Wild Altars

It can be hard to settle.
Hard to go in and meet the quiet.
It can be easier to stay busy, to stay distracted.
But in your center you can center, you can drop, finally, into your whole and rooted self.
Be brave.
Inhale. Exhale.
When life feels ordinary, when you feel dry inside, you can choose to numb that pain—with doing, with running here and there, with all kinds of things that take the edge off.
But the edges are where it gets interesting.
So when life feels ordinary, seek out the edges of y

Transcript

Take a moment to settle and meet the quiet inside,

Dropping down into your center,

Living into your whole and rooted self.

Inhale,

Exhale.

I don't know about you,

But I long to experience the big energy playing at the edges of my life.

And so I long for moments when awe opens me wide and all I can do is be amazed.

That's why I've been on a daily quest lately to find wild altars,

Hidden gems of holiness that arrest my attention,

Because there's just something about them.

Maybe it's symmetry,

Maybe it's an untamed beauty,

Maybe it's an energy that is unruly,

Free,

Passionate,

Undeniable,

Compelling.

Sometimes it's easy to find a wild altar.

For me,

It happens nearly every time I step into a forest.

Like when I spy the one tree that looks like a dancer,

Gently and gracefully holding her arms up to the sky.

Or it can happen in a desert when I behold a rock that contains within it all kinds of energy and light.

Then it's easy to be awed.

I know not everybody can or wants to forest bathe or hike,

But wild altars,

Hide everywhere in plain sight,

In ordinary life.

I know because I've found them.

Recently,

The air quality was bad where I live,

So I decided to walk around an indoor track and listen to a podcast by Alan Watts,

The philosopher.

He was talking about how everything is one.

We are the world and the world is us.

And as he said this,

I looked up and saw huge ventilation ducts above me.

Looking at them with curiosity,

Probably for the first time ever,

I realized they were the building's respiratory system,

Just like my trachea and bronchi in my chest.

My body was moving air in and out.

The building was moving air in and out.

The building and I were breathing together,

Just like you and me here and now.

Inhale,

Exhale.

To seek wild altars is to see what is around us with kind and curious eyes.

To be willing to be moved deeply by what we experience,

Whether that's a flower,

A piece of art,

Someone's smile that comes from the very radiance of their being,

Or even a pop can tumbling down the road in the wind,

Dancing to its own beat.

That all sounds lovely,

But the truth is for any of this to happen,

We need to risk removing the armor around our hearts.

We need to allow ourselves to be pierced with beauty.

That sounds kind of scary,

But I don't think I'm alone.

I think all our spirits long for meaning,

For deep and real connection.

Our spirits are begging us to seek out the real,

The wild in the world,

In others,

In ourselves.

I choose to err on the side of wonder and awe.

I choose to privilege the small and infuse the ordinary with as much beauty and meaning as I can.

So day after day,

I go into the world in search of wild altars.

And you know what?

You are a wild altar.

You hold this shining gem of holiness inside of you.

You possess this inexplicable and amazing radiance.

And you,

You are wild,

Awesome.

May you bring that real and wondrous self out into the world and risk awe.

Because my goodness,

If we can do that,

Nothing will stop us.

Day after day,

We will live light and shine.

Reviews

Love it! Inspiring me to go out and seek wild altars tomorrow! It's bedtime now. 🌙 thank you!

Thank you for sharing a short meditation that is SO powerful to use. I love your meditations and beautiful voice. 🌞🦥🩷🩷

🙏 I always find hearing your perspective so profound! This piece is yet another example. ☺️Thank you!

A favorite author, Jennifer Pastiloff, uses the phrase "Beauty Hunting", and I try (and often struggle) to remember to do this; to always be on the lookout for beauty in its innumerable guises.
Lately, I've seen a very great deal of it, and, oddly, I seem to smile quite a bit as well.

WOMAN!!! 💥🧡💥 Your mind is such a beautiful thing!!!! I’m so very grateful for that magical closet of yours. A thousand thanks for always inspiring me.

Everything is extraordinary if we allow ourselves to be open to the wonder of life. It reminds me of something I heard a while ago: what are the chances in the universe that we are here on this earth to witness everything that surrounds us in this moment? I would venture that the chances are extraordinarily slight. Yet here we are. Thank you for another amazing reflection, Betsy.

I've always strived to be ordinary Betsy, never considered edges to be comfortable or a good thing for me.. Hmmm, maybe sitting with a change in prospective and celebrating my differences, is in order!
💕

I often remind my social media friends to "look up" at night. Even if you don't know much astronomy, the night sky is fascinating. Thanks for the reminder! ✌️🧘‍♂️🕉💜

Beautiful, Betsy. Much love and gratitude 🙏🏻♥️🙏🏻

I’ve run into this theme a couple times in the last two days, and it resonates so well. When we look out at the world through a lens of love, we find love. When we look at the world through a lens of awe, everything hold beauty. Taking the time to see detail, to notice texture, color, patterns—whether the swirl of fur on my dog or the dimples and goose flesh on my thigh or the faux-aged grape and leaf patterned coaster beneath my chipped coffee cup… the world is filled with beauty and meaning and love when I choose to see it. Thank you!

I just love you. Thank you for always helping to stoke the fire…