Sacred Earth Sacred Self

Spring Arising

 

                          Spring has arrived; come listen with me!

 

“I walk my forest land listening for whispers of these other-than-human intelligences, calling a litany of their names as I pass ~ Jewel Weed, Fiddlehead Fern, Beechnut, Curly Dock ~ naming their blessings.  They entice me back to my senses, which carry the collective earth-wisdom we have sadly lost.  Step by step, they bring me back to the living breathing Earth, sensuously alive with our composite Interbeing.  I invite you to walk with me through these animate worlds.  We will re-member, gather back into ourselves the scattered members of our wild foliated, feathered, finned, and furred family. 

 

We will step outside the door, listen, and as we speak “ruby-throated hummingbird” our shoulders muscles will recall the mystical lemniscate of her wings.  We will recite “honeysuckle blossom” and a heady, intoxicating sweetness will rise up within us.  Our ears will open to many wild languages calling to us come home.  Our skin will shuck off the tough husk of exploitation and extraction, so our soft animal body can feel rain as grace, wind as god’s breath, the taste of honey as love itself.”  From my book a Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology

  ******************

 Now it is spring; mists of green and yellow wash through the forest umbrella, wild cherries, forsythia and redbuds bloom, while on the forest floor morel mushrooms push through leaf litter.  Other new growth is sprouting, as well, and I am excited to share these opportunities with you.

 

Earth Responders:  I will be joining other speakers and presenters in a new course beginning this week!  This seven-week course is designed to provide insights, approaches, and tools for those who wish to bring deep presence to the global ecological crisis, this most immediate need of our time.  Find more information and registration here. https://inayatiyya.org/event/earth-responders/

 

Kinship With Nature is a Family Affair : In July I will be offering a five week course in collaboration with LifeWays North America.  This course brings together my two great loves: the guiding, healing, wise presence of the living earth will now more fully permeate my work with children, families and teachers! Research shows intimate connections with nature improve our mood, health and sense of purpose.  Science affirms that the child’s love of nature and its many health benefits, depends upon the adult’s depth of connection with the natural world. “Pass the torch” of nature connection to the children in your care.  Join this course and deepen your own inherent relationship with the Elements and Realms of Nature. I hope to see you there!

https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/kinship-with-nature-is-a-family-affair

 

Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our World: I have been invited to review Cynthia Jurs’ new book!  It is an inspired treasure trove of earth-wisdom and an account of the earth-centered peoples who have gleaned this wisdom over millennia.  It is also a book filled with the adventures both illuminating and terrifying that Cynthia faced as she set about fulfilling the ancient task she had been given.  Click the link below and you can read the review.  Read This Book! It is a “Do Not Miss” opportunity to broaden and deepen your horizons!  

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6396936325?book_show_action=false

 

More Ways to Connect: I’ve added a new page to the Wild Graces website!  It is full of new resources, online courses I have offered, links to webinars I have given, possible topics for zoom parent evenings, and even an interview on the ten spiritual books that have shaped and guided my life. Enjoy browsing!

https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org/more-ways-to-connect

 

 Please forward this notice to friends whose hearts and minds are in service to the future: our children and our emerald earth!

 Subscribe to Wild Graces and discover Nesting Circles of Belonging.

https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org  Scroll to the bottom to subscribe

Ten Favorite Spiritual Books

Hello Friends,

 

Autumn is the perfect time to begin to turn inward as golden, burnt umber, and crimson leaves begin their winter journey of slumber, and regeneration. The following is an idea to inspire your inner trek this year .

 

Recently I posted about a wonderful opportunity that came my way, and I want to follow up with you.  I had the great pleasure of being interviewed for Sandie Sedgbeer’s No BS Spiritual Book Club!  Sandie interviews authors about the ten most influential spiritual books that have shaped their lives and their work.  What an insightful adventure! To re-read my all-time greatest ten books was a time-travel journey! As I re-explored each book, I remembered viscerally, emotionally and cognitively my exact place and mood when I first encountered it. Rereading these favorites so many years later, I could remember the powerful Aha! moments I experienced. I also uncovered layers of meaning I missed at a younger age. Current books, as well as my classic favorites, have joined this list.

 

I hope you want to join me in this and I encourage each of you to meander through your own exploration of your “ten best!” Doing this is a heart-expanding entry into a life-review!  Walk over to your bookshelf now and begin browsing…. 

 

 My list of Ten Best has been posted on Sandie’s website here:

 https://www.sedgbeer.com/sharifa-oppenheimers-10-best-spiritual-books/

 

The interview will air this Thursday November 2, at 1:30 ET

See it here : https://www.facebook.com/sandiesedgbeer

 

Or watch the recording anytime after that, here

https://www.youtube.com/sandiesedgbeer/streams

 

I hope this adventure inspires you to move toward winter’s repose, to gather your books, curl up in a sunny window and begin to read.

