In moving to the Dandenong ranges (from Melbourne’s inner north) I have come to see and feel the way that there wasn't much space for my wildness where I once was. The culture of mown lawns, ridged boundaries, and loss of biodiversity created a stifling atmosphere. It was hard to grow beyond a certain point when mud, mess, and risk weren't tolerated. From risk and mud springs the deepest creativity, and for myself at least, a profound pathway to connecting with Source.
I wanted long grass, undefined borders, and to welcome mystery and ambiguity into my garden and physical spaces. But none of that could flourish where I was. It wasn't the culture of that community and wasn't the culture of those I shared space with in the inner north.
I found a symbol of the wildness I wanted to be able to express without hinderance while I was packing up my witchs' studio. It was a tatty, black feather.
This feather became another reminder of why I am on this journey; to move, adapt and change shape whenever my soul calls for it. And though this move away from my long-held home in the inner north was unexpected and painful at times, how necessary it has become.
It is the next step in my personal and spiritual journey.
And while it's important to not imbue changing locations with an unsubstantiated 'magical' ability to solve all our problems (they tend to come with us), I'm learning that land, country, culture, and spaces - they can allow for your deepest development or hinder it.
I'm all the more grateful for my new forest home that welcomes night breezes, open windows, risks, and feathers; and of course the deep reward of getting close to a less tame version of nature.
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