Salutations, beautiful plant tribe. I have been following the group activities and updates while balancing my own energies. Often the image that comes to mind is how Krishna told Arjun in Geeta that to be still, be like a tortoise who pulls all his limbs (energies) inside when he sits, so the chaos outside can not bother him.

For a while, I’ve been shown layers of what Freedom means. We are often instilled with the idea of freedom as the passport that gives us specific rights and access to cross borders with a specific set of rules. A friend once mentioned about America that stuck with me - “for a free country, we have too many laws”.

Then the Freedom appears to be an understanding of this fact and realizing that we are all equal and when an officer says “do you understand”, it puts the other person under/below their authority given to them by the man made law, to which everybody readily and unknowingly agrees.

But the true ultimate Freedom is the freedom inside our minds. Freedom from fear, lack and distortions. Once this Freedom is realized, the outer bells and whistles quickly lose their charm. But is it easy? Not at first. A great exercise I recently enjoyed was standing next to a gushing creek under the cool shade of redwoods and many other beautiful trees and experiencing the sounds of water and soul cleansing smells of the forest. Just being with it, in the moment. Not thinking about this or that, past and future and the what ifs. The mind sits quiet for 30 seconds but then wants to go wandering in the thoughts that are either in the past or haven’t come to manifest yet. All of it takes away from the present that’s presenting itself as pure potential and even fun for the poor mind to take a break from worrying all the time. All we need to do is gently acknowledge the mind and tell it like a child - it’s all well. You can relax now.

I welcome anybody to try it.

Praying for the true Freedom to be awakened in all the beings. Many blessings for the “present moment”.

Caught a Rufous Treepie taking off into a soaring flight. Considered by some cultures as connection to divine wisdom and auspicious.