The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Today we felt summer fading and we contemplated the falling leaves.  Deep within every fallen leave is a promise of new life.  This insight blossomed as an exploration of how the leaves, the trees, our bodies are all part of a greater cycle of Life.  As Earth citizens we receive Nature’s gifts.  We have our own gifts to give in reciprocity and practical reverence.

We worked with the last of  Rhonda Fabian’sarticle, Engaged Ecology: Seven Practices to Restore Our Harmony with Nature. The seventh principle: Nature is a system of systems. The seventh practice is participating as citizens of the Earth.

We drew inspiration from Suzy Kassem’s book, Rise Up and Salute the Sun.  Suzy regards herself as a literary rebel.  You can find more of her poetry on her web-site and her blog site. Suzy’s work reminds us that we all have a little bit of the sun and moon inside us.

We drew inspiration from Toni Spencer’s beautiful poem Reciprocal Rhythm.  Toni is a Deep Adaptation Advocate, poet, mentor and teacher.  She “seeks to enable a richer engagement with the ecological, cultural and social issues of our times.”  You can learn more about Toni’s work and her seven week course, Living Deep Adaptation at her web-site.

We also received guidance from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s beautiful essay, Returning the Gift.  Robin is a “mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.”  Robin’s essay writes Earth is calling for our gratitude, generosity and attention.  She reminds us that we have many gifts to give.

Relaxed Reflection

Welcome.  This is a good time to enter stillness, to feel your body on Earth’s body.  Let go and feel how she receives you like the many leaves letting go with the changing season.  You can imagine the release happening all around you . . . an easy, natural arhythmic flow of quiet changes . . . The many leaves that have captured bits of sunlight and given them to living roots nurturing self and so many. The leaves becoming compost, food and finally transforming to living soil.  You can feel summer fading as fall emerges in Earth’s body and in your body, both held in the cycle of Life.  

Right now you can feel the gentle letting go of your out-breath . . . the easy pulse of your in-breath.  Like Earth rivers your inner rivers flow throughout your body to nourish and sustain, to clear and cleanse.  Let your awareness be carried by the inner flow . . . from your heart . . . out through your body and then back again.  You can sense your inner fire metabolizing all you’ve taken in through eyes and ears, nose and tongue, the sunlight bathing your skin. Feel your body, heart and mind.  Notice where your awareness is drawn . . . the tissues of muscle or bone . . . the dispersed sense of feeling emotion . . . the mind states making themselves known.   How do you sense Earth supporting and sustaining you – her breath, her body flowing and metabolizing living around you and inside you?

Nature is a system of systems. This is the last of Rhonda Fabian’s Seven Principles and Practices for Engaged Ecology.  The practice is participating as citizens of the Earth.  We are woven into the fabric of all Life and our actions have consequences.

In her book, Rise and Salute the Sun, Suzi Kassem writes:

The world citizen is a small leaf on the giant tree of life. They do not see a difference between the branch they were born on and the remaining branches on the tree, because they understand well that we are are all connected to the same roots. The world citizen sees each section of the world as part of their arm, leg, eyes, and heart. They do not class, contain or separate themselves or their identity by ethnicity or religion — because they see their existence as a small part of a greater whole. When asked about their religion, the world citizen simply replies: ‘My heart.” 

As Earth citizens we realize our inter-being, our part of Earth’s greater wholeness.  We acknowledge our responsibility – our ability to respond to the call. Earth calls us to gratitude. What can we give in return for the many gifts she has given?  Poet Toni Spencer’s poem, Reciprocal Rhythm, describes our kinship and the love that can bring the world into balance:

