Earth Path

Woodland Skipper sunning on my sage.

Starhawk in her book “The Earth Path”, says: "...we must learn to be present in and interact with the natural world that surrounds us, in the city as well as the country or wilderness. Instead of closing our eyes to meditate, we need to open our eyes and observe. Unless our spiritual practice is grounded in a real connection to the natural world, we run the risk of simply manipulating our own internal imagery and missing the real communication taking place all around us."

Like Starhawk, I advocate for including nature in your spiritual practices: If you meditate, or have a daily prayer practice, do it outdoors, with eyes open. If you are a church goer, find one that will let you worship outside at least once a month, or simply schedule one day a month to take yourself outside to worship on your own. Invite nature into your spiritual life in any way you can. 

I’m suggesting that we worship WITH nature: Open a door to deep awareness. Awareness of nature leads to wonder, the recovery of that childhood ability to be struck with awe at the simple and profound experience of being in relationship with nature. When we are aware, every visit from a butterfly becomes a joyful moment to pause and greet a special guest; walking under a giant Douglas Fir tree is a stop at a sacred place; the miracle of the sunrise and sunset connects us to the turning of the planet.

The wonder-kinship-bond is a culmination of the shift from being a human, living beside nature, to being joined in sister and brotherhood with all of life.

Agenda:

1. Spiritual growth goals

2. Renewal plans

3. Eco-spiritual practices

Retreat for the Earth

Today is my new moon retreat day, a chance to spend time alone with my inner guide. 

A retreat (even a short one) needs some definition or it is just a vacation: I want to broaden my inner experience and gain clarity. I need open-mindedness and a little discipline in order to maximize my effort. The most important components to arrange are solitude, silence, and simplicity. I will do less talking, less business, and more personal thought and action. 

My theme today is Depth: What is my Truth, and what are my intentions? I'm seeking clarity for how to proceed on my Earth-Quaker path - what are my next steps? 

Agenda:

1. Root reading

2. Plant beets

3. Depth walk

4. A forest visit

5. Share an Earth circle and a land acknowledgement

Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a sanctum, a sacred and protected place of beauty, grace and refuge. Our home and garden is a sanctuary for body and soul; it embraces us and brings us back to center. When we take sanctuary, even for brief moments, we are re-created, recharged, healed, soothed, comforted and at peace.

This week I hope to continue to define and upgrade our sanctum; it's an ongoing discipline of inner work (seeking inspiration, and upgrading my habits) and projects (creating a place of peace that expresses who we are).

Agenda:

1. Journal queries on home and family

2. Word #4 - Discipline

3. Resolutions review

4. Sanctuary practices

1. Journal queries on home and family:

These are queries from the North Pacific Yearly Meeting book of Faith and Practice--

How do we make our homes places of friendliness, peace, and renewal, where God is real for those who live there and those who visit?

How do we maintain a climate of love and trust in our meeting which invites families to be open about their satisfactions and challenges? 

How do we keep commitments outside the home from encroaching on the time and loving attention the family needs for its health and well-being? 

Does our home life support our need for both a sense of personal identity and shared living? 

What supports do we offer to the aging, the widowed, the separated or divorced, and members of families affected by disruption or trauma? 

How does the meeting assist families to improve communication, family life, and the rearing of children in a context of love?

2. Word #4 - Discipline:

I'm reading a Pendle Hill pamphlet called Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One, by Robert Griswold. This speaks to the condition of many Friends in my Meeting, who are ready to go deeper on this journey, and a large group of us are studying this booklet together this year.

The word this month is Discipline, which I started write about yesterday.

Discipline is a muscle that requires exercise. Being a Quaker is like perfecting a craft. "The discipline needed is the discipline of Quaker practice called 'good order' or 'Gospel order'. ... Our outrageous aim as Quakers is to discern the truth of Reality - and align our actions with the truth. We won't come close to that goal without discipline".

Quaker practice is slippery, because it doesn't have a set form. Early Quakers saw that the prayers and ceremonies of the Church were easily corrupted and could become prideful, so we have adopted the "discipline of silent presence." 

Griswold suggests that our personal practice should include daily silence, study, encouraging other Friends to question us about our inner life and the trajectory our life is taking, and deep listening to what is said by others. He says our spiritual disciplines are like tending the inner garden.

