Remembering Your First Love

Photo Credit: Janet MacPherson Moller

Where the bluebirds call,

And the sunbeams fall,

And the daisies lure

The soul to be pure.

~ Alexander Posey

Was it a particular uniqueness that caught your eye? Or perhaps a certain fragrance drew you in. Maybe it’s more of a string of memories that built up inside your heart that brings you up short whenever you’re reminded. You’re whisked away, held in reverie, as you relive the beauty and magic that special time holds for you whenever you’re reminded. It's that special something that you can't quite put your finger on, but that 'sees' you and you 'see' it.

For many of us our first love is unmistakable and unforgettable.

As you may have guessed, I’m not referring to a person here. Rather, I’m referring to a place. Of course! Geomantically speaking, the land embodies many of the same qualities and features as that of a person. Just as when engaging with another person, we too, engage with a place through all of our senses. We taste the salt water of the ocean and the salty tears of joy and sadness. We admire with our sight the curves and hidden features within the topography of a place in very much the same way as we delight over the physical features of a person. The sound of their voice and the aura they radiate is akin to bird song and the tingling sensation we feel when we experience a certain place that’s special to us.

The beauty of wild presence exists both within us and in landscape, and the uniqueness and diversity inherent in this presence attracts or repels us. Since we’re talking about love here, we’ll continue with those qualities and energetic frequencies of beauty, grace, joy, and comfort that we feel and experience when in the presence of love.

Video Credit: Janet MacPherson Moller

Snowy egrets feeding in the marshy waters of Great Sippewissett Marsh, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Why am I bringing this up you ask? There’s a good reason, and that is to help you to reroot and reawaken that first love you experienced with Earth, with Mama Gaia Herself. There is a certain place in this world that is so special to you that it has taken up permanent residence in your heart. In this special place you can rekindle your sense of self if you feel lost, find softness and hope if you’re feeling edgy and dark, and return to a sense of belonging to both your life and to Earth when needing to ground or feel inspired.

Fragrances, certain sounds, a color, and specific landscapes can all stimulate that response within our hearts that energetically attunes to the frequency of attraction. Most likely when you first fell in love with Earth it was a place or an aspect of nature that you discovered in childhood. This experience still lives within you.

Photo Credit: Aerial Photographer Unknown

Aerial view of Great Sippewissett Marsh at high tide, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Salt air, crashing waves, rippling marsh grass, dipping and diving sea birds, and the divine scents of honeysuckle and beach roses are heavenly touchstones that lighten the load for me when my heart is heavy, and inspire me when my creative well has run dry. They are home to me. Every … single … time this landscape helps me to feel at home both within myself and in the wider world. You could go as far as to say this place IS me and I AM this place.

That special place in your life where you first fell in love with nature is possibly when (and where) you also felt the presence of love within yourself (in a good way). For what we experience in the world around us is simply a reflection of what we hold within.

I recently heard on a podcast that indigenous people who practiced weather shamanism didn’t alter their exterior landscape to bring the rain, stop the wild fires, or bring their landscape back into balance. Rather, they turned inward and looked at those places within themselves where their inner landscape was 'parched', experiencing an inner 'drought', or raging with an inner 'wildfire'. By changing their inner landscape they brought the rains to the drought-stricken landscape around them and calmed the wildfires raging through their communities. They maintained health and balance in their outer world by tending to their inner world. This is a valuable switch of perception. One that could completely alter our lives if followed.

Photo Credit: Janet MacPherson Moller

During this intense time when so much is in flux in the world and the ground is shifting and being reshaped beneath us, it’s really important to reawaken and stay connected to the natural world, to that place where you feel loved.

That place where you first fell in love with Earth in your outer landscape will help empower you to stay strong and encourage you to remain hopeful.

Love exists around us as much as it exists within us. The flowers, birds, stars, clouds, ocean, hills ... all of the natural world shows us the presence of love each and every time we open to it. Laughter within attracts us to laughter being expressed in Nature's colors, movements, and the diversity of life forms surrounding us. Peace and stillness within you reflects the same in the world around you. Just ask a turtle basking in the sun on a rock in a pond, or the rock itself about how it feels about the turtle. Both are at peace, still, and connected to the sun. Both are reflective of the peace within you as the observer.

As the well-known Hermetic principle, The Principle of Correspondence, states: As within, So without. As above, So below. Everything is connected!

Where's that special place that 'sees' you and that you also 'see'? Hold its beauty and magic close.

Wishing you all the joy, blessings and LOVE of solstice!

XO, Janet

Video Credit: Janet MacPherson Moller

Egret taking flight, Cape Cod, Massachusetts