Reciprocal rhythm
There is a reciprocal rhythm. A flow between things.
A velocity of reciprocity that builds a village, builds
a dream, builds the world.
For we are kin and kin means I need
you, and you need me. And the sun.
And the water. And the soil
born of things long dead.
Most of us grew up in little boxes. Little boxes
made of ticky-tacky. My house.
Your house. My plate. Your plate.
In the desert, there is one plate at dinner. One plate
where we all tuck in, fingers first, food for all.
I want that.
I want you to ask me for stuff.
I want you to ask because asking is
the kind of boldness we need.
Tell me what you want and I come
a little closer to you, and we dance.
It’s not the yes or the no, but the asking
that rocks the world to this rhythm.
And the ticky-tacky begins to crumble, walls fall
and we need each other all the more.
There is a reciprocal rhythm. Let me
give you things. Don’t hold back
your receiving, because it leaves us both
bereft of the kinship that ties us, reminds
us of our entwined-ness as ecological beings.
I cannot. No. I will not survive without you.
OK yes, some kind of half living but
not the kind I’m worthy of.
Not the kind you’re worthy of. And not
the kind they are worthy of.
Help me, not to fix but to fill the heart. Not to trade but to
till the soil of inter-being that is all there has ever been.
There is a reciprocal rhythm and it’s not in 4-4 for it
doesn’t follow straight lines. It’s a wild rhythm where
I help you and you help her and she gets to stop and he
gives all he has for love.
There is a reciprocal rhythm and it’s not in 4-4.

Don’t hold back.  Our reciprocal rhythm is a wild one in which we can give, let go like leaves letting go in the season’s turning.  

You can release your body onto Earth’s body.  You can begin to sense the “reciprocal rhythm.” Notice how you can feel the flow between things.  Recall how you are given the sun, the water, the soil.  Reflect on how you experience kinship.  How do you relate to your human and more than human relations? Can you hear what Earth is calling you to?  

In her essay, Returning the Gift, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes that Earth calls us to Gratitude: 

Gratitude is founded on the deep knowing that our very existence relies on the gifts of other beings. . . . . The practice of gratitude can, in a very real way, lead to the practice of self-restraint, of taking only what you need. Naming and appreciation of the gifts that surround us create a sense of satisfaction, a feeling of “enoughness” that is an antidote to the societal messages . . .  telling us we must have more.

Practicing contentment is a radical act in a consumption-driven society.

Recall the last time you had that feeling of enoughness.  You have enough, you are enough.  Did it move you to the deep reservoir of gratitude within?  How do contentment and gratitude manifest in your life?

Robin believes Earth calls us to Reciprocity:

. . . .  [Earth asks us] to meet our responsibilities and to give our gifts. . . .  responsibility is often understood as accepting a burden, but in the teachings of my ancestors, responsibilities and gifts are understood as two sides of the same coin. . . . We are storytellers, music makers, devisers of ingenious machines, healers, scientists, and lovers of an Earth who asks that we give our gifts on behalf of life.

How do you experience the flow between things?  How do you give your gifts?  How do your receive the gifts of others?  We can remember Suzy’s words:  . . . “Tell me what you want and I come a little closer to you, and we dance.  . . . the asking rocks the world to this rhythm.”  

Robin believes Earth calls us to change our hearts so that we can be be partners in renewal:

. . .  In gratitude, in ceremony, through acts of practical reverence and land stewardship, in fierce defense of the beings and places we love, in art, in science, in song, in gardens, in children, in ballots, in stories of renewal, in creative resistance, in how we spend our money and our precious lives, by refusing to be complicit with the forces of ecological destruction. In healing.

We practice so that we can change our hearts.  So that we can give our gifts in gratitude.  So that we can offer acts of practical reverence.  So that all may flourish and heal.  Again from Suzy:

Help me, not to fix but to fill the heart. Not to trade but to
till the soil of inter-being that is all there has ever been.
There is a reciprocal rhythm and it’s not in 4-4 for it
doesn’t follow straight lines. It’s a wild rhythm where
I help you and you help her and she gets to stop and he
gives all he has for love.
There is a reciprocal rhythm and it’s not in 4-4.