Naked in Eden

It pulses with a rare light that shines through in unexpected ways as the author learns to meet — and welcome — the beauty and also the seemingly frightening creatures and events that are part of life in a rainforest.

The book tells the story of the hero’s journey – that is to say, heroine’s journey — which Robin made when she went to live with her husband in a remote area of Australia’s Daintree Rainforest.

A place of freedom

In the course of her wild and magnificent adventure, Robin came to a place of freedom in herself eloquently described in the book’s closing words: “The moist smell of damp earth wrapped itself around me, my guardian as I crossed the field at sunset. Miles from nowhere, and I’m finally free.”

The myth of “The Hero’s Journey”, refocused in recent years by Joseph Campbell, is perhaps the most ancient and accurate blueprint for a truly meaningful and happy life that we have.

It requires, of course, that we leave the “ordinary world,” and accept the call of the unknown — a destiny and promise which we may feel in our hearts, but which requires courage and persistence to become known.

The rainforest as intelligent being

Listen to Robin as she describes this process of transformation at work: “Once I understood, deep in my body, that I dwelled in the arms of a highly intelligent, creative, and harmonious being — the rainforest — I learned to listen more and judge less.”

One of her amazing encounters in this wild, terrifying, yet magnificent environment involved a 12-foot-long python and a tiny bushlark.

The bushlark was a female, with three beautiful eggs in her care. The python — as Easton watched — was gliding inch by inch in one fluid motion toward the lark and its nest.

The proud death of a bushlark

The author writes: “The bird darted and dove at the snake’s diamond shaped head. Her wings flapped wildly. The long, elegant snake slid closer. Undaunted. Unhurried.

“The entire rainforest seemed to hold its breath and listen for the outcome of this life-and-death confrontation. Every blade of grass, every tiny insect and bird, every bit of breathing life froze.

“Silence hung nearly undisturbed in the early morning air as the forest watched and waited to absorb the lark’s inevitable death. Fear bulged her eyes. Her cries grew more anxious as she sought to lead the scrub python away from her young.”

“The most beautiful song I’ve ever heard”

What happened next? The lark stopped trying to avert catastrophe, and instead, standing perfectly still, “tipped back her head and sang the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. A rich melodious tinkling, clear and sweet, floated on the air and echoed off the trees down in the spring. The death song. Or perhaps the sweet song of life. I heard her voice as if she spoke directly to me.

“If I must die than I shall live my last seconds to the fullest. I’ll die bursting with life, my song upon the wind. The world shall know of my beauty.”

Was the snake evil? Of course not. It was simply doing what it needed to do to survive. One of Robin’s learning experiences in the rainforest — one of the levers of her transformation — was the realization that, as she puts it, “evil does not exist in this forest.”

The courage of all life

Easton shares with her reader a new understanding that honors the courage of all life “in many ways so fragile and yet in every way, highly intelligent and relentlessly tenacious.”

I think you should read Naked in Eden. It’s a great read in its own right. Of course, if it makes you see life a bit differently, or opens your eyes to life’s mystery and wonder and essential goodness — or if it stirs a remembrance in your heart of your own hero’s journey – why, that’s a bonus, isn’t it?

PS. If you’d like to check out Robin Easton’s blog and all the great material she has to offer there, please click here.

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How Robin Easton found freedom in the Australian Rainforest is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

It’s been a laborious and stressful process, in some ways, going through everything we have accumulated over the years and deciding what still belongs in our lives — and what doesn’t.

More than once, one of us has said, “It’s a good thing we are doing this now, because I wouldn’t want to do it in another five or ten years. We aren’t getting any younger, you know.”

Letting go of RV was hard

Letting go of our RV, a wonderful, magical passport to freedom and adventure that has taken us to California, Oregon, Yellowstone, British Columbia, Texas, and a lot of places in between — that was a tough one for both of us.

Apart from the fact we’d have nowhere to keep it in Denver, it felt like that chapter of our lives was over.

We called the RV Tanner, because that was the name of the little stuffed bear – a cute guy dressed in a kind of African explorer’s outfit — that became our mascot on our trips.

We would be rolling along through some great empty space in Texas, and JoAnn would suddenly pick Tanner up and wave him happily in the air and call out, “Hurray for Papa Bear. Hurray for Papa bear.” So Papa Bear (that’s me) — who did who did all the driving on our trips — would feel a charge of new energy — good for maybe another hundred miles.

