The Awe of It

September. A new beginning. This year, it is my hope that our Whole Earth Care Community grows in courage, determination, unity of spirit and purpose, and love for our mother, Earth and our Earth Family.

Let’s see what we can do this year. Let’s watch as we grow in beauty this year.

Has the moon been up there
All these nights
And I never noticed?

A whole week with my nose
To the ground, to the grind.

And the beloved faithfully
Returning each evening
As the moon.

Where have I been?
Who has abandoned whom?
Gregory Orr

Was there ever a time when you felt suddenly alive? It was like the doors of the world opened for a minute and you could see directly into life. You were able to touch life directly and were not lost in your fears and worries. This experience may not have been during a big event like performing in a play or playing in a championship game; it may have been while walking in the woods or talking to a friend. All of a sudden you felt alive, awake. This quality of waking up, or penetrating into life, we could call mindfulness. Mindfulness simply means being aware, being present. (Soren Gordhamer, from Just Say Om!, Adams Media Corporation, Tricycle.com.)

It’s interesting that we call this state, “mindfulness”. It really has nothing to do with thinking, an activity we quite often confuse with the mind. Mindfulness is dropping the thinking of something or someone, and just being there, present, open, non-judging. It’s being fully awake in the present moment, aware of that which is before us.

Young children do it so well. Just watch a child enthralled with a pebble found on a beach, a bug on a leaf, a little bird singing in a nearby tree. They really, really see it. They become one with what they are seeing. No separation. No you/me or even, dare I say it, I/Thou, but rather the Essential We.

The more we purposely pay attention, practice mindfulness, the more naturally it becomes a way of being for us. We start to really hear the crickets, really listen to what the person next to us is saying, really feel the gentle touch of the autumn breeze on our cheeks, really see the stars in the night sky.

We begin the journey of re-uniting with the world around us. We commune. We become the Essential We. We come home to our Earth Family.

Miracles

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge
of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with anyone I love, or sleep in the bed
at night with anyone I love,
Or sit at the table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honeybees busy around the hive
of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining
so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon
in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread
with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim-the rocks-the motion of the waves
-the ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?
Walt Whitman
(Leaves of Grass)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Miracles_Whitman.html

Media:

Videos:

The Philadelphia Field Project http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1647

Dr. Lakshman Yapa asks four very helpful questions:
“What does it take… to live in a healthy body, to have safe and affordable homes, to live in a supportive community, to live, love and die with dignity and it doesn’t take money to do these things?"

Watch this short video. It’s about West Philadelphia, but this video will help us consider what we can do for our Earth Family and ourselves.

Websites:

Toolkits for Sustainability http://www.thenaturalstep.org/en/canada/toolkits

This is a very good website and the toolkits are worth checking out. There's a toolkit specifically for our homes.

Blogs:

Salveged Bliss http://salvaged-bliss.blogspot.com/

Here’s a fun Blog to wander through. Blisse has all sorts of creative ways to re-invent what can be found at Garage Sales, Flea Markets and in attics.

We are still looking for a Naturalist to join us. Minimal work, wonderful working conditions, terrific pay – benefits are great, and can’t say enough about the working community. Apply by emailing me at moczero@sympatico.ca

We also would love to have an amateur Astronomer join our team. It would mean a commitment of four postings a year encouraging us to look up at the moon and stars, helping us understand the seasonal night skies and perhaps sharing a story about one of the constellations. Apply by emailing me at moczero@sympatico.ca

Short stories are wanted of your special experience or place in nature for The Narratives Postings.

Short simple articles are needed for the Guest Writers Postings.

And, Katie, The Answer Lady awaits your latest questions.

Heather wrote,

“Through poetry, reflections, convocation addresses, helpful household hints, testimonials, stories and photographs, Whole Earth Care continues to remind me that even though I have fully embraced recycling, energy saving, bring-your-own-bags, and reduce/reuse, there are entire communities of animals, insects, and people near and far that are effected by my actions and inactions. In my urban life, caught up in the busy day-to-day, this blog reminds me to remember birds, to pause and examine the majesty and delicacy of the earth outside my window, my car window, my classroom window. We live in times of immense oxymorons - driving automobiles to camp in nature, watching television instead of nature, the seduction of shoes while many have none, much freedom here while so little freedom there. My take on these juxtapositions is to choose wisely and consciously. Whole Earth Care spurs this conversation. My dialogue is only beginning.”

Thank you, Heather.

This year I wish us all the growing sense of awareness of our Mother, Earth and our Earth Family and the sense of belonging and oneness that comes with that awareness

Earth Family First,

maureen

(Photos from family albums)