First Person
The Guardian has a series called First Person which I occasionally go back to and read when I remember to.
Today I read this one > http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/06/nicholas-taylor-buried-alive
“How my life was changed by being buried in Mother Earth for a night…
When day broke I was dug out and cried in gratitude for nothing more than living to see another morning. I walked in the ordinary miracle of day and I felt rinsed through; clean as water. Everywhere I looked life was phenomenal, an exceptional gift that I was fortunate enough to bear witness to. I had walked into the jaws of death and was still alive.
I am now a qualified shamanic practitioner. My burial is something I don’t often talk about, but it’s there in everything I do. For all the misery and suffering that’s reported and circulated, I recommend a diet of anything that makes you feel grateful to be alive. We’re only here a few summers after all and we have a duty to honour this world as the marvel it is. The most lasting effect of being buried alive is I try to do one thing each day that scares the daylights out of me. The other day it was painting my sitting room magnolia.
I think there’s a lot of truth in there.
August 6, 2009