Arriving

We arrive in St. Paul in about 4 hours, at 8:30 in the morning, and will pick up a rental car, then drive around a bit. We will probably look for a park to sit and drink coffee in, and perhaps a place to eat lunch, maybe an art museum or gallery, and check in with family. Then at the earliest possible moment, check in to our hotel and take naps!

I did manage 6 hours of sleep last night, but it wasn't great.

Agenda Today:

1. Read "The Earth Keeper's Handbook"

2. Ongo journal

3. Days of Passion

1. Read "The Earth Keeper's Handbook":

I've just begun this book by Loren Swift (2019), subtitled "Assuming Leadership in a New World." The premise is that lack of care for each other (people) results in lack of care for the earth. "This book details the practical steps to shift the paradigm internally from conflict to cooperation and to make the same shift in relationships and in group endeavors." Well, that is the work I need to do this fall and winter.

The first section is The Way In. Chapter 1 is The Inward Journey. She says that our own "inner landscape" is like mycelium, an invisible matrix of connection to everything, so going inward is the way to reconnect. "Deep self-connection affords us a wide range of insights via our expanded awareness."

She proposes a new approach to mindfulness: a path of deep acceptance; an internal shift that allows room for whatever arises, without judgement. We start with self-acceptance, and a three-part "Compassionate Observer" practice, which is a simple loving-kindness meditation, followed with a body scan (releasing tension and emotions) and a meditation to release attachment to specific thoughts.

This practice is at the service of building a healthy ego so we feel calm, self-confident, humble, generous, and empathetic.

2. Ongo journal:

Today's Ongo practice was also a meditation. Mindfulness of Breathe. I listened to it here on the train, and liked the focus on attention to both breathe and the support of the earth ... I meditated on the sensation of the train supported by the earth while we are all hurtling over the land.

My book will have a few guided meditations with less talk and more quiet time. 

 

3. Days of passion: 

On Fridays I make a plan for Nature-Culture flow and writing through the next week. My Nature-Culture theme this month is water, drought, plastic and pollution, and rain gardens, and I'm also working on the idea of the intersection of Nature and Culture: Is there a balance point, like a Yin yang, between the two? How can I better incorporate a sense of my wild animal instinctual being into my days, and thinking like an earth dweller rather than a person from mars?

• Write about how to be an ally for the water that flows through your land; also stormwater rain gardens and water-wise planting.
• Plan fall themes, projects, and skills for teaching Nature-Culture to kids - Outdoor preschool!
• Plan how to support and lead the EC group; write about the theme "Our Garden, Our Earth" and ways to stretch ourselves with minimal effort.
• Paint butterflies to hang on tags, and put together tags, then hang them around St. Paul.
• Write about awareness and eco-spiritual practices with bodies of water; plan a water-walk.
• Visit water - test an awareness ceremony.
• Write about water wisdom; rethinking cleaning supplies (because of streams); plastics, oil, what else?
• Plan for my own cleaning supplies and plastics.
• Write about plastics advocacy and education, trout-friendly education and craftivism; 
• Garden: Mulch new butterfly beds, improve soil fertility, remove invasive plants, plant cover crops.
• Make a straw doll with my grandson to celebrate the shift in the season.
• Design a new craftivism fish tag to take to Meeting on Sunday.