Walking Each Other Home

Guest Post by Karin Vanhinsberg, Retreat Attendee/Mentor & Circle Member

“We’re all going to the same place, and we’re all on a path. Sometimes our paths converge. Sometimes they separate, and we can hardly see each other, much less hear each other. But on the good days, we’re walking on the same path, close together, and we’re walking each other home.” ~Ram Dass

 ~ bridge walk in Wales

I am comforted by my belief that there is a bigger picture than just myself and my place in the visible world. It helps me stay closer to my personal compass of how I want to be in the world while I navigate the crisis, the cog-wheel of frustrations and multi-faceted relationships in my work environment. When I remind myself of a bigger picture that includes the unseen assistance, the weaving of my ancestral line, and my part in co-creating the experiences in my life- I can ease my grip on my ever present parental and personal worries. I find too that Laughter and Music are my most steadfast companions that raise me and those around me up to that vibration I like calling ‘flying up sky’.

Earlier this year I took a leap of faith and began a new relationship. Often, he would share with me that he felt ‘stuck’ and, indeed, I experienced him in his stuckness. He lived in his childhood home, still chock full of all his parents’ and aunt’s belongings- I had a vision of him weighed down by wearing all of his ancestors’ heavy coats. In June, we traveled together to Wales, driving and wandering through deep green hillsides, mountains, seascapes and homes and sites that are ancient in our North American reckoning. To his astonishment and disdain I left a poetic thank-you card at each place we stayed. To me, this was a simple act of gratitude for those people and places that had now entered into my life story; to him, there was almost always a reason someone or something was not worthy of our gratitude. As a part of the honouring and traversing the ending of this relationship I listened to my dreams and went on journeys to all our Ancestors; one beautiful message was this:

“Accept that each person who received a thank-you card was part of your ancestral journey, and are related to those ancestors. Accept that we are all very powerful, that there is magic in these tiny moments that is very deep, healing and meaningful. Accept that this person is a guide that agreed to travel with you and guide you on this journey for a time. He is meant to do this- these guiding trips until he can see his way out of his own sphere. The guiding is a way of stepping out and trialing a new way for a while. He has taken this on for his own ancestral healing…he will eventually see his way clear, shed this heavy coat and rejoice. The universe is pushing him to take those steps, do not judge his emotional actions because they come from a deeper push from the universe and are meant to help him take steps to get unstuck. He is doing his work.”

I feel this message is profound in its example that everyone can choose to apply to their own story by witnessing another’s story. This message helped me so much to heal and grow because of offering the bigger picture of him.

We have all been in a version of this story of stuck and unstuck, endlessly moving in and out of alignment with one another- and in this dance I love the message that we are all always doing our work whether we know it or not -whether we see it in another or not. I love the panoramic view that comes from ‘flying up sky’, reminding me that absolutely everyone is on their path, doing their own work at their own pace in their own way. This view helps me remember that the unseen realms and the magic moments and the depth and breadth of each of us is all at play in a tapestry that wants to expand with us.

Reflecting on my own learning through the summer and the fall, this Song came into being:

Walk Each Other Home

(Verse)

You may have been raised in anger or in pain

You may have felt the weapon of silence or shame

But what if we came to clear misunderstandings?

What if we came to remember our wholeness?

(Chorus)

What if we came to walk each other home?

What if we came to walk each other home?

What if we came to free ancestral stories?

We could just shed those heavy coats of old.

What if we came to shine our lights on ‘bright’?

What if we came to raise each other up?

(repeat chorus)

(Verse)

If we feel hurt, sad or wounded or lost

What if we knew the Universe loved us?

We’d know…

(Bridge)

The Universe, the Universe is pushing us

Just like momma bird nudges her babies, out of the nest

The Universe is pushing us, so we can fly, so we can fly

(Verse)

We are the tiny moments of magic connection

We know we came to walk each other home

We know we came to shine our lights on bright

We know we came to raise each other up

We know we came to walk each other home

We know we came to walk each other home

Walk each other, walk each other, walk each other HOME…

LISTEN TO SONG

Home Practice:

What would it be like to re write a story in your life that includes the bigger picture, the unseen assistance or a message from the universe?

Love, Karin