The recent landscape of experience here for us had me reflecting on the nature of life and how we interact with the diversity in and around us. Nature always teaches and so it’s no wonder I receive so many insights or a-ha moments when I’m out within her classroom.

Seasonal shifts make for some diverse day experiences here in the high altitudes of the Sierra Nevadas and since Spring Equinox we’ve been alternating between morning ski activities and afternoon hikes. The transitioning weather makes a variety of enjoyment possible, which is an added gift.

We’ve instinctively followed the flow of weather patterns and where our bodies felt called, which has mirrored the contrast of snow, sunshine, shifting temperatures, and variances of altitude we are drawn to. And along the way some new and old animal guides have accompanied the adventures, roaming the inner and outer landscapes of experience with me.

With the shift of seasons we’ve felt energies stir and the need for more physical activity to balance out the heightened creative inspiration and output, both in motion and underway, that is happening on other fronts of life.

It felt perfect that Saturday’s Equinox portal opened this floodgate of action and it doesn’t feel like it will be stopping anytime soon, as we have an affinity to so many new ideas and experiences drawing us into alignment with them.

The first grouping of photos above are from Saturday morning skiing, followed below by our hike at lower elevations where wild mustangs roam. This first photo capturing the wide open terrain and two free-spirited wild mustangs grazing peacefully.

Dave mountain biked while I hiked, and I found myself feeling like the wild mustangs, wind in my hair, out wandering the spider web of trails I had to navigate by both instinct and trail app on my phone, since trails are unmarked.

It was fun to mirror the free, intuition-based spirit of these beautiful creatures who have always been soul connected with me since I was a little girl. And it ended up being a great catalyst for the seasonal new cycle, as well as a very unique, first time ever initiation I was honored to facilitate that evening – where I used a grid to open a cosmic portal to assist an activation for a dear soul. This was the top portion of the more elaborate layout, but the candle had a unicorn talisman (fitting with the wild mustang energy of the day and this soul’s energy signature) and a quartz amplifier burning within the silver sparkle of white current aroma.

And we’ve continued, and will continue, in this vein of oscillating between activities and varying terrain with more morning skiing and day hikes, feeling it suits our energy needs. As the weather shifts and Nature evolves a new landscape, we will mirror her reflections both inwardly and outwardly.

There’s a stronger sense of this synergy between us and I feel it will be helpful with what the year has in store.

As you can see in the photos (above from Saturday and below from Sunday’s unified adventures), there’s a lot to be grateful for in the way Nature unfolds herself to us. Every step of the journey is perfection and so are you, even when things are in process of unfolding.

Nature so beautifully teaches us a natural human evolution that lives from a greater sense of embodied wholeness, no matter where along the journey we are, no matter what we find inside or out that seems at odds – it’s all a way to live life more fully and value those differences. There is something to harness within it all and it doesn’t have to be a this or that experience.

Contrast is a gift that helps us know our essence, sacred truth, and the vast richness of micro within the macro. Contrast gives us evolution, but also is innately the wholeness of that continuum.

Much of the time we avoid and even run from differences. And sometimes we oscillate between them.

Contrast is the basis for desire and achievement, but our relationship to it keeps us in a place of moving forward as a reaction, rather than purely creating for the mere sake of experiencing our creative energy in its authentic flow.

When we get lost in ego frustrations, worry, doubt, or judgements, we find ourselves in pain on some level because we lose sight of how everything really all works together and does so quite incredibly when we shift our perspective of things. We see things separate or conflicting, yet contrast inspires a spark that otherwise we may ignore – and many times do. It’s a divine messaging system to our innate creative energy to do what it was designed to do – create. If we were to create and experience for the pure sake of creating and experiencing, we wouldn’t be so triggered by contrast.

We would surrender more into our instinctual mechanism of being, just like Nature’s children do.

Contrast would be as it is in Nature – a way of being any and all potentials in flow of ever-creating from the infinite field of experience.

And speaking of a way of being in flow of what I would call, essence, along with how nature always teaches….In the wee hours of the morning of Spring Equinox I had yet another bear dream. I’ve lost count now of how many bears have visited me in dream life. Amongst other things, bears symbolize the cycles of life and awakening insights and opportunities, so it felt aligned to be dreaming of bear as we were moving through this seasonal portal. Bears ask us to go deeper within exploration of our path and journey and to listen within for answers, while carrying bear medicine indicates a knowing of that purpose and direction, underscored with leadership potentials. There was a big sense of direct messaging in the dream where bear reached out for my hand – not to attack – but to mark a reminder on my hand with her claws. A full return to the path having been ignited a few years ago is “at hand.” And since bears for me have been connected to my cosmic family, this is a message of essence. I love that it came alongside my having seen evidence and made decisions in this vein, and so it feels supportive rather than conflicting.

The day after the Equinox, while out on our hike, my eyes were drawn to another dear animal teacher while I allowed myself to wander off path. A sweet meadow vole lay in her resting place, and it touched my heart. Voles speak to sensitivity and heightened awareness to your surroundings. Like bear, vole teaches us to listen to our senses and feelings, and to trust and rely on our intuition. They really show us how to engage our ideas productively, knowing that only where we focus is where things will happen. So deeply invoking creative tenacity toward making dreams real, while maintaining a level of invisibility will be most productive for dynamic changes underway. They also symbolize and instruct about destruction and rebirth, guiding us to understand what needs to change in our life and how to manifest those shifts. Again, like bear symbolizing cycles of life, vole’s appearance felt like a perfect mirror for the Spring portal.

And then of course there were the wild mustangs. Wild horses message us of limitless possibilities and how to progress into new directions with freedom of movement that will help clarify the path to take. They teach us how to face life with grace in our hearts and to live with ultra awareness as we embark on each adventure. Deep intuitive connection and increased clairvoyance are part of their medicine, again mirroring bear and vole with that inner knowing being the important guiding factor. Wild horses will urge us to break free from restrictions that hinder our authentic personal expression and integrity and give us the power to support the changes needed in order to honor that free spirit – mirroring both bear and vole in their clarity around understanding changes needed to support the direction our dreams and path point to.

I’m grateful to these messengers for amplifying my feelings and being way-showers of the next wheel of life evolution.

Yesterday, the 21st, was also another marker of evolution that shifted things greatly for me. It was the one year anniversary of our engagement – falling on Spring Equinox that year when everything in the world turned upside down. What a year it was with great contrasts for sure. A literal and metaphorical marriage of contrasts creates unification and ability to harness the value inherent in differences to make the sum total of greatest good.

I still can’t help but see it all as a creative opportunity to contribute our best to each other and life as a whole.