He also says that committee work is essential: "When we work with other Friends we learn that some of the certainties ... we have been carrying need to be examined. The Light coming through other Friends may shine into corners unfamiliar to us... Sharing work teaches us to bring our love, courage, and patience to our service. These lessons do not take root in us by our thinking about them or wishing for them. They become our humble strength by practice".

He ends this section by talking about the importance of listening  deeply to each other. "To build the trust needed for us to work together we need to cultivate a heart that can hear and eyes that can see all that is said or not said. ... As Friends we are required to cultivate the discipline of listening compassionately ..."

3. Resolutions review:

Speaking of discipline, I'm reviewing my New Year's resolutions this week and setting some small practices. I talked about my first resolution yesterday. The second is: 

Sanctuary: I intend to care for my land with discipline and ritual, and create a home that is a peaceful and well-ordered sanctuary for those I love, because maintaining my land in good order is the honorable and sustainable thing to do, and is one way that I show reverence for the Earth and for God.

What I like about this resolution is that it encompasses my home, my land, my family and friends, the Earth and God. It helps me to de-compartmentalize my life and see it as a whole.

 

4. Sanctuary practices: 

• Cleaning: I'm finishing up a month of cleaning away the mold and mildew in my house, and this week I'll work on our bedroom and my study, cleaning the mildew from the walls and windows with detergent and warm water, then use a solution of Borax, and don't rinse, to help prevent mold from growing again.
  
• Farming: I've re-introduced ducks to our land, after a two month break (Welcome home Permelia, and our new Swedish duck, Anka!) The practice of opening the coop at dawn, feeding, cleaning, and putting them to bed again at dusk feels like a healing connection to the land.
• Team talk: Last year I began a practice of printing out a daily page of garden inspiration and the day's list of garden tasks, putting it on a clipboard and finding a few minutes in the morning to discuss them with my partner. It was helpful for us both to have a discipline of talking and listening to each other (you'd think after almost 50 years together we'd have that down, but no) and the visuals gave us a starting place for musing about possibilities. I need to institute this practice again!
• Grandson projects: I want to include my grandson more often in cleaning, gardening, cooking, and farm work. This week I'll pick one task to engage him in each day he's with us.

Gnothi Seauton

On New Year's Day I put the Greek Delphic injunction on my altar - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself. I've been working to know myself better for many years, and to understand my unique temperament and personality style. Knowing myself has allowed me to make better decisions, express what I need and want in life, and understand what motivates me to resist bad habits and develop good ones.

Agenda:

1. Review my personality

2. Word #4 - Discipline

3. Review my resolutions

4. Create inner synergy

4th Day of Christmas

This is the fourth day of the twelve-day festal tide - a sacred, festive season. My retreat today will again embrace the disposition of a pre-schooler ... a busy kind of retreat, with lots of short projects and (hopefully) a long nap!

Agenda:
1. Christmas retreat

2. Kwanzaa principles

3. Earth care reading

4. Service and activism goals for 2023

5. Prayer candle ceremony

6. Make end-of-year donations

7. Winter nature table

An Earth-Quaker Advent

What is an Earth-Quaker advent? It's simple and earthy! 

As I've said, my Earth-Quaker way of celebrating is to acknowledge and mark the changes of the season as they progress. The season of advent is when I celebrate the darkness, and the hope of returning light.

Darkness is not all bad; it can be cozy. Darkness leaves space for mystery, reflection, and quiet growth. But the world holds so much chaos, grief, war, famine and hunger; it's important to remember to have hope, and shine the light.

Gill Sewell says in "A Quaker Reflection on Christmas":

As nights draw in, it is a reminder to me that I need to hold my spark of light faithfully and boldly, witnessing in the darker corners of my community. Holding and living by the Quaker testimonies of peace, simplicity and care of the environment remains a challenge in my preparations for a Christmas celebration. I make donations (including at the food bank), try to make good ethical choices with my purchases, and identify ways in which to share.

Agenda:

1. Read a novena
2. Dawn prayer for Creation

3. Prepare my duck yard

Christmas Oneness

My theme for this week of Advent is "Striving to find unity and peace with all the people of the world".

