Peter May is an alchemist, a Grammy award-winning musician, a tree whisperer, a firefighter (and firemaker), an athlete, an architect, and an all around fascinating human being. Peter and I discuss how his love of ecology first developed as a kid living outside Detroit on Lake St. Clair, and how this passion later influenced almost every aspect of his life. From his multiple careers in natural building, native permaculture, sustainable landscape design, and land management, to helping produce and create
Hey Anya I am fascinated by your intro share about crying because I am also a regular crier exactly as you describe. I am just so moved by things these days.
The irony is that this coincides with being the happiest I have ever been in my entire life by a factor of at least 100 (not just according to myself but confirmed by people who have known me for over 10 years).
So why the crying? There are so many things at play but here are some of my observations:
1. The process of awakening often involves the realisation of another sense. A way of sensing beyond conditioned time and space. What if your senses suddenly opened up an intimacy with the world you never experienced before? This can be emotionally overwhelming. It’s like falling in love over and over and over.
What if you remembered that you have loved someone or something or the earth or a special place on it beyond this lifetime? You have the love of more than the years you have physically lived in your heart and soul. You have the joy and utter relief of having found someone or something that is magnified a hundred times because you have missed intimacy with them since the day you were born and often even before that.
2. The opening of this sense often coincides with loving beyond social norms. My closest relationships have a large age gap. Embracing someone with all your heart knowing that the forces of nature will probably cause one of you to die long before the other is a very special kind of love. Your body knows the reality. It embraces the inevitable loss as much as it embraces the pure joy of each moment. I already have a pact with my closest companion who is 36 years younger than me. We have spoken of it several times. We both want her to be the last person to touch my body when I die. It’s really important to us both. It’s very emotional to feel this aspect of love.
3. When you are able to tune in to others in a state of no ego then you become the one who has the gift of crying the tears they can’t cry for themselves.
Someone close to me suffers complex PTSD. When they are too locked in a trauma state to cry they will just say “Hey I had a bad night and I don’t want to talk about it.”
They are reactive and angry and I say “Hey that’s fine we don’t have to say a word about it. But you know I’m an emotional person and I feel you so much so I’m probably going to cry.”
And I literally just stand there and send my mind into their heart and feel into that heartache of the terrible things that happened to them and just how much I love them. Then I can't stop myself I just have to cry. Well guess what they immediately start talking about how they feel and why and then they just break down and sob their heart out in my arms and this makes them feel so much better.
As long as it also contains the element of joy & compassion then I think crying is a great gift to the world.
Wooo! This was a wild one!! Thanks Anya
Hey Anya I am fascinated by your intro share about crying because I am also a regular crier exactly as you describe. I am just so moved by things these days.
The irony is that this coincides with being the happiest I have ever been in my entire life by a factor of at least 100 (not just according to myself but confirmed by people who have known me for over 10 years).
So why the crying? There are so many things at play but here are some of my observations:
1. The process of awakening often involves the realisation of another sense. A way of sensing beyond conditioned time and space. What if your senses suddenly opened up an intimacy with the world you never experienced before? This can be emotionally overwhelming. It’s like falling in love over and over and over.
What if you remembered that you have loved someone or something or the earth or a special place on it beyond this lifetime? You have the love of more than the years you have physically lived in your heart and soul. You have the joy and utter relief of having found someone or something that is magnified a hundred times because you have missed intimacy with them since the day you were born and often even before that.
2. The opening of this sense often coincides with loving beyond social norms. My closest relationships have a large age gap. Embracing someone with all your heart knowing that the forces of nature will probably cause one of you to die long before the other is a very special kind of love. Your body knows the reality. It embraces the inevitable loss as much as it embraces the pure joy of each moment. I already have a pact with my closest companion who is 36 years younger than me. We have spoken of it several times. We both want her to be the last person to touch my body when I die. It’s really important to us both. It’s very emotional to feel this aspect of love.
3. When you are able to tune in to others in a state of no ego then you become the one who has the gift of crying the tears they can’t cry for themselves.
Someone close to me suffers complex PTSD. When they are too locked in a trauma state to cry they will just say “Hey I had a bad night and I don’t want to talk about it.”
They are reactive and angry and I say “Hey that’s fine we don’t have to say a word about it. But you know I’m an emotional person and I feel you so much so I’m probably going to cry.”
And I literally just stand there and send my mind into their heart and feel into that heartache of the terrible things that happened to them and just how much I love them. Then I can't stop myself I just have to cry. Well guess what they immediately start talking about how they feel and why and then they just break down and sob their heart out in my arms and this makes them feel so much better.
As long as it also contains the element of joy & compassion then I think crying is a great gift to the world.