Wow! What a year 2025 has been. Year of the snake indeed!
So much shedding of what no longer fits into our lives...and into our world.
Onward and upward we go into the new year of the Fire Horse and 2026!
Wishing you all...my Wildhearted friends...a most wonderful and glorious New Year!
Cheers,
Rachel
For most of human history, we never saw ourselves as a whole planet in the mirror.
We looked up at the sky.
We tracked the stars.
We told
stories about the heavens and reached for gods and mysteries beyond
the clouds.
But we never saw home reflected back to us.
That changed only recently — astonishingly recently — when the first photograph of Earth from space was captured in 1946. The image was grainy and imperfect, but it stirred something in human awareness. For the first time, we glimpsed ourselves not as the center of everything, but as inhabitants of a small, luminous world moving through an endless cosmos.
A living ship.
A blue and white miracle afloat in the dark.
Since then, astronauts have given a name to the profound inner shift that often occurs when they look back at Earth from space. In the 1980s this experience was named, the Overview Effect — a cognitive and emotional transformation that arises when the mind is confronted with the whole planet at once.
Many astronauts describe it the same way.
They cry.
Because something ancient and deeply spiritual awakens inside us.
From orbit, Earth has no borders.
No flags.
No
ideologies etched into the land.
There is only a fragile sphere, wrapped in an atmosphere so thin it has been compared to the skin of an apple — a delicate membrane protecting all known life from the vast hostility of space.
Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut and later founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, spoke of a spontaneous spiritual awakening upon seeing Earth from space. Others, like astronaut Ron Garan, have called it a great awakening — a visceral realization that everything we argue over, consume, destroy, and defend exists within an exquisitely thin shell of life.
Earth is constantly rotating.
The space station is constantly
moving.
To be in orbit is to be in motion — flying over
continents, oceans, storms, and seasons again and again.
Astronauts describe watching lightning flash inside massive storm systems like paparazzi cameras going off in the night. They see auroras ripple like luminous curtains. They observe atmospheric gases glowing against the blackness of space. The sun rises and sets every 90 minutes, no longer backdropped by blue sky, but by infinite darkness.
Eye candy for the soul.
So mesmerizing, in fact, that astronauts have a word for it:
Earthgazing.
During moments of free time aboard
the International Space Station, many are found simply floating at
the windows, watching our planet turn beneath them.
Just witnessing.
Problems that once felt enormous suddenly shrink.
Conflicts
reveal their absurdity.
The illusion of separateness dissolves
into thin air.
Ron Garan famously said that from space it becomes clear that humanity is “living a lie” — treating the planet as a subsidiary to the global economy instead of recognizing that planetary health is the foundation upon which society and economy depend. From orbit, climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss don’t appear as isolated issues. They appear as symptoms of disconnection.
Distance, it seems, changes everything. The God-view...if you will.
Perhaps humanity’s greatest mistake isn’t moral or technological, but one of perspective.
Maybe we don’t need more progress.
Maybe we need more
distance.
More ways of seeing ourselves whole.
Which raises a quieter, more intimate question:
It doesn’t require leaving Earth.
It doesn’t require
rockets or space stations.
A spiritual experience isn’t about escaping the body or transcending the world — it’s about remembering our place within it. When we encounter something vast, beautiful, or alive beyond our ability to control, the ego softens. The mind widens. The heart instantly recognizes belonging.
The Overview Effect is not reserved for astronauts.
It is a
human capacity.
Every time we glimpse the whole instead of the fragment…
Every
time we feel ourselves as part of a living system…
Every time
awe interrupts our certainty…
Something shifts.
We remember that Earth is not a resource.
It is not a
backdrop.
It is not a possession.
It is home.
And from within the heart of the Overview Effect, something deeper
becomes clear:
we live within a unified field — one people,
sharing one planet, held by Nature’s vast and intricate
intelligence.
And when we take in the sheer depth
and vastness of the cosmos —
with our eyes, our bodies, our
hearts —
something undeniable is felt.
If you’re interested in
learning more, I invite you to watch the 19-minute short film
Overview,
which explores this phenomenon through interviews with five
astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect.
👉
Click here
to watch on YouTube.
You can also explore historical images of Earth — from the first photographs in 1946 to the present — in NASA’s archive at NASA.gov.
Photo Credit: NASA dot gov | Entire Western Hemisphere visible from Apollo 8 spacecraft (12/22/1968) | NASA ID: AS08-16-2593
Tonight, I imagine Santa opening a gift
and finding not a
material thing...but light.
Not the blinding kind.
The quiet kind.
The kind that
remembers your name
even when you’ve forgotten the power of it yourself.