One way I love to do that is by learning about the traditions and beliefs of people throughout the world. In years past I've studied Germany and Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, and Mexico.

This year I decided to continue my research into the Native Americans who lived where my ancestors settled in this land, particularly the Lenape, who lived in East New Jersey - home of the Slocum family as early as 1670, ancestors of my mother's mother's mother, Mary Ellen Slocum Lambert.

Agenda:

1. Write about my ancestors

2. Write about the Lenape people

3. Write about slavery in East Jersey

4. Celebrate a Quaker Christmas?

First Sunday of Advent

Today is the first Sunday of Advent!

ad•vent (ad’ vent) n. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important.

The advent season is a time of expectant waiting. We look forward with excitement to the celebration of Christmas; we wait for the return of longer days after the solstice; and we anticipate the arrival of grace in our hearts.

Grace is a state of being - at peace, free, filled with love & light.

I'll fill the next weeks with decorating, baking, buying gifts, and singing songs... but enfolding the busyness is the simple, deep peace and love of advent. I wait, anticipate, and learn again that transformation is a slow process.

Agenda today:
1. Journal queries
2. Plan activities to express my unity with nature
3. Advent wreath ceremony

My Experience

I'm reading a Pendle Hill pamphlet called Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One, by Robert Griswold. This speaks to the condition of many Friends in my Meeting, who are ready to go deeper on this journey, and a large group of us are studying this booklet together this year.

Griswold uses seven key words that come to us from our Quaker history, that were developed to help us sense where we are on the Quaker path, and where we are going. He says these words will help us all to see how the Quaker path unfolds - but only if we "bring them into our experience so they are sealed in our hearts ... Friends from George Fox on have sought to avoid a faith that is notional, that is, just based on imagined or abstract thinking. So it is vital that we come to own these words through experiencing them in our lives".

We should consider these words more as growth markers than as concepts, as part of a sequence. I wrote about My Condition last month.

1. Word #2 - Experience

2. My Earth-Quaker path

3. Next steps

Indigenous People's Day

Happy Indigenous People's Day! Some people celebrate the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, but many of us prefer to honor instead the people who were here in the Americas for centuries before Columbus "discovered" it. 

Many cities are finally making the name change official, adopting Indigenous People's Day to celebrate the people and their culture, and also to reflect on their ongoing struggles in this land. The celebration today includes powwows, drumming, dancing, Native American foods and crafts.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. A Creation story

3. A note about appropriation

4. Land and people acknowledgement

5. Drumming

My condition

I'm reading a Pendle Hill pamphlet called Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One,by Robert Griswold. This speaks to the condition of many Friends in my Meeting, who are ready to go deeper on this journey, and a large group of us are studying this booklet together this year.

Griswold says, "The question I wish to consider here is: How do Friends become aware of this Quaker path and the need to keep growing?  ... Our meetings may be open and welcoming, but a large task still faces us. How do we let seekers know that they are at the start of a spiritual journey, and how do we guide them on that journey?"

It's true that we need to be better guides, and it sometimes feels like the blind leading the blind. I hope that this class and group reflection will help us to be clearer, even wiser.

Griswold uses seven key words that come to us from our Quaker history, that were developed to help us sense where we are on the Quaker path, and where we are going. He says these words will help us all to see how the Quaker path unfolds - but only if we "bring them into our experience so they are sealed in our hearts ... Friends from George Fox on have sought to avoid a faith that is notional, that is, just based on imagined or abstract thinking. So it is vital that we come to own these words through experiencing them in our lives".

We should consider these words more as growth markers than as concepts, as part of a sequence.

1. Word #1 - Condition

2. My path

3. Autumn plain living

4. Simple pleasures

The Eternal Now

Quakers are mystics. Mystical experience is direct experience of God; our Quaker silent worship is an invitation to experience that of God within ourselves, and within the entire perceivable universe. 

One dictionary definition: "a person who claims to attain, or believes in the possibility of attaining, insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge, as by direct communication with the divine or immediate intuition in a state of spiritual ecstasy."

We mostly don't exhibit ecstasy anymore, but the early Friends did quake and shake, which is where our name comes from.

