Land IS the Blood In My Veins

Land IS the blood in my veins that keeps circulating my thoughts and dreams. Land took me to my adventures as I ran in the empty lot behind my home. Land was my security blanket firm beneath my feet. Land was and continues to be my earth mother providing strength to rest my feet upon. Land gives me a foundation to build my hopes and goals on. At three years of age I would run through the tall soft grass growing on the firm land behind my home. I was free to throw my arms high in the air and breath the sweetness into my lungs. Land did not judge me nor did it abuse me. At eight years of age I took a shovel and dug into the land knowing it would provide a home for me made of soil and water. I piled high the mud and it became my shelter where I could sit and comtemplate the world around me. Land gave me refuge from the yelling and the screaming, it allowed me to walk upon it freely and not be judged. Land was my freedom.

I never felt uncomfortable on the land. Land provided my body a place to exercise on by planting my feet first and my legs to stretch, jog, and run upon. I could spread my arms and hands out by my sides and feel the energy coming through my body, as if my earth mother were embracing me, holding me safely in her loving arms. I never took for granted the land beneath my feet. I never took for granted the land I stood upon, the land where my home rested upon, the land where my children played upon. Land was a blessing to me and my family. Land was my solitude from neglect and betrayal and abuse.

There is a link between woman in this world and the land we walk upon. To live upon the land gives a woman the security of having a home, a place to put her feet on. I felt grounded when I bought my first home on a piece of land. I had gone from three years of age running on someone else's land, to eight years of age making a mud home as my retreat, to this moment today owning a small piece of the land to raise my daughters and rest myself on. It is my home, no one else's home, no one else's land-MY HOME, MY LAND.

Land shares it's dignity with me - it allows me to be who I am without explanation. I have been blessed to travel the world and to walk upon the land in so many venues-the ocean side, the mountains, the lowlands and waterways, the deserts, the sands and the solid rock. All resting on the land beneath-all providing pathways for us to feel the land, to experience it's strength and to know there is a substance that is mightier then we are and we call it the LAND.

I have the land to stand on, lay-down on, sleep on and breath on. It has provided my foundation to be the person I am - a Woman Warrior who walks the land in purpose and integrity. I am who I am because of the land beneath my feet - unquestioning, non-judgemental and above all Loving.