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Nov. 8th, 2014 09:20 pmFrom 'Moral Ground', ed. Kathleen Dean Moore & Michael P Nelson
Quote:
1. Live with the seasons. There is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time for strawberries and melons, a time for acorn squash. A time for basking in the sun, a time for playing in the snow. A time for rain, a time for drought. The seasons bring their ripeness and their joy. Live with them, plant for them, celebrate them, anticipate what each will bring.
2. Stay close to the ground. Walk where you are going; go where you can walk. Refuse to fly. Move close to your family. Sit on the steps or the curb or the fallen log. Dig potatoes. Pick up wind-thrown apples. Gather your neighbors and plant food in the vacant lots. Sled. Lie on your back and watch the stars or the reflection of the city on the clouds. It's connection with the Earth that gives us life and grounds our joys.
3. Honor the Earth. Have you forgotten how? Then think of how you honor your grandmother, the wizened woman in the nursing home-- by visiting her, spending time holding her hand, singing her songs of the season, telling her stories of how she cared for you, asking her to remember how you were, bringing her small gifts, stroking her arm, listening to her, making sure her hair is clean and people are kind to her. The Earth is equally beloved and holy: honor it the same way.
###
How can we express gratitude to the Earth for all its gifts?
Let the reliable rhythms of the moon and the tides reassure you. Let the smells return memories of other seas and times. Let the reflecting light magnify your perception. Let the rhythm of the rushing water flood your spirit. Walk and walk until your heart is full.
###
The following quotes are from Robin W. Kimmerer, in an essay entitled The Giveaway that is every line a revelation on multiple levels:
"In a culture of gratitude, everyone knows that gifts will follow the circle of reciprocity and flow back to you again. This time you give and then you receive. Both the honor of giving and the humility of receiving are necessary halves of the equation. The grass in the ring is trodden down in a path from gratitude to reciprocity. We dance in a circle, not in a line."
"I don't know the origin of the giveaway, but I think that we learned it from watching the plants, especially the berries, who offer up their gifts all wrapped in red and blue."
"Something beyond gratitude is asked of us. ... They remind us that all flourishing is mutual."
"And then, as the drum begins, we will dance, wearing regalia in celebration of the living Earth: a waving fringe of tallgrass prairie, a whirl of butterfly shawls, with nodding plumes of egrets, jeweled with the glitter of a phosphorescent wave. When the song pauses for the honor beats, we'll hold high our gifts and ululate their praises: a shining fish, a branch of blossoms, and a starlit night."
###
From Sulak Sivaraksa:
"Politics without spirituality or ethic is cold and blind. Spirituality wtihout politics is simply inconsequential--it regresses into a form of New Age self-help and escapism."
###
From Hank Lentfer:
"The notion of prevention, I realized, leaves me paralyzed and numb. The notion of preparation, on the other hand, fills me with purpose and meaning."
###
Quote:
1. Live with the seasons. There is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time for strawberries and melons, a time for acorn squash. A time for basking in the sun, a time for playing in the snow. A time for rain, a time for drought. The seasons bring their ripeness and their joy. Live with them, plant for them, celebrate them, anticipate what each will bring.
2. Stay close to the ground. Walk where you are going; go where you can walk. Refuse to fly. Move close to your family. Sit on the steps or the curb or the fallen log. Dig potatoes. Pick up wind-thrown apples. Gather your neighbors and plant food in the vacant lots. Sled. Lie on your back and watch the stars or the reflection of the city on the clouds. It's connection with the Earth that gives us life and grounds our joys.
3. Honor the Earth. Have you forgotten how? Then think of how you honor your grandmother, the wizened woman in the nursing home-- by visiting her, spending time holding her hand, singing her songs of the season, telling her stories of how she cared for you, asking her to remember how you were, bringing her small gifts, stroking her arm, listening to her, making sure her hair is clean and people are kind to her. The Earth is equally beloved and holy: honor it the same way.
###
How can we express gratitude to the Earth for all its gifts?
Write a song of praise and sing it in the street.
