We each hail from a land that is as vast and plentiful as anything we’ve ever imagined. It’s the land of the ancestors, and it is the land that we will one day return.

We each experience this land on a daily basis, although we rarely have the awareness that we are experiencing that land. This realm visits us in our dreams, in our intuitions, in our déjà vu experiences. It is experienced in the air, the heat of the sun, the salty waters of the Pacific Ocean. It is experienced in the morning breath of a tiny baby.

We can awaken to a greater sensibility of the ancestors. We can achieve this by our conscious intention. We can do so via prayer, gratitude, and a recognition of the abundance that is in our lives. These are doorways to the ancestors.

We are continuously being blessed by the ancestors. We kindle a relationship with them by returning our blessings to them. We create a relationship to them by inviting them into our daily experiences. We honor them by honoring the land and the seas.

I am humbly the recipient of visitors from the land of the ancestors in my dreams. We each have this relationship, but aren’t often aware of it. I know I go many days before “snapping” into the realization that, indeed, I am blessed by the spirits of place, and the spirits of those of whom came before me. I recognize this when I “catch” an insight or thought or idea that I certainly didn’t create, or when a blessing unexpectedly arrives at my doorstep. These are visitors from the ancestors.

A dream several years ago began to pry open my limited conception about our relationship with the ancestors. I am continuing to be taught and shown that this relationship is real and not a figment of my imagination: however, this dream really began to open the door.

In the dream, I am observing a man in his 30’s who has arrived in this land to repair lawnmowers. I observe him in the dream and then wake up. As I am lying in bed, I began to “hear” this man. Here’s what I understand from him:

 

I have come here from another land, to your country to work. I am homesick now and desire to return. I am good at my work and the work is not difficult. I repair things. Things that are alive. Our machines are alive. Yours are dead. There is a spirit in everything. Your machines have spirits, too. You must nurture them in order for them to be alive and carry energy for you. Treat them like gods, for gods, although they are very powerful, also serve and nurture you. Be humble and have respect and everything in your life can serve you. That is one of the laws of the universe.

 

Our Western culture does not think in these terms. I certainly have not thought in these ways. A shift is occurring in our relationship to the world around us, and we are being asked to think and live in a different way. We have thought of other cultures as being “indigenous,” “primal,” “backwards,” “childish,” and of our culture as being the one to save them from their old ways. Now, we are being shown that our mindset has been wrong.

Each of us is being asked to step outside of this Technological Mindset that has developed over the last 500 years: a mindset that tells us that we have created everything on this planet outside of the plant and animal kingdoms. We must toss out the idea that we are rulers of this physical domain. It’s a bogus concept: and as we’d say back in Texas, it’s hogwash. We are on a planet in brotherhood/sisterhood with each and every being, visible and invisible. And, it is as if they are asking us to wake up.

We are the ones who haven’t known the reality behind things. We are the ones who have fool heartedly ignored the ancestors, and the spirits of things. We have not been receptive to what is, ignoring the whispers of the spirits of things. Everything in life can serve us, as we can serve everything in life. It is our choice. And I think we can do it.