Thoughts on Clothes 1A

Clothing Systems 1A

It is important to have your clothing system dialed-in. That way you can more clearly focus on  receiving  the lessons and gifts of being enveloped by Nature.

I will get into the specifics of planning and packing clothing systems in a later post. For now I  offer you some ideas that round out the profane picture of clothing systems.

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 You are a Bag of Water - kind of like a big grape.

The human body is between 50 and 65 percent water.  It is a tender vittle: delicate and needs to be taken care of, protected and nurtured. Keeping that water hovering around 98.6 degrees fahrenheit is an intricate and sensitive dance. The more I can help my body regulate and maintain that homeostatic balance, the more energy I will have available for doing other things like paying attention with all of my senses, breathing in the gifts of the natural world - spending time noticing things.
 

Layering

The best way to stay flexible and prepared for any kind of weather and to be ready to change at a moments notice is to dress in layers — ideally thin ones. That way you can take them off and put them on to make slight adjustments in your temperature and stay comfortable.

Here is a layering system I often use for my upper body:

•  light wool t-shirt
•  light hooded windbreaker
•  synthetic puffy insulated jacket
•  rain jacket

This is all I usually need, as well as a warm hat and a visor hat that I switch out as I need to to keep myself in the sweet spot of body temperature.

The sweet spot of body temperature (a.k.a. Try not to sweat)

The idea with layers is to take them off and put them on throughout the day in such a way that I stay comfortable and that I don't sweat and get my base layers wet. This is important. If I ever feel myself sweating, I stop and take off a layer or switch out my warm hat for my visor or I might slow my pace and keep from sweating that way. If I get wet I am more vulnerable to getting cold later in the day when maybe the sun is lower in the sky and I am hungry and tired. Hats and gloves are handy for making slight adjustments in my temperature as well — switching between warm hat and visor, putting on and taking off gloves can make a significant difference in my body temperature.

There are days, especially if I am doing a lot of ascending and descending or if the weather is extremely varied, that I feel like I am changing my layers constantly. Some days are like that. It's always worth it to stop and change. I try not to be in a hurry out there anyhow and see these de-layering, re-layering stops as opportunities to look around, take notice and sense what is going on around me.

Of course a critical part of all of this is paying attention to my body. If I take the time and tune into what is happening with my body as I make my way through my day I can usually avoid sweating and stay dry. That's the sweet spot.

In the next post I will share with you one of the most useful clothing planning tools I have ever come across. It's a sure fire way to bring only what you need and to never forget anything.

Until next time.

The Sacred. The Profane.

I once took a vision fast facilitator's training course with the School of Lost Borders in Big Pine California, on the East Side of California's Sierra. It was a powerful experience and I learned many important things about myself and about planning and implementing solo vision quest experiences for others. A theme running through that course was the dichotomy of the Sacred and the Profane. The Sacred being those special, wise, mysterious experiences like storytelling, animal visitations, ritual, smudging with sage and things of that nature. On the other hand was the Profane:  the dishes, brushing my teeth and getting out of my sleeping bag. Both of these are present in all situations. Sacred/Profane.

Here at Returning to Earth, the time in Nature is that Sacred time - sitting with or walking in an opened and available state, taking the time to consciously and sensuously connect with nature. The profane realities are the details of clothing, food, water, sunscreen, warm hat and so forth.

Having the appropriate items in my pack and clothes on my body means I don't have to worry about changes in the weather or getting wet, hungry or thirsty because I have the gear I need to stay safe and happy. My energy is thus freed up to focus on the experience of being out there, opening my heart, mind and body to receive the teachings. In order to access and participate in the sacred I also have to dance the dance of logistics and profane details.  

Once I have taken care of these details I can move across the threshold in a relaxed and fearless manner.

You Can Come Home Again

It's true. You can.

I can. Anyone can. We all can. Anytime we want to. It's just that many of us have forgotten how to, or maybe we've lost the map. That's OK. We can find it again.

The way home will never leave us. It's more ingrained than that — hard-wired. It's part of us. We are programmed to know where home is — and when we get back to it we feel it — sense it.  Smell it. It's not a brain-knowing - it's the body and bone knowing - down deep. The deep dark. The dirt and the bones.

Our home is the Wild Earth - our only home - as the Dalai Llama calls it  - and we can go home whenever we want to. We just have to take the time and slow down enough to do the work. And, we have to remember. 

Re-member. Put ourselves back together from whatever fragmenting chaotic, disruptive force has dis-membered us in the world of extreme, exaggerated activity and hyper-connectivity and 70 or 80 hour work weeks — people running around like headless, caffeinated chickens, hunched over shiny phones and tablets. 

I am from a culture of constant movement and personality identification. I meet others with my personality: personality to personality - cherished image to cherished image - painstakingly maintained and upheld. We say hello and check each other out. 

Meanwhile beneath the husks of personality be tender souls - the true essences - the witnessing calm and present, tender beings - spirit creatures. We hide our beauty from each other and from ourselves. 

Enough! It is time to bring down the husks of personality and ego and meet eachother and all beings with the soul presence that is our birthright. It is the only respectful, loving thing to do. That's what Returning To Earth is about. I'm glad you're here. 

Coming home. Being at home. Returning to home - to the familiar - to a place where I am known and loved and welcomed. Home.

To the hearth. To the center of my world - where I grew up and where I belong and feel connected and understood. It is an ancient home - not the street and the collection of houses and people and dogs that I knew as a child. It is the home that I evolved in as a wild human animal - back in the days before steam engines and petroleum, when I felt the seasons changing in  the larger body of the earth and felt little separation between that body and my own. It grew into and through me. It was me. Still is.  It's the home I know from down in the deep dark. Ancient knowing. 

Sitting and writing this I feel a calm descend on me, grounding my body - in my belly - maybe slightly lower, my pelvic floor, or slightly higher in my solar plexus - at the top of my stomach  — no higher - not in my head. It's in my hara - the basement of my being and feeling. 

This process of Returning to Earth is an embodied one - not a head/brain centered one. The practices work through and with the senses -  attuning and unblocking them so that the feedback loops are open and the conversation can start again where it left off. The practices are simple yet profound. They have lead me to deeper peace and connection and a pervading calm. They can do the same for you. 

I breathe easier these days. That has not always been the case. I look forward to sharing these gifts with you so that we might come home together and sit around the fire and maybe look each other in the eyes, see our souls shining out at ourselves and say, "Welcome Home Sister/Brother." 

Much Love, 

Joe