May this season meet you gently.
May the light you’ve been
carrying...often invisibly, often bravely
be reflected back to
you in small, unexpected ways.
To the Wildhearted Tribe, and to all who wander here:
may you
feel less alone.
May you rest without apology.
May wonder
slip in through the cracks
and remind you that magic is still
here
in breath, in kindness, in the way light always finds its way in.
There is a gift waiting for you this Christmas.
Not something
to earn or unwrap,
but the soft remembering
that you are
already enough,
already held,
already luminous.
From my wild heart to yours
with love and light,
today,
and always.
💓 Rachel Dickson
There’s a special kind of magic when we invite the forest, mountains, rivers, and sky into our lives. When we pause, watch, and breathe… the healing begins.
About a year and a half ago, I started filming sacred spaces in the Blue Ridge Mountains of WNC. These moments have forever changed my life — and I want to share that magic with you.
RDicksonOutdoors is a space for anyone who loves nature, seeks peace, or wants to lift their energetic vibration. These videos are created to calm the mind, heal the body, and nourish the soul.
Come sit with the rivers, forests, and mountains. Your moment of stillness awaits.
#NatureAsMedicine
#WildheartedLife
#SitByTheRiver
#RdicksonOutdoors
#HealingVibes
Photo Credit: RdicksonOutdoors on Youtube, Sit by the River
Something perplexing arrived in a dream. In many ways it was confirmation for what I already knew in my bones. But I appeared in this dream carrying hope...that things had changed. I returned to see if repair had occurred...and it hadn’t. Please note here...what I’m about to say may be triggering.
I regularly have dreams where I find myself on the campus of a christian college I attended (Northland Baptist Bible College). Oddly, it’s not just me who has these returning dreams. I’ve had conversations with others who also have what we now call “Northland Dreams.”
Interestingly, every time I have one of these dreams it’s slightly different than before. So this tells me NBBC is simply a setting my subconscious is choosing to show me something. This one was very different that the others. It went like this.
The setting was the beginning of a semester, where attending classes...on day one...was all about syllabus and ground rules and guidelines and seating and the like. I found myself in the back of a large classroom where everyone was orienting themselves to the room and what was unfolding here.
I remember wondering about dress code...if I was going to have to wear a skirt. (And of course in this dream I was...wearing a skirt...because it’s what you did as a female at christian college). A girl approached me (as if on cue) and said...would you like one of these? In her hand was a piece of forest green fleece fabric.
And I said, “What's that for?”
And she said, “This is to go over your legs, because the boys have been looking under the desks up girls skirts.”
I was furious!! Why
are they still getting this so wrong!
Clearly...
I’d come back here to
see if the system had changed.
And they were still asking the
wrong people to carry the burden
of misplaced truth.
It’s quite a magical thing when you take your present reality knowing self into a dream setting. And from within the dream you respond based upon this knowing instead of past programming. It’s an empowering experience when you shift from what you used to do...and instead respond from your awakened knowing.
In this instance...
Survival asks: How
do I adapt?
Awakening
asks: Why the
hell should I?
We all know because we’ve experienced moments like this. Where in an instant something undignified arrives because an inner truth had been violated. And over time...this violated truth demands to be named. It starts as a whispering voice and grows into a roaring lion demanding attention.
There comes a moment when the body realizes it has been asked to do something morally backwards — to carry the consequences of someone else’s failure to be accountable. That moment is when the Sacred NO is born.
Whether we act on that Sacred No moment right then or not isn’t really the point...the point is that our inner truth heard the bell ring inside ourselves because our sacred wiring said, “NO.”
Sometimes it takes time for us to recognize what actually happened...and to embrace this awareness when something similar happens again so we can respond in line with our inner truth instead of conforming to cultural expectations.
I’ve learned within this context to offer more compassion to myself when pondering upon some of my previous experiences in life. We are all just muddling along here trying to figure it out. Humaning...a big trial and error sequence.
But...to go back to my dream for a minute...there are definitely systems like these that have not morally matured. Persistent misplacement of responsibility reveals that the issue is structural, not situational. The time has come for some “structural growing up” to show up.
I’m also anti-: “be smaller so others don’t stumble”, and anti- “cover yourself so they can behave”, and anti- “forgive without repair”, and anti- “submit without safety”, and anti- “silence as virtue”!
By
the way, covering for truth by dismissing responsibility is not
holiness.
It’s
control wearing a halo. It’s
fake. It’s fools gold.
And you can feel it in the air in and
your bones.
I didn’t leave church culture because I was bitter, weak, or
unwilling to submit.