Kind of strange, but also magical, how an apparently inanimate object can become imbued with its own special nature and character.

We stood in the driveway watching as the new owner drove off in our RV and JoAnn couldn’t keep back the tears — had a little cry for both of us.

Dealing with clutter key to happiness

But what a necessary thing it is, a crucial thing, from time to time, to go through our “stuff” and make the hard choices about what to keep and what to let go of.

It’s how we stay fresh. It’s how we stay free. It’s how we stay young and happy regardless of age.

I was browsing through Gretchen Rubin’s blog at The Happiness Project and this excerpt from one of her posts struck a chord in me.

“One of the most striking things I’ve discovered since starting my happiness project is the influence of clutter on mood. For most people, outer order contributes to inner calm; a messy coat closet, for instance, is clearly a very trivial element in life, yet clearing out that messy coat closet gives a disproportionately large happiness boost.

“Over and over again, people tell me that they’ve gotten a huge charge from tackling messy areas. I think it comes from fostering a sense of control, and order, and space, and a feeling of freedom from stuff.

“Fighting clutter, though, is a never-ending battle. I’m always looking for little ways to stop its insidious progress through my apartment. I’ve been trying this resolution, with good results: Clear a surface.”

An important victory

Reading Gretchen’s words reminded me of a small but important victory early on in the Fosters’ de-cluttering campaign when we cleared away everything from the top of the fridge.

Maybe it doesn’t sound like all that much of an achievement. But believe me, it was quite obscene how many useless odds and ends had taken root there — established “squatters’ rights,” so to speak.

We felt a definite sense of accomplishment as we looked at the fridge and saw a clear, pristine surface.

Mind you, we didn’t stop there. We moved on to tackle the awful jumble that had accumulated atop the entertainment unit in the living room.

We allowed only three items to remain: a potted plant JoAnn likes, a beautiful vase that I brought in San Francisco one time and a stuffed raven that reminds me of Joshua, hero of my book, “the Raven who spoke with God.”

The story of a vase

Here’s an interesting thing about the vase. I was actually going to try to sell it, or give it to ARC, because I brought it during a sad time in my life — a time when I was feeling quite lost in a lot of ways.

So every time I looked at it, it reminded me of that time when I was feeling uncertain and unsettled in my life.

I told JoAnn about this, but she said, “I don’t think you should give it away. It’s beautiful. Perhaps you need to change your attitude — see it with new eyes so that you can appreciate the beauty that is really there.”

So that’s exactly what happened. The vase didn’t change. Didn’t need to change. Something in me changed.

Reminds me of that wonderful quote from the British poet John Keats: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Needless to say, all three items are tastefully arranged. They sit on top of the oak wall unit because they BELONG there.

Clearing away internal clutter is door to freedom

Of course, as we have considered before, it’s not only external clutter that we have to contend with if we want to know true fulfillment and happiness in this life.

The most insidious, and the most damaging clutter of all is the internal clutter that prevents us from following our dreams or giving our gift – or knowing the truth at the core of our being.

How do we deal with discouragement, or resentment, or fear, for example, when it arises? How do we deal with grief, or uncertainty, the vague, nagging sense that something important is missing in our life?

We take a moment to be still.

We honor the Psalmist’s ancient wisdom: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

It only takes a moment of true stillness to sense the timeless divine presence at the core of your being which is already happy, and already free – untroubled forever by any kind of “clutter.”

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Face your clutter and be free is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

When you realize it is time to downsize and physically move from one location to another — as JoAnn and I recently realized — a number of challenges appear. One of these challenges is dealing with all the clutter that you have accumulated over the years.

Perhaps this is a fringe benefit of moving — you have no choice but to face the accumulation of stuff that has been going on in your life in recent years and in years long, long gone.

As difficult as it can be to do this, I am becoming aware that doing so brings many, many rewards.

JoAnn and I have a saying, “one step at a time.” When it comes to dealing with clutter, I find there is no other option. I not only have to take one step at a time, but one room at a time – and indeed one object at a time. Fortunately, there are only three possibilities. Keep it. Give it away. Or throw it away.

For example, as I sit at my computer in my little office, I see a small blue canvas bag lying on the desk in front of me. The bag is empty. A dozen or so seashells are sitting on top of this empty bag, which incidentally is covered with a thick coat of dust.

As I look at this particular object I realize I’ve never given it any thought at all. It has been sitting in front of my nose for a number of years — and yet though I love the sea with a passion I’ve never even glanced at these pretty little seashells.

