A Word to Describe the Evolution of the Heart.
On my first camping trip to Enchanted Rock, in Texas, I found this heart.
Alive as it is, it has thorns to protect from its environment, it’s defensive. This heart resembles my experience living in Houston, not because it is a bad place, it is a place like any other whose existence is not compatible with mine. I was uneasy, and finding that place of silence, observance, renovation and recharging was always a path with a lot of resistance. I have one word to describe it: Contrast.
Then, I took a solo trip to the Pacific Northwest. I experienced fear, magic and wonder, I saw the desert, heard the stories of our origins in one of the four corners, saw earth history in layers and human civilizations in ruins. I also experienced desolation, passing through the Dead Valley with just music, the road and the undulating heat of the horizon is something, I tell you.
I hiked through forests that belong to bears, mountain lions and eagles, got mountain views, touched the waters of the Sierra Nevada, hung my hammock, and made lots and lots and lots of campfires. I felt like a cell in a body. I’m always in awe of what nature makes and where the Universe takes me. My word to describe it: Surrender.
The only thing that mattered at that moment was to keep going forward, to be truthful to myself, to follow what was calling me, to let it magnetize me and to let go of what was left behind. Then, I got to the destination that was determined. On the way, I found a heart opening among the clouds, and that surrender lead me to openness.
My first summer in Oregon, I hiked the South Sister, and while contemplating this amazing view, I found a volcanic heart. It is a rock but it crumbles. It was lava that cooled off, liquid fire that became earth. The Pacific Northwest is super beautiful, the diversity of ecosystems reminds me of my homeland. The word is: Belonging.
In the middle of winter, I was walking down the beach on a chilly sunset, when the clouds moved to allow the sun to warm up the horizon, and in between the undulations that uncover the treasures of the sea, I found this heart. That night the ocean got huge, what used to be sand was covered by waves.
The sea polished this heart, it once was earth testifying the ways of the forest and it has the potential to be set on fire. At that point in my life, I didn’t know exactly what was coming and I didn’t have a word for it, but now that a couple of moons have passed, I got it: Trust.
Let’s be clear, the Universe is in love. There is an impulse of wanting to know how everything will unfold, an impulse to figure it out, to want to fast forward, to stop the present to see what is ahead, but in that impulse we lose the one thing that gives spice to life, and that is mystery.
As long as we know the greatness of our spirit, which is the spirit of all of us, united, synchronized and moving in harmony with the universal symphony, will sustains us, we let go, we organically surrender to that energy, and in that process we become what we came here to be, pure love, acting on our behalf, moving through us and expanding with us.
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Anielis Raas is a Venezuelan-Oregonian, currently based in Corvallis, OR, where she opened a jewelry showroom and a sewing studio in June 2016. Ani’s intention with her jewelry is to inspire others to believe in their own power and to bring Nature close to them, so we become an extension of her energy (Nature’s), that is why she (the designer) chooses to use natural materials. Her designs are geometric, organic and dynamic, some of them by movement, some of them by the visual path it leads you to take through it. The meanings derive from symbols and metaphysical properties of stones, which come from personal connection to them, conversations with healers, books and teachers. Ani’s intention with her clothing is to adapt to the reality that all bodies are different, to use eco-friendly materials, and to develop production locally as an answer to the issues that surround the fashion industry. You could contact her via her website, Instagram or Facebook.
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