - as taught by Miriam Rose Ungunmerr.

For the last part of January I visited, with my family, the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara people in south-eastern Australia. I was camping in the most beautiful untouched place, days went by without seeing another human, except perhaps a distant canoe on the river. I became so still and quiet, so receptive to the life that was constantly moving and buzzing around me, to the rhythm and pulse of it all. Days rolled by with my sense of identity expanding effortlessly & boundlessly beyond the constructed idea of self. 

I was practicing Dadirri, because, if you take all the "normal" life stuff away, that is just what happens...it's not a doing so much as an un-doing, a knowing so much as an un-knowing. I noticed that the more layers I could shed & the more surrendered & open I became, the more I genuinely felt welcomed and received by the earth, by the beautiful river, and by the birds & the animals too. I experienced a sense of belonging that is new for me - I have felt alien for so long…powerless amongst the disconnect & impact of humans on this earth, that i’ve been floating adrift, unable to join the current.

I’ve been listening & learning from Indigenous elders on an incredible Social Justice Training, un-learning the systems that fight nature - the systems that rule the world, and, horrifyingly, all of us too. 

Coming "back to normality," back to this training - to receive transmissions & teachings from Bundjalung Custodian Jarmbi, has been the deepest medicine…words of belonging & words affirming the collective pain & trauma that exist in every bloodline. 

My tears have been running hot and fast, through January 26th and the Environmental destruction I see everywhere, this week, somehow my roots are stronger and my hope is brighter. I'm filled with new strength to stand for justice, and for the Earth, not letting the bigness of it all overwhelm me. I'm listening to what is here, what is now, focussing on where I live, and my dedicated & passionate community's fight against AGL’s propsed gas plant at Warn' Marrin - Marran Biik on Bunerong/Boon Wurrung Land - in a Ramsar wetland. 

This new sense of “un-alien-ness,” this belonging, comes from practicing Dadirri. I am sure I will sometimes feel powerless…and just knowing that there are others who share this, all of it, the connection to the the mother, the pain and the guilt and the shame, and still can stand with hearts open, is....enough.

We can’t know what is coming, but we can choose to actively un-know, and allow the systems that cause suffering to be dismantled. This is not a time for answers, but a time for listening. A time to rest into the simplicity of un-knowing.

 This year I’ll keep showing up - keep writing, keep sharing, keep flowing; strengthened by the support and connection that comes from remembering that there are others out there willing to trade a safe place for a brave place, and stand with open hearts as the world around us crumbles, because, somewhere deep inside, we can trust in the design of nature, and journey with the river through all the twists and bends.