Say thank you before morning coffee, which is a gift of grace from the water and the soil, which owe you nothing.
Celebrate the season of harvest with feasting, the season of scarcity with fasting, the season of new life with dancing, and the season of ripeness with listening.
For every gift you are given, give something in return: a planted seed, a suet scrap, a moment to notice the moon.
Be glad for ponds.
Take nothing without noticing. A deep breath, a carrot salad, a drink of water or wine.
Write thank-you notes, which is what your mother taught you. Write to the soil, “This is a great gift and your are kind to give it and I hope you are well in the new year.” Bury the note in the garden.
Hold each gift in your hands—fresh snow, a tomato, a child’s crayon drawing; examine it closely to understand how beautiful it is, and astounding. This is how a gift becomes sacred.
Make something of every gift you are given.
Use it, but use it wisely and well.
Imagine, when you awake each morning, what you will make of the new day, that greatest of all astonishing gifts.
Listen closely when the gift is music. Return it abundantly when the gift is love. Touch it gently when the gift is fragile. Protect it fiercely when the gift is vulnerable. Laugh aloud when the gift is joyous. Share it when the gift is truth. Use it bravely when the gift is freedom. When the gift is money, give it away.
Above all, do not pretend to understand why you have been chosen to receive these gifts. This is the mystery of life.
###
"Your calling," philosopher Frederick Buechner said, "is at the intersection of your great joy adn the world's great need." Go to that place. Do that work.
###
It's not just the sun in winter, the salmon sky that lights the snow, or blue rivers through glacial ice. It's the small things, too-- the kinglet's golden crown, the lacy skeletons of decaying leaves, and the way all these relate to one another in patterns that are beautiful and wondrous. The timeless unfurling of the universe, or the glory of God, or an unknown mystery, or all of these together have brought the Earth to a glorious richness that awakens in the human heart a sense of joy and wonder.
###
"Your calling," philosopher Frederick Buechner said, "is at the intersection of your great joy adn the world's great need." Go to that place. Do that work.
###
It's not just the sun in winter, the salmon sky that lights the snow, or blue rivers through glacial ice. It's the small things, too-- the kinglet's golden crown, the lacy skeletons of decaying leaves, and the way all these relate to one another in patterns that are beautiful and wondrous. The timeless unfurling of the universe, or the glory of God, or an unknown mystery, or all of these together have brought the Earth to a glorious richness that awakens in the human heart a sense of joy and wonder.
###
Let the reliable rhythms of the moon and the tides reassure you. Let the smells return memories of other seas and times. Let the reflecting light magnify your perception. Let the rhythm of the rushing water flood your spirit. Walk and walk until your heart is full.
The following quotes are from Robin W. Kimmerer, in an essay entitled The Giveaway that is every line a revelation on multiple levels:
"In a culture of gratitude, everyone knows that gifts will follow the circle of reciprocity and flow back to you again. This time you give and then you receive. Both the honor of giving and the humility of receiving are necessary halves of the equation. The grass in the ring is trodden down in a path from gratitude to reciprocity. We dance in a circle, not in a line."
"I don't know the origin of the giveaway, but I think that we learned it from watching the plants, especially the berries, who offer up their gifts all wrapped in red and blue."
"Something beyond gratitude is asked of us. ... They remind us that all flourishing is mutual."
"And then, as the drum begins, we will dance, wearing regalia in celebration of the living Earth: a waving fringe of tallgrass prairie, a whirl of butterfly shawls, with nodding plumes of egrets, jeweled with the glitter of a phosphorescent wave. When the song pauses for the honor beats, we'll hold high our gifts and ululate their praises: a shining fish, a branch of blossoms, and a starlit night."
###
From Sulak Sivaraksa:
"Politics without spirituality or ethic is cold and blind. Spirituality wtihout politics is simply inconsequential--it regresses into a form of New Age self-help and escapism."
###
From Hank Lentfer:
"The notion of prevention, I realized, leaves me paralyzed and numb. The notion of preparation, on the other hand, fills me with purpose and meaning."
###
