Earth Song: Emerging Spring

Western Skunk Cabbage - photo
Western Skunk Cabbage – photo by Jane Valencia

Spring is awakening … in the tiny reddish buds on the Silver Birch, the bright faces of Daffodil and Dandelion, in the return of the Rufous Hummingbird with the first pink blossoms of Salmonberry, in the mysterious and murky spathes of the Skunk Cabbage in the wetlands.

Spring suffuses the air — lengthening  the days, and invoking the renewal of exuberant and anguished egg-laying by our hens. It infuses our vital force, and we too may feel a budding and greening, the surge of sap rising — pulled upward  by way, as with the trees, of the crown of ourselves. — drawing forth the minerals and waters from our saturated winter-fed subconscious, and nourishing our fancies and wishes, plans and motions with the sweet and potent brew of life.

Here in the Pacific Northwest the persistent rains, and soaked fields, forest, and pathways remind me that we humans are of the waters and the earth. Fluids move through us, a constant interchange of absorption and release of various aspects of earth and air. We are sparked and fueled by the fire of life, and awash with the streams, rivers, tides, and tranquil ponds that communicate within us our ocean nature. We possess greening, leafing selves, pulled upward even as we root downward and and outward in our daily quest for essential nourishment to sustain our spirit and selves.

Bright stars of thought and imagination, the deep inner mystery of our own genetic coding, and the unending, surrounding, and inner flowering breath of the Divine urge us to reach in ways that enliven the deepest threads of our being. The successive layers of our own wood nature — our progression and story through the years — sculpt our resilience and strengthen our resolve as we respond to the changes, stresses, and wonders that is life on our blue-green world and with one another.

If you are alive, you are always listening and responding. Your trillion cells listen and respond, as does your very soul. The earth song that shapes and shifts the world around and within us is a music that every aspect of us knows, and an improvisation and composition within which each of us has a voice.

Who are you when nature and you know no boundaries, when one flows into the other and you recognize yourself in the garden, and the forest within your heart? When the Divine is soil and the soil is music? What is the earth song you express into being just by being yourself rooting and growing, leafing and flowering nourished by the very soul of your nature?

I invite you to share your musings below.

Welcome to Spring!

Halloween Secrets + Books, Dragons, and Harp Upcoming Event

It was a dark and drenched night!

Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie hosts its annual Halloween celebration with a long line of candlelit jack o'lanterns, free harvest soup and salad, music, and amazing community.
Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie hosts its annual Halloween celebration with a long line of candlelit jack o’lanterns, free harvest soup and salad, music, and amazing community.

Rain has returned to our corner of the Pacific Northwest, as well as mischievous flurries of wind. Leaves spin from the trees, and my chickens look like soggy dust mops.

Still, the island was lively with kids of all ages delighting in the annual “uptown” (to use correct island lingo) Trick or Treating — some, like myself, in modified costume to more appropriately weather the Spirit World above emptying their bathtubs.

With which magical creature “skin” did you, your loved ones, and neighbors cloak upon yourselves? Whether fanciful or fearsome, the costume we choose reveals something about a “power” or gift we yearn to express or grow in ourselves, a fear with which we may be dancing, or some other very special flame of your soul.

I encourage you to step into your Magical Naturalist self, and explore the clues before you, visible in that Halloween costume choice. What “animal force” (true nature) power is revealed? Or … is the Trickster present here — and that costume is a bit like Coyote, Raven, or Fox — dancing a bit of mayhem, a joke, or mystery into the moment?

Read on for some Magical Naturalist tips for discovering the truly wondrous in this Threshold time of the year.

Upcoming Event

Books and Dragons for the Holidays! Harp too!

My daughter Amri and I will have a table at the Holly Daze Bazaar.
When: Saturday, November 21, 2015 – 10am to 4PM.
Where: McMurray Middle School cafeteria,
9329 Cemetery Rd SW, Vashon Island, WA
There, you’ll find:

  • a fair of Amri’s Dragons eager to fly home with you to perch on your shoulder or serve as the perfect gift for a dragon lover
  • a stack of contemporary fantasy novels ready to carry you or a loved one into the magic that is all around us.
  • I will offer live harp music and free micro harp lessons. We’ll also have news about my newest harp learning opportunities, which could provide a beautiful start for your New Year.

If you live on or near Vashon, do drop by!

Find Out What the Fox Really Says!

Greetings, folks!

If you’re on the Island, I invite you to join me for an hour of musical and magical fun for the whole family. Come with me into the mischievous world of Leaves, the Red Fox, in this bardic performance and book reading of my children’s fantasy novel, Because of the Red Fox.

Shhhh … It’s a secret!

Have you seen tracks like these? Art by Jane Valencia
Have you seen tracks like these? Art by Jane Valencia

My children’s fantasy novel, Because of the Red Fox is actually a top secret guide book for tracking the enchantment that’s all around us — even in our own families and in ourselves!  Discover how to become a magical naturalist and find out what the fox really says!

When: Sunday, March 29, 2-3pm. Where: The Vashon Bookshop, 17612 Vashon Highway SW, Vashon, WA 98070

Jane Valencia is a bardic harper & storyteller and nature teacher, whose performances, classes, writings, and art help families who want to keep the magic of connection alive despite the stresses of a too-busy world.

Celtic Twiddle art by Jane Valencia (c) 2010Can’t make it to Vashon? I’ll be travelling to the San Francisco Bay and Santa Cruz, CA, as well as to Portland, OR in the coming year, and perhaps other places as well. I’d love to bring this show and other family magic offerings to your community. Please contact me if you know of a particular book shop, organization, or group — or even you yourself — who might be interested  in hosting this event. Thank you and cheers!

Come enjoy some mischief, music and magic the whole family will enjoy!
Come experience some mischief, music and magic the whole family will enjoy!