I’ve been dreaming up a List of Loves for quite some time now,
Inspired by the recent emergence of Gratitude lists
I’ve seen coming forth in the past few months.

Gratitude!!  Remembrance!!  Joy!!!

Its been a pretty wild and crazy year, busy as a bee, and to be honest this is the first time in my life that I’m actually grounded into a place, hardly roaming at all.  For most of my life I lived on the go, a nomad, my car was my sanctuary and I had everything useful I needed to live, packed inside of it.  Wandering and wandering…I spent years traveling, exploring, adventuring, and essentially camping for life.  It became exhausting at some point too.  I’ve since settled down a bit, and noticed that my relationship with adventure and pleasure has somewhat dwindled in the grounding of wild energy, it seems that gaining a grasp on a healthy routine has become a nearly full-time job.  Well, I’m ready to merge the two.  I’ve got a strong practice, a simple life, and I’m ready to bring back the things that make my heart truly beat.

So here is the beginning, a list of Beloved things to bring LIFE back to LIFE,
a list that will surely inspire me, and hopefully you too ♥

>>> WATER <<<

WATER. WATER. WATER.

 I love water.  I’m a triple Pisces for goodness sake, and then some.  My whole life has been a mission to get to the water.  Sometimes I’m too much water!  It is in my depths, it’s purifying nature, it is the essence of the womb, it is the substance of life.  The Sea is my Mother.  Water in my dreams, water in my bones, water is everywhere.  Down, down,  deep into the depths, always going deeper.

I love water so much that I’m gonna have to break it down a bit folks.
Just so I can more thoroughly share this Magical agua Blessing with you ♥

(At a spring outside of Sedona, Arizona.  Middle of Winter.  So cold.)

>>> HARVESTING WILD WATER <<<

Years ago I learned something that would change my life forever.  I alone could venture into natural, pristine places of the Universe and drink WILD water.  Water untouched by man, coming from deep within the Earth…Water embodying its fully vitalized nature, water with character, water with life still flowing through it.  I could go on radical adventures, in fact plan entire roadtrips based around finding and harvesting and re-vitalizing all of life with this precious thing.

Holy Water.  Blessed Water.  Water of Life.  Water of LOVE.

There is an entire website dedicated to sharing natural springs with the world….FindaSpring.com.  Go there if you feel inspired to find some fresh spring water near you.  Wild drinkable water comes in many forms and fashion, sometimes it comes sprouting out from a hole in the earth, making fairy pools, or mozying down the side of a mountain.  In some places you’ll find a man-made stone tower of sorts with a pipe distributing the water, endlessly flowing into the middle of somewhere.  In very pristine places, you can drink the water right out of a tiny stream, creek, or river.

(Storm Creek, Idaho)

(Sedona, AZ)

(Yes.)

It is good to tune into your wild water of choice before drinking up.  I only say this because some people are very sensitive to foreign micro-organisms and may even get sick if they drink too much wild water to quickly.  You have to know what is going on in the environment before drinking up some stream water, even in isolated places rarely touched by man.  There may be cows grazing above, or perhaps a dear carcass rotting upstream.  Tune in and learn the ways.

>>> SOAKING IN HOT SPRINGS <<<

MY GOD.  Hot springs.  One of my most favorite things.  I could soak for hours, for days.  Sometimes I forget how potent this medicine is for me.  I go into absolute BLISS, I mean who wouldn’t?  Natural, mineral rich healing waters, penetrating you to your very core.  Warm, hot heavens bath, under the moon, under the stars, surrounded by beauty…this is where its at.  When I packed up my car to find a place in New Mexico a few years ago (I knew nothing about the state at the time) I seredipitously landed in Taos where there are a few primitive hot springs one can go to, for free, wild, right by the Rio Grande.  This was a dream come true.  I was in Heaven.  Loved it.  Shhh, secret.  You find the gems, sometimes, in the most unsuspecting places.  Usually quite beautiful.  Many times mind blowingly beautiful.

 >>> JUMPING INTO FREEZING COLD WATER <<<

YES folks…that’s what I said.  Jumpin my bum into some freezing ice cold water.  Waking up!!  This is the best feeling.  It has always been my natural tendency to be a full on polar bear, to see something pure and fresh and freezing cold and just want to JUMP right into it.  I think I was actually blessed though, by my dear Okinowan Grandmother, Mitsuko.  When I was very young, she would always, always, always make me do a final rinse in frigid cold water after a hot bath.  No questions asked.  Then she would give me a hand towel to dry off with!  I was never allowed a big fluffy one.  So funny.  My grandmother still has beautiful skin and she’s nearly 80.  I once heard wild living pioneer Daniel Vitalis talk about a cold rinse being like a work out for your skin.  Ever notice the goose bumps that cover your skin after a chilly dip?  Its like your pores are getting a work out, flexing their muscles!  I totally get that.  They are getting strong…resilient.  The cold vitalizes.

Go jump into some C O L D wild water!!!

(Beautiful photo by the magical Illup Gravengaard!)

So what more is there to say….when I think of a beautiful list of things I love, water tops it.  I am so grateful to be blessed with this connection, as we all are.  Everyday we have so many opportunities to honor the Great Water Spirit…from loving a simple glass of pure water, free from chemicals, to sitting by a river, pond, or the sea.  I always keep a tiny vessel of water on my altar, and honor it each day.  I pray for it, thank it, bless it.  My beautiful friend Raylene even gathered a group of people from all over the world, committed to making water offerings and prayers for forty days….a way to heal our oceans, our waters, ourselves….what a beautiful thing.

(Raylene by the Well of Montezuma.  Learn more about her beautiful practice here)

 “Water has no sense of it’s self.
It changes form from a pure mountain spring to a babbling brook,
to a mighty river that rushes to the Great Ocean.
It can be ice or snow or a raging storm.
And then at the right moment the sun shines and it surrenders,
evaporates and transforms to cloud offerings that fly
through the air with the greatest of ease and brings the
Blessings of rain to this Earth for everyone’s benefit.”

–Raylene Abbott