Earth Offerings
In the spirit of Thanks-Giving, let’s turn toward the living earth and make offerings of gratitude. A simple leaf, a seashell, a stone are sacred gifts we return to the Giver of all Life. Our ancient ancestors gave honor and praise to the immanent deity. Our original foundation is not separate from the earth, not a transcendent spirit removed from a mundane and fallen earth. Rather spirit is present, permeating the animate and breathing being we call Gaia. A nature altar can be as simple as a few late autumn leaves, a unique stone, berries ripening on woodland vines. Every child knows this instinctively, stops to bend and touch, smell, ….to participate in relationship with an ant or a fallen leaf.
We can return to this state of innocence; our children can lead the way. Go outdoors into the park or woods. Go slowly. Open into a soft gaze. Reach out. Listen, touch, smell, breathe. Allow wholeness to flow in. This can heal the past and shape the future.. Make an offering of our own heart and the beauty we see around us
Generations
bare winter branches
bow to cold winds
chimes chant prayers
summer’s hydrangea stalks
rattle sun-drenched thoughts
that skitter past frozen ferns
cardinals call from
dogwood’s silver branches
etched into winter’s brocade
poplar and spicebush
hickory and beech
employ mycelial spinners who
thread by thread
weave arboreal
connective tissue
make a living membrane
between pine and oak
red maple and magnolia
bring nutrition
give warning
nurse illness
interspecies collaboration,
or can we finally see
it is love.
My feet walk and sing,
I bow to
Gaian ancestors
who arise through
my soles
enter into human veins
which are not unlike
those of
sugar maple leaves
alluvial spirits reweave
my connective tissue
make a living plasma
mend places
torn by the past
and weave as well
toward the future
interspecies collaboration,
or can I finally say
this is love.
From my book A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditation on Sacred Ecology
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