I went out to the woods to live deliberately. I wanted to live deeply and suck out all the marrow of Life. And not–when I came to die–discover that I had not lived.
~ Henry David Thoreau
The poem, Satyr, is from The Paint Fume Poems - a book of poetry written by my brother, JK Salmon. For me, the poem pulses with the vitality of the life experience that is awakened when we allow ourselves to become so utterly vulnerable that we begin to fully open to Life as it is - rather than how we think it should be.
In times of crisis, when the spectre of Death draws close around us, our first reaction may understandably be to strengthen our defences, to strive to re-establish a sense of security. Yet in doing so, we risk sacrificing the vitality, the duende, that animates our Beings. This video embarks upon a poetic journey that carries us beyond our initial fear-based reactions…a journey into Nature where the acknowledgement of Death can fill us with a sense of wonder for the mystery of existence. A mystery in which we feel the rapture of simply being alive.
Like the Brant geese, California and Steller sea lions return to waters near our home every Spring. Brant geese come to feast on the herring eggs. Sea lions come to feast on the herring themselves. And they all sing…
Brant geese have come once again to the beaches of Parksville…
They spend their winters in the warm waters off the coast of Baja California. But each year in January and February, they set out on a great journey of thousands of miles: north to Alaska….then around the coast of Alaska and into the Canadian High Arctic…
I am very pleased to share with you that a 50 minute video based upon my Dreaming of Nature presentation at the 2018 International Association for the Study of Dreams is now available for viewing.
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To many of us today, the Natural World appears wounded. And our first reaction to the perception of a wounded Nature is often to rush out and try to heal it. Yet there is indigenous wisdom that suggests we should simply stand still…and allow Nature’s creatures to heal our wounded perceptions. When we can finally stand still—and offer these creatures our full and empathetic attention—a portal opens, allowing the Divine to shine through into the field of time. And within this Divine glow, we feel the embrace of the Natural World within every cell of our body...and know that we are finally home…
I have been invited to present a one hour special event called Dreaming of Nature at the 35th Annual International Dream Conference (June 16-20) in Scottsdale, Az. This presentation will interweave concepts of biological science, depth psychology, spirituality and indigenous wisdom with nature soundscapes, song, poetry, and projected nature imagery. The following is an overview of the presentation.
I have always felt an attraction to Bison. As a child, I often imagined myself as a Native hunter pursuing them across wide open plains... As a student of mythology, I have been thrilled by images of the prehistoric Bison paintings found on the walls of caves in France and Spain... As a geneticist, I have explored the molecular characteristics of their DNA... And in the 80's—while Ruth and I were living in Edmonton—we spent many weekends photographing the Bison who roamed nearby Elk Island Park.
We are born with a yearning to find our place… to know where we fit into our family… into our community... into Life itself. For much of our lives, we may seek to ‘fit in’ through lifestyle choices like the jobs and friends we choose, the clubs we join, the hobbies we engage in, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the books we read, or the music we listen to. Yet, such pursuits eventually leave us feeling unfulfilled… disconnected… yearning for a deeper sense of relationship…
