About Jamila
Artist ✴︎ Poet ✴︎ Storyeller
Listening to the earth
I’m Jamila, whisperer of the earth. I weave words, sound and light to celebrate our planetary rhythms. Roaming the forests and rivers, the earth whispers their wisdom to me, and I translate it.
My story
My name is Jamila. It means beautiful, and I belong to the earth.
I had an intense sense of duty to the planet as a kid. I wrote lyrics about protecting earth's creatures, painted dragons, rainbows and big cats with giant wings. Before I could name it, I felt the earth’s magic and heard their whispers.
Eventually, seasons of silence came, when I lost touch with this way of listening. Though a part of my longed to feel it again, I’d forgotten how. It was almost tempting to numb myself from it entirely, to allow the forgetting to engulf me.
So I tried numbing. It didn’t work.
The whispers were so faint, I could no longer form words. But my hands still listened. I collected detritus from the ground, making mixed media art out of what withers. I searched my inner landscape for something I could no longer name.
As my body began to ache from the loss, I turned to ancient ways of remembering. Reiki taught me how to notice the subtle energies of the world once again. Yoga reminded me how to breathe. Ayurveda guided me back to the wisdom of the earth’s rhythms.
Slowly, I found my way back to earth—and my own center—one sunrise and season at a time.
I lit a candle before dawn to greet the day. Spoke my heart’s longing to the stars before bed. I walked the wilds of my heart with no map for long enough to let go of having a destination.
The earth’s whispers found me again.
For I am Jamila, and I belong to the earth.
I heard them at the riverbank, where I cooled my hide beneath the summer sun. I heard them from the tomatoes ripening on my windowsill. The language of the earth revealed itself to me through everyday moments, waiting for my presence.
My studies had prepared me to recognize this presence, though the earth taught me how to feel it.
The plants, the herbs, the sun, the moon and stars—they each have their own dialect within earth’s diverse language. I continue to learn as I hear them, sharing their whispers through my art, poetry, meditations and stories.
I invite you to listen, too.
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