The Water That We Are.
The cottonwood drifts. The river dances. I stare at the surface of the water, quietly moving with a deep purpose, as if nothing could ever stop it from reaching the sea.
This water has condensed from the sky and filtered from the land for miles around, running along rocks and gullies, sliding down the trunks of trees and through the soil of the earth. It gathers here, swirling and foaming, full of life force, still moving. As I watch, it just keeps going, seeking out more and more of itself. It will grow until it returns to the sea.
I feel the river that I am, the conjunction of so many paths, so many incoming currents and outgoing flows. I think of the flow I am in right now, this bubbling pool of so many different and coinciding situations, the result of all the rivers that run in myself and the people around me.
It gets me thinking. How many billions of raindrop moments is this day a product of? Perhaps a shower of life-giving raindrops are falling into my being right now from unknown sources. How many more rivers of wisdom and people and knowledge and experience will flow into me in this life? How many more seeds will I help to grow?
Somehow I know how it feels to merge back with the sea. I think back to times before, when the winter storms washed me out. And to times when my inner world seemed dry. How could we, as flowing rivers of life, ever become disconnected from our source? We are the sea.
But to be human is to be complex. We are also a blend of all we have ever experienced. The echo of past shadows is always there, reverberating behind the current moment, shifting and warping what we see into what we understand. The truth is, within every soul-river there is a layer of life-compost. We all have our ways of clouding our true nature.
Sometimes the biggest hurdles in life are the boundaries we put around ourselves. The choices we tell ourselves we need to make. The things we tell ourselves we need to achieve. The repetition of statements, like mantra, - "I can't do this. I'm not enough" - that confine our beautiful being into something smaller. The inner voice worms into every action and tries to direct our winding and free paths down the straight and narrow, the easily controlled. If we listen fully, this voice has the power to bury us.
But the truth is, we're a river, a source of life. Deep in this compost of our souls, there are seeds. Through our thoughts, our words, and our actions, we allow seeds to grow into beautiful things. And even when they seem buried in the suffocating soil of our minds, these seeds are firm, and solid, and real, fed on rich experience and rained on by our love. Not only are we flowing rivers of life, but we support a flowering oasis of creation all along our paths.
I see the creations of my life, my pure flow of being feeding seeds and roots, stems reaching out in all directions, leaves seeking out the light, flowers at all stages of growth and release. And there… just on the top… a perfect bud, opening. The Kula Collective.
Our manifestation is the product of this flood of love and energy. The seed of an idea that was presented to us by The Universe has been fed by the dedication and pure intention of all of us. I feel the blossoming of this moment, the birth of this vibrant organization, as if I really was this river. As if my being was actually swelling in volume.
We all have tangling vines within us that have the power to prevent the exploration of our dreams. We all strangle ourselves in some way. But sometimes we forget… the decaying matter of moments gone before and moments not yet lived is the most fertile ground we could ever find to grow from. Sometimes we will lose our way. Life happens to us and all we can do is experience it. As channels of aliveness, here on this earth, we have the opportunity to shape our paths in a way that allows calmness and clarity through our entire being. As we purify, we see the seeds that need our energy.
The more space we give ourselves to pause, and breathe, and flow, the more we release the debris of our mind, and the more we reveal our true, pure nature. And in this clarity, we see through to what is real. We see things at their very essence. We see those seeds of potential in our lives, so tiny, and yet so perfect, and we pour our life force into them.
The more we breathe, the more the space between our banks grows. The more space we have, the more we act from our clear, true nature. As long as we keep connecting, the space within us never stops growing. An opportunity that felt far away becomes near. A dream that was impossible becomes reality.
I look back at the bursting bud within me, a sharp flash of colour, a globe of potential, fuelled by these eight rivers of souls that are Kula Collective. I look back along all those other deep channels that have converged with ours - the wisdom, support and belief that has been offered by others along the way. I see all the other convergences to come and all the seeds that will be ignited into life by this work.
This bud has been nurtured well, by calm and genuine souls. It glows in a halo of our gratitude, swims in a river of our love. This bud extends the offer of beauty and transformation to all around.
We are all blooming.
The rivers within us flow to the sea.
Jiya Julia Randall is one of the founders of international yoga school and retreats organization Kula Collective and a guide for empowered and conscious living.
Jiya is a deeply connected leader who roots her teaching in the healing energy of nature. Her teaching invites students to explore their own, unique unfolding, through profound awareness and trust in the wisdom of the Self. Through her studies with teachers and shamans across the world, Julia has developed a powerful sense of energetic connection and a strong set of philosophical and intuitive teachings, which she shares through creative hatha and yin yoga, sacred fire and medicine ceremonies, kirtan and healing therapies. Jiya is also a talented musician and sound healer, who seeks out native chants and medicine songs from around the world to complement her work.