Listening for the Long Song
Article in Dark Matter Women Witnessing
I want to share some of my experiences of kinship with Life as I’ve listened for what Clarissa Pinkola Estes calls ‘the river beneath the river’ — the pulsing sounds within silence and the whispered secrets longing to surface. I call this “yin-listening,” an ability we are all born with but are rarely encouraged to develop. While our culture values mental accomplishments, material success and power, yin-listening is rooted in the vulnerability of an open-hearted, reciprocal intimacy. Ever since a series of personal disasters unraveled my life in 1990, my intuitive listening has drawn me steadily into this deeper river through many conversations with plants, stones, trees, and animal spirits…