 

Enjoy!

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Wild Graces News and Notes

 Hello Friends,

 I’m excited to share with you a few notes and updates from the world filled with Wild Graces!

 

Starting September 20th  I will be teaching a six month online course Brain Science and your Child’s Journey Toward the Self

in partnership with LifeWays, North America!  The following is from the LifeWays website:

“This exciting course, with Sharifa Oppenheimer, author of Heaven on Earth and With Stars in Their Eyes, will be a six month exploration of the gentle ways teachers and parents can bring cutting edge brain science into their classroom and home, to support the children’s finest brain development!

Six engaging multimedia lessons, with group discussion and valuable resources will be released the third Wednesday of each month, September through March (excluding December). Participants are also invited to join Sharifa for three Zoom conferences for face-to-face experience of the content and connection with the course community.” Here is the link for more info and to register.

https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/brain-science-and-your-childs-journey-toward-the-self/

In the world of Wild Graces Poetry, my essay Sacred Place was published on the Biodynamics Journal Blog as well as in the hard copy Journal itself!  Please check it out here, for a deepened sense of the sacred in everyday spaces: https://www.biodynamics.com/blog/202301

 

I have the great pleasure of being interviewed for Sandie Sedgbeer’s No BS Spiritual Book Club!  What on earth is that?  Sandie interviews authors about the ten most influential spiritual books that have shaped their lives and their work.  What a fun adventure!  To re-read my all-time greatest ten books was a time-travel  journey!  The interview will be posted on her website in early November, and I will keep you posted for the date.  Meanwhile, you will want to visit Sandie’s multi-dimensional work here https://www.sedgbeer.com/the-no-bs-book-club/

Thanks for joining me in deepening our relationships to Family, Nature and Spirit! hope your autumn is abundant with joy and beauty!

Green Blessings,  Sharifa

Sunflowers by Eve Supica

You Are Invited

You are invited to join me and the Nature Evolutionaries!

Join me for a free webinar Thurs March 16th at 3:00!

Join me at the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries! Choose one event or join for both!! Here's what they are saying:

 We have two exciting opportunities to connect with Sharifa Oppenheimer coming up! 

Join our free webinar with Sharifa on Thursday, March 16 at 12 PT / 3pm ET : "Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self"

Register here for free https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2023/sacred-earth-sacred-self?fbclid=IwAR0VgulWD-q3gLDkElg-5H3UVR4HHp1ckPpxExvTRHA7q-G54ip3dE6vM6o  

AND, we invite you to participate in our upcoming Kinship with Nature course, with Sharifa Oppenheimer ~ March 21-April 25 

https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/kinship-with-nature-course

 Do you notice that your worries subside and your happiness quotient increases when you are in Nature? 

Perhaps your soul is whispering for growth and transformation! 

The Kinship with Nature course helps you discover your inherent relationship with the Elements and Realms of Nature. Through song, movement, story, breathwork, visualization and deep internal inquiry, your innate connection to the natural world will flourish. 

Springtime is the perfect moment to immerse yourself in the healing life-forces of Mother Earth. These are do-not-miss opportunities

Light is Born into Darkness and all Earthlings Rejoice

And now the Solstice Light is with us!

 

We now celebrate with all our fellow earthlings, for the celestial corner has been rounded and Light returns! Minerals, plants, and animals rejoice.  We humans, whose bodies are composed of these living ancestors, give gratitude and honor to all creation.  These poems have come as gifts from the dream world; they arrived to me as visitors in the velvet night.  For more poems subscribe :  https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org  Click on the thread A Litany of Wild Graces, or order the book from the Books tab.  Happy Solstice to all!

 

 

Mineral

Hillside forest.

Spider webs are quilted sunlight.

Her veins open into this dawn.

Tourmaline crystals

tumble at her feet.

She is mineral.

 

Plant Woman

Her ancestral home

succumbs to fecund

silted flood waters.

A chair rocks slowly.

Lavender grows

in the palm of her hand.

Waters slowly rise.

 

Land Animal

Her hair becomes silk banners,

flags flying in mist-laden wind.

She dances on tiger’s back.

Jungle fronds sway,

green waves parting

as the she-tiger passes.

 

Human

We are composite

permeable form

a place

the world-spirit

travels through:

            minerals

            waters

            plants

            animals

            starfire

wind

all these

gather fragments of humankind

carry bits of our genetic alphabet

downstream or disperse them

on dandelion filaments.

 

We greet these guests

spirit embedded in earth

tend them

as they flow through us

know that elements borrowed

from star-born

ancestors will be returned

for our children’s

children.

 

Photo Kate Knott@a_clear_lens_photography