So one reward of “de-cluttering” is that I pick up one of these shells and hold it in my hand and admire it. It is beautiful. At last, this shell from some faraway beach is receiving some attention and love. It means something to me. It is not hard to decide that I would like to keep these seashells and the connection that they provide for me with the sea.

Then there is my bookcase. Actually there are four of them. Books of various sizes and shapes abound in riotous profusion like wildflowers in the spring. They overflow from the shelves, some of them lined up vertically — some of them lying in horizontal piles here and there.

Books have been coming in, year by year, month by month — but no books have been going out. So I have been looking over my books with the same eagle eye that I bestowed upon my seashells. If a book has meaning to me, I keep it. If it doesn’t have meaning to me, out it goes.

Of course, there is much more to “clutter” than mere material possessions. There is the clutter that we accumulate over the years in our minds and our hearts, for example.

There is the clutter of thoughts that may have served us back along the way but do not serve us any longer. There is the clutter of thoughts that are not our own thoughts at all. Someone else — perhaps society itself – perhaps an enterprising columnist or TV host — has stuffed them into our mind for us.

“Out of clutter, comes simplicity,” said Albert Einstein, and how true that is. But I would say that there is another reward that comes when we face up to our clutter at every level of our being, and that is truth.

We are free to become increasingly conscious of what is not clutter — the stillness and peace of our own being that is always present with us no matter what may transpire in our lives.

What stays when clutter goes? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

We live in challenging times. Perhaps the challenges are greater for some than for others — or so it might seem — but the challenges are there, no matter who we are.

As the pace of life intensifies and the demands and challenges that we all face rush towards us like waves on a beach, the words of the Buddha are more relevant than ever.

But how do we do it? How do I show love and affection for myself? I suppose there are many answers that could be given to this question, but for me, the most important aspect of all would read something like this:

No matter what is going on in the world or in my own life, it is up to me to stay true to a place of calm and assurance within myself so that my mind and body have a “refuge” upon which they can depend.

This does not mean that fear will not arise in me. It doesn’t mean that I will not become impatient or resentful at times. It means that when such currents do come up I will remember what it is that is most important — and be true to that.

It’s a mundane example, I suppose. But I have to admit that as I begin preparing for the move JoAnn and I will be making to Denver this spring, feelings of anxiety and stress have definitely been coming up. For example, both of us have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. Since one of the reasons for this move is to downsize, there’s the question of what to keep — and what not to keep.

Then again, there is the tricky little balancing act that will be required to sell our house successfully within a certain time frame while at the same time finding a suitable townhome that we can afford.

There’s also the fact that with all the will in the world, we are not getting any younger. We run out of steam, as JoAnn puts it, a bit sooner than we once did. So in this new cycle we have to watch we don’t make unreasonable demands upon ourselves — but as the Buddha said, show love and affection for ourselves.

I am thankful for the Buddha’s timeless words. But most of all, I am thankful for the timeless truth within us all that in the midst of a changing, violent world, is forever unchanged, untroubled, and at peace — a source of love that never fails.

Who truly deserves your love? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace

“Don’t forget, you won’t be getting anything else from me at Christmas,” she reminds me every now and again. “Of course not,” I say indignantly.

It’s fun giving gifts at Christmas. It’s fun receiving gifts, too, especially when you are little. But as another Christmas rolls around, I think to myself that any gift we receive — or give — this season will sooner or later break down, or lose its luster. It may simply wear out, like my new shirt and pants. Or it may simply lose its appeal, its novelty.

There is one gift, however, that will never wear out, or break own – and it is the gift of our own timeless being, untouched and untroubled by any of the vicissitudes of our lives.

As I sit down to concoct a new post this morning, I am filled with awe and thankfulness for this magnificent gift that is the true spiritual heritage of each one of us.

It asks so little. It gives so much. It is eternal love, and it asks simply that we be still for a moment.

I find that as I am still, surrendering my human preoccupations and thoughts, I become increasingly aware of the vast presence within which my physical form is contained and within which all life is contained.

Every atom of my body rejoices in this presence. It is not separate from me. It is myself. It is my own true nature, my own true character, crying out for expression through me.

It is already happy. It is already free.

May this Christmas be truly different. May it be NEW, because as you and I go about our lives, doing the little deeds that need to be done each day, we remember the gift that has been given us – so priceless it cannot really be named.

The one gift that will never lose its luster is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Happiness inner peace