Agenda:

1. Read "Testament of Devotion"

2. Worship with the Earth

Earth Sabbath

Today is my sabbath, and I'm giving attention to my leadings as an Earth-Quaker, a marriage of my Quaker spirituality with my nature religion leanings. The Light of Truth is leading me to remember the earth and all of Creation in everything I do. This year I've been trying to discern and define what that means to me: 

• First, I hold that the Earth and every part of Creation is a living, spiritual being, and has "that of God" within it.
• We (humans) are a part of nature, not separate.
• We must give the earth and nature a voice in our circle, and listen as best we can to what they are saying, so that we will be better able to discern God's will. We can do this as individuals and as a community.
• Our testimonies of simplicity, integrity, equality, and stewardship all require us to take action for the earth and for nature - to restore, protect, and heal our connection.

Today:

1. Read "The Earth Path"

2. Set a sacred intention

3. Share an Earth circle and a land acknowledgement

August Third Quarter Moon

The August Third-Quarter Moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

Agenda today:
1. Renewal plan for next month

2. Evaluation House

3. Review my Purpose

4. Read "The Earth Path"

5. Monthly journal brainstorm

6. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Earth-Quaker Leading

I have a leading; a leading is a Quaker term that means I'm called by God to do something. My leading is personal and specific and mind-boggling: I'm called to find spiritual unity with Nature. 

Unity is how we Quakers talk about our process of community discernment: In Meetings for Business we take a step beyond consensus to find spiritual unity. We have an immense belief in the reality of continued revelation - that God will give us new Light if we wait for it. God leads everyone present in unity. 

My inner voice keeps saying, "Why would we not invite Nature to be present?"

I hold that the Earth and every part of it is a living being, a spiritual being; and also that we humans are an integral part of Nature. Seeking unity with all of Creation puts us back on equal footing. 

How could this kind of Earth Unity be practiced by a community of seekers? 

Howard Brinton explained that since there is but one Light and one Truth, if the Light be faithfully followed, unity will result. He stated that the nearer the members of a group come to this one Light, the nearer they will be to one another, “as the spokes of a wheel approach each other as they near the center.” 

I believe that if we allow Nature to be a spoke on our wheel, to have a voice in our circle, and we listen as best we can to what she is saying, we will be better able to discern God's will.

Agenda:

1. Worship in discernment with the Earth

2. Season with nature

3. Take action

4. Read "The Earth path"

First Quarter Moon of August (on Depth)

We are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle; the moon is waxing - growing in light and energy, creating a time for decisive action.

August is rich in abundance; so much to do, so much to see! I'm challenged to gather in the fruits of the season, and share them with the world. 

My theme this month is depth and my life path, and I'm moving forward on some big ideas! I use this August quarter moon's energy to help me to take action on the work I'm called to. For this, I need discernment (insight and clarity) and tenacity (firmness of purpose).

Agenda:
1. Journal queries

2. Read "The Earth Path"

3. Life-path discernment process

3. Make a full effort plan

4. Write a mission haiku

5. Give aid to the soil

July Sabbath for Awareness

Today is my sabbath - for a couple of days at the end of my week I step out of the fray, and regroup. Today I'm giving myself over to awareness.

My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

Agenda today:
1. Synopsis of my next month

2. My Earth-Quaker awareness practices
3. Read "Testament of Devotion"
4. Surrender, rest, recuperate

June Sabbath for Abundance

Today is my sabbath. I've had a week of abundant cleaning, active play, and fruitful meetings, and I'm ready to settle into a sabbath frame of mind. My sabbath might be on Saturday or on Sunday, or part of both days. My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I do not rush, complain, or worry. 

Keeping a sabbath day is a personal thing. For me, it's a day with a slow pace, and everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the Sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

Agenda today:

1. All day abundance meditation

2. My Earth-Quaker path

3. Earth Walking

4. Creativity practice

Earth Day

This week is called Earth Week; I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day, to show my dedication and love for the earth.

Agenda today:

1. Watch videos

2. National Climate Prayer

3. Ground in the earth

Earth Week Tuesday

This week is called Earth Week. I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day, to show my dedication and love for the earth.

Agenda today:

1. Watch videos

2. Write about my Earth Quaker ideas
3. Plan some actions to take

4. Ground in the earth