This blog is dedicated to healing the relationship between human beings, nature and Spirit in urban life. It is the companion website to GreatPlainsGuide.com, the home of my nature-based counseling practice and outdoor self-discovery programs.
Read my stories. Leave a comment. Sign up to receive future stories by me. You’ll find real treasures here: stories, commentary, video, poetry and images from an earth-honoring, “shamanic” consciousness designed to open the heart of any urban journeyer. Browse and enjoy!
My vision:
- To promote an earth-honoring lifestyle that grounds our high-speed lives in the rhythms and relations with the natural world.
- To offer a spirituality of ecology: aligning to the wisdom flowing in all created things, not just humans and human institutions.
- To invite people out of their enclosed home and work environments into the heart-opening university of the great outdoors.
- To integrate the ancient, nature-based spiritual healing wisdom of our own ancestors with modern healing wisdom from psychology, religion and medicine.
- To help people become more fully alive: more forward-directed people of joy, service and purpose.
- To create new friendships and wider relations toward a deep community of modern shamans: open-hearted people able to vision and shape-shift their personal lives for the benefit of others and the planet.
So. This blog is a place to open the heart and share visions, particularly as they relate to urban life. A virtual sacred space, perhaps.
Click on the list of past stories I’ve posted in the left sidebar of this page to enjoy this blog and contribute your own comments and insights. If you’d like to schedule a shamanic fire talk, visit www.GreatPlainsGuide.com.
I welcome you!
-Jeff Nixa, South Bend, IN
How nice to have a place to enjoy your writings once again, Jeff! This piece connected me to the Earth and all Her blessings. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks you, Kathleen. Hows this for a timely reply? Ha. Thank you for all your own amazing earth-honoring community work with GreeningTheBend.org and the Rain Barrel Ball in South Bend. You are a shaman! Helping to shapeshift our community from your deep vision for a more sustainable, earth-honoring Michiana community. Dream on, Dream-maker 🙂
I live near a state park and saw a coyote on my early morning walk with the dogs this morning. I believe it was because of the thoughts that have been running throught my head after reading your web-site, Jeff and looking at your blog. Bringing Mother Earth to those in the city is a marvelous thing to do and it makes those who live closer to the land respect what they have even more. I may not have noticed the coyote this morning if my heart had not been open and ready to receive the message it had to give me. The message was this: we are sharing this land with you and you must respect this. You have cordoned off a small part of the land and called it a park. Cherish this land. It is a gift and should not be taken lightly.
I finished my walk deep in thought but with an eye open to the world around me. The sun was brighter, the autumn leaves more brilliant and the sedge grass popped with colors. Thank you, Jeff for starting this process within me. I will be more open to the gifts that are right outside my door.
Ah! Thank you for sharing your heart-opening coyote encounter with us, Marsha. You have big coyote medicine in your heart, my friend! Coyote is an amazingly adaptive animal. Creative, jokester, teacher, keeper of magic…playful and loving to have fun. Skillful yet…clever at finding shortcuts. Its howl is primarily a social gesture, that can express loneliness, danger, or a need for assistance. Coyotes have a regular den, but do not limit themselves to use it all the time. “It is filled with paradox, but at the heart of its energy is the balance of wisdom and folly that makes for a fulfilling life.” (from Animal Speak, by Ted Andrews)
Your encounter with Coyote reminds me of my Ayahuasca encounters with fellow creatures in the Amazon this summer: with mosquitos, ants, plants, a particularly regal tree… I hope to be writing about this next. I’m still processing it all! Hope you are well, and able to check out my latest story, about my trip to Pine Ridge last May… My love to Montana, and your family 🙂