Breath + Heart = Art: Walking in the river for my dad's healing

Last Sunday I entered the Santa Fe River with the intention to walk for my dad’s health. He has prostrate cancer and will be getting radiation treatments. Earlier in the day it came to me to make a healing wand for him using this piece of wood I’ve had for probably fifteen years. This wood has a kind of face on it and branches like arms that can hold things. For a long time this branch held for me a baby I had carved out of wood.

I figured maybe I would find a heart rock for it in the river. My x is Native American and years ago she had taught me about entering nature to “find medicine” for healing. It has been a very long time since I have done this practice consciously even though my walks in the river have probably been influenced by this old practice.

It was more like walking with my dad; I invited his presence to be with me and imagined how much he would enjoy being there. After only walking for a bit I said out load with focus, “dad” and immediately saw out of the corner of my eye something on the ground. There was something black and round sticking out of the rocks, I unburied it and discover a small mirror. I have never found one of these in the river before; this was very exciting. I was not expecting to put a mirror in the arms of this wand! It fit perfectly!

Now after a few days have past I am doubting the find of this mirror because it’s cracked. I know all the usual metaphors for a cracked mirror and I don’t like them and certainly don’t want to wish bad luck on my dad or an inability for him to see himself clearly.

But it just seems to me when creating magic some times things are upside down and in that is the transformation. Anyways, it is my experience in life that I actually see my true self better when things are broken and falling apart not when things are shiny perfect – too easy then for illusions to exist. I’m ok with not always understanding the why of something, nature usually knows best. And, I am open to hearing other ideas about this.

Here is all that I found on the walk

There has already been a cold spell here so there aren’t many flowers still out. So when I came across this one it stood out to me as if it was saying, “Hello, come admire me.” I haven’t been able to identify this plant yet but am curious if it has any healing properties.

After walking for nearly an hour, I was determined for this to be a long walk today; I spotted a bright green grasshopper in the sand. I’ve seen these before in New Mexico but not yet in the river. It was very still and I assumed it was dead. I moved my hand close to it and it kind of leaned into it. “No, it was alive.” In fact I realized it was laying eggs, its tail deeply buried in the sand. I don’t know why I do things sometimes, there’s not usually a real conscious thought out process, this was one of those incidents. It was as if I was playing like a child. I lay down next to the grasshopper and asked it, “will you bless my dad’s healing wand please?” And I put the wand down with the mirror facing the grasshopper. It just felt right. Then I remembered I had my camera and how cool to be able to share photos of this grasshopper with my dad as well.

After coming home I looked on line for the symbolic meaning of grasshopper and it actually feels appropriate, good luck (counter act the bad luck of the mirror), new beginnings, longevity, good health, fertility, good news… well now all that is in the mirror for my dad, perfect.

Here's a video of a grasshopper laying eggs, mine wasn't doing all that pulsing movement, it really looked dead.

This was the first time walking in the river that it has gotten dark before I got home. I took the following photos of the sun just barely showing threw the path of the riverbed and trees.