I left because I refused a system
that protects itself by sacrificing dignity.
And
once you see that, there is no “going back for the good parts.”
I called out in that dream, “WHY ARE THEY NOT TEACHING THE BOYS... human respect and boundaries, self-control, self-regulation and just plain better humaning?”
You know these things too..in your bones. I’m very likely preaching to the choir here….because once someone sees things like this inside a culture...you can no longer unsee the structural failure.
I was taught these frameworks from a very young age. So I know them inherently...as I’m sure many of you do too...because you too were taught this same structure. When you see human-behavior that reflects these frameworks it’s recognizable from miles away...because we lived from within it for so long.
The system responded to harm by: managing appearances, controlling bodies, softening outrage, and redirecting responsibility.
Instead of doing the one thing that actually creates safety in this scenario:
Teaching boys respect, consent, self-regulation, and accountability.
Teaching girls to know and defend their physical boundaries, stand in their sovereignty and autonomy, and to refuse to be polite when they sense they’re being bullied.
I’m done accepting: spiritual frameworks that police bodies, containers that prioritize reputation over safety, systems that call control “care”, and rules that excuse harm and burden the harmed.
This isn’t about a christian college, church culture, or my dream — it’s about how harm is still mismanaged. It’s about institutions that have stalled in their moral development — still relying on control and compliance instead of accountability and repair.
In case you might be hung up on this entire writing session stemming from a dream...well, there is also a real scenario that I witnessed this past summer. While working for Green River Adventures...I was managing the riverside operations and hundreds upon hundreds of folks would tube the Green river with us each day. And one of these fateful days a church youth group arrived. Just so happens that this particular day...all the girls of this group were wearing long cotton t-shirts over their swimsuits. All the boys in this group, shirtless and swim trunks.
My heart sank...because I knew exactly what was going on here. This was an example of rules that excuse harm and burden the harmed. “Control” sheeping as “care”. “Modesty” masquerading as “safety.”
I was deeply disappointed. Because this is exactly the church culture I grew up in 30 years ago. Where rules excused harm and instead burdened the harmed.
I view this as the continued sacrifice of dignity in plain sight. My heart ached for the boys who were clearly not being taught the deeply true values of respect, consent, self-regulation, accountability and just simple good humaning skills. And for the girls who weren’t being taught sovereignty, autonomy and to stand up and demand self-respect.
Repair begins when everyone is honest about what’s really going on. And considerations are made in honor of human dignity and truth. Repair means acknowledgment without defensiveness, consistent behavioral change, courageous teaching from heart versus silencing out of fear, and responsibility held by those with influence. Real change becomes tangible.
It’s in my blood to call a spade a spade. And many of you also are truth-tellers in this same way. We can’t help it...and it’s probably why we’re here. To wave the flags of “Hey...not here. Not this!”
And shine the light back onto our human right to declare the Sacred No!
We can do better. We must...for our hearts, for our souls, for our truth.
This is the way.
A message has been waiting… one that wants to be worn, carried, and felt:
“Love holds.
Wildness moves.
Truth shapes.”
A little mantra you can step into — a reminder of what grounds you, what moves you, and what shapes your life every day.
💛 Soft, breathable, and made for wildhearted souls who live fully, honor their truth, and embrace the beauty of their own wildness.
Whether you wear it as a private mantra, a gentle reminder, or a companion for your everyday adventures, this shirt carries the Wildhearted energy wherever you go.
Step into your own mantra. Step into your own wildness.
*Nine
colors to choose from!
#Wildhearted #SoulWear #LoveHoldsWildnessMovesTruthShapes #MantraTee #GentleForceCollection
Tomorrow morning (12/12/25) at 10:00 AM, a new edition of Field Notes for the Soul arrives — a quiet landing place in your inbox.
If you’ve ever felt the urge to send love out into the world, or sensed the subtle energy of connection around you… this one’s for you.
This week’s note includes:
🌿 Reflections on showing up
and sharing your heart — even in unexpected places
🎤
Stories from a year of open mic nights and what it taught me about
human connection
💛 A special gift: Love on the Wind: A
Heartstream Meditation — to tune into your heart and project
love-light to someone you care about
🌟 A Wild-Hearted
Practice of the Week: Send Love Like Light on the Wind — a
simple, powerful way to activate heart energy and notice the ripples
it creates
Sign up before 10:00 AM tomorrow to receive it in your
inbox.
After signing up, be sure to click the confirmation email
so it finds you.
For the hearts willing to soar — listen closely, the wind is carrying your love. 💛
After signing up, be sure to click the confirmation email so it finds you.
Photo Credit: Image by Enrique from Pixabay
