On Reforesting the Mind

Change, whether we’re considering options for our lives or we’re changing our website, starts in our minds, or so we think. I submit that our first awareness to change whatever we need to change begins with an inspiration, curiosity, or a nudge from the tribe of souls (living or not) that surround each of us. It is information from within us, in the form of a response to inspiration, curiosity, or a nudge. On reforesting the mind is an exploration of my most fervent hopes for our earth, inspired by a video I saw recently and dedicated to those "who refuse to vanish". As earthing can be the harbinger of change rising from the healing core of planet Earth, so reforesting is the conscious mind shift challenging how we live on and care for our planet today.

The title “Reforesting the Mind” is from a video trailer for The Eternal Song, a 13-film documentary series produced by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo, SAND (Science and Non-Duality).1 It’s an amazing series of films exploring their “vision … to honor Indigenous resilience, illuminate sacred wisdom held for humanity and Earth, and invite healing across communities facing trauma and colonial erasure.”2 The words jumped out at me, and I knew I had to write about these courageous Brazilian people.

The film listens to the elders who remember the forest before the farmers came …. It walks with the healers, whose prayer is constant as breath, and with the young women leading the Retomada, the return to ancestral land. The Guarani-Kaiowá are a people who refuse to vanish. Their story is a struggle for survival, but more than that: a love between a people and their earth, and a quiet, defiant invitation to the world to reforest not only the land, but the mind.3

These people have begun a campaign to reclaim their land using the reforestation of the mind. What eventually sparked this tribe to actively change the place they found themselves, I wouldn’t presume to know, but what a beautiful way to describe what it takes to begin genuine change. As we are open to learning a new way of thinking, of living, of seeing differently, we become more conscious and let ourselves open even more. A pathway emerges to follow, with its potholes, speed bumps, and detours.

There is another part of us that often gets left out of any discussion about preparing our minds for change. This part of us is the most important part, yet it is often relegated to sitting on the back burner while our busy minds try to figure out the changes needed and how we’re going to get there. Whether you’re a bona fide Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Catholic, or a member of any other type of religion or way of being, we all have a soul, and it is our soul that can open us up to change. There is a catch, though. Just because we all have souls doesn’t mean we’re automatically including them in our change process.

Over the past six years, I became aware of a dissatisfaction with my life. I had a wonderful family, a loving husband, and a good job. The choices I made, however, were sometimes way off or sent me in a brand new direction sometimes for years. Some of them were outright mistakes. All of them taught me valuable life lessons.

Yes, I searched for the real me; I petitioned the creator, the angels, and guides to help me; classes in healing thought me how to heal myself and others; I researched, and planned and ssearched for answers before I realized I needed to hear from myself. Alice, Alice, who the f*** is Alice? You’d think that if one wanted to have a different life, or in my case, wanted to find the purpose that made my heart sing, I would have at least included myself in the discussion? Alas, Alice was too busy running around on a hamster wheel until I dove off, only to hide in rabbit holes for safety. Vulnerability was right there, next to death in desired outcomes. I finally found my way forward and chronicled all of it in my journal.

Where did my soul fit in? The day I reconnected with my soul was a momentous day, but not an eventful day. It just happened after years of wanting to fill the empty space in my belly. I recognized that my soul was the fullness of my life. Reconnecting allowed my soul to finally operate with its inherent divine grace in my life, and I felt my mind and heart acquiesce to its authority. As more pieces of my soul returned to me, the more I felt its presence. Only then was I able to make the changes I needed to be the person I remembered I was. Was this process easy? Not really, but the adventure was magnificent.

Reforesting the mind, to me, comes down to this. In reconnecting with our souls and returning to consciousness, we can make room in our minds and hearts to collaborate with indigenous peoples worldwide to respect our land, ourselves, our planet, and maybe even each other. This will take a mighty shift. The last word is from a poem by Mary Oliver called The Word.4

How wonderful! I speak of the soul and seven people rise from their chairs and leave the room, seven others lean forward to listen. I speak of the body, the spirit, the mockingbird, the hollyhock, leaves opening in the rain, music, faith, angels seen at dusk—and seven more people leave the room and are seen running down the road. Seven more stay where they are but make murmurous disruptive sounds. Another seven hang their heads, feigning disinterest though their hearts are open, their hope is high that they will hear the word even again. The word is already, for them, the song in the forest. They know already how everything is better—the dark trees less terrible, the ocean less hungry—when it comes forth, and looks around with its crisp and lovely eye, and begins to sing.

1. 2. 3. "They call themselves Flowers of the Earth."

4. Mary Oliver, Little Alleluias: Collected Poetry and Prose, What Do We Know Poems and Prose Poems, 2002, "The Word", (New York: 2025), p. 62.