Dear Spiral Journey Participants,
This is a copy of my most current newsletter. I had thought you all were on my mailing list but just discovered most were not. This email continues stories about Spider Grandmothers from past newsletters. If you are interested you can find them all on my
website under resources.
The magic of the Spider Grandmothers seems to be showing up in my life more now that I am a grandma myself. I became a grandma on Jan 20th, 2019 to a baby girl born during the Full Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse. This girl is going to be a powerhouse. Mom, Dad and baby are all doing well and it is a treat to have them living close by so that I have baby time each day.
A Retreat into the Wild
I tore myself away from my granddaughter recently and did four days of solo retreat time in the Santa Cruz mountains. I fasted, walked, meditated and relaxed into the rhythms of nature. Such a gift to be away from the computer and the phone. I allowed myself to wander up the mountain and through the woods all day in silence. One day I scrambled off trail up a small creek, over, under and around redwoods and oaks. I sat meditating on a log and noticed I was surrounded again by spiderwebs, in the trees, the grasses, and the downed branches. I watched as one spider, with her web overhanging the creek, shot down her spider line when a bit of debris landed in her net. She plucked out the offending item and unceremoniously dropped in down into the creek below. A lesson for me on getting rid of unnecessary stuff. Just let it go!
I continued on my exploration up the creek until I came to rest in a grove of ancient Coast Live Oaks. I put down my backpack and leaned back against