South Africa.....Untamed

We spent our last afternoon in Capetown only getting our toes wet at the vast Kiirstenbosch Botanical Garden.  It was hot and we were a little road weary, but I still personally felt quite moved by the symbiotic relationship created with natural beauty intermingled with the manmade art and sculptures .

We even got to witness a wedding ceremony.

My absolute favorite was a temporary exhibition called "Untamed"  It is a liv­ing wall, a set of solar pan­els, incred­ible sculp­tures, heart defibrillation poetry and a fine example of archi­tec­ture ' by sculptor Dylan Lewis, archi­tect Enrico Daffonchio and psy­cho­lo­gist, psy­chi­at­rist and writer Ian McCallum.  It somehow was a visceral summary of what my trip to South Africa has meant to me and how it has changed me.   Being in South Africa was awake up and smell the red tea, re-member, re-connect and reflect on our part in the nat­ural order of things or we will fast lose what we have ---we are interconnected in our humanness and our earthiness.

"when we look at the world as a mirror, when we discover that our sense of freedom and authenticity is linked to the well being and authenticity of others - and that includes the animals, the trees and the land."  Ian McCullam.   This is how I would sum up my two weeks here in this part of the world in 50 words or less.

It was the poetry that really got to me.   

 'Having turned a blind eye to the fact that we are part of nature's great diversity, we have become eco­lo­gic­ally unin­tel­li­gent',
Ian McCallum

One day
your soul will call to you
with a holy rage.
“Rise up!” it will say …
Stand up inside your own skin.
Unmask your unlived life …
feast on your animal heart.
Unfasten your fist …
let loose the medicine
in your own hand.
Show me the lines …
I will show you the spoor
of the ancestors.
Show me the creases …
I will show you
the way to water.
Show me the folds …
I will show you the furrows
for your healing.
“Look!” it will say …
the line of life has four paths –
one with a mirror
one with a mask,
one with a fist,
one with a heart.
One day,
your soul will call to you
with a holy rage.

We have to stop speaking about the Earth being in need of healing. The Earth does not need healing.
We do. Our task is to rediscover ourselves in Nature. It is an individual choice. And how or where do we begin? We begin exactly where we are right now, when we look at the world as a mirror, when we discover that our sense of freedom and authenticity is linked to the well being and authenticity of others - and that includes the animals, the trees and the land.  ~ Ian McCallum

Homecoming
You have come this far...
keep moving...don't turn back.
No one holds the measure
of their own undoing....no one,
the meaning of their dying.
Hold what lives
behind the masks
of your own making...
the music of your wild name.
Know that every tumble,
every turn on your twisting path
is a dance within a living
church of elements...
a sanctuary of stars
wings, breath and bone
where the masks of your making
are undone.  ~ Ian McCallum

We have to stop speaking about the Earth being in need of healing. The Earth does not need healing.
We do. Our task is to rediscover ourselves in Nature. It is an individual choice. And how or where do we begin? We begin exactly where we are right now, when we look at the world as a mirror, when we discover that our sense of freedom and authenticity is linked to the well being and authenticity of others - and that includes the animals, the trees and the land.  ~ Ian McCallum


 Wilderness, by Ian McCallum

Have we forgotten

That wilderness is not a place,

But a pattern of the soul Where every tree, every bird and beast

Is a soul maker?

Have we forgotten

That wilderness is not a place

But a moving feast of the starts,

Footprints, scales and beginnings?

Since when did we become afraid of the night

And that only the bright starts count?

Or that our moon is not a moon

Unless it is full?

By who’s command

Were the animals

Through groping fingers,

One for each hand,

Reduced to the big and little five?

Have we forgotten

That every creature is within us

Carried by tides

Of earthly blood

And that we named them?

Have we forgotten

That wilderness is not a place

But a season

And that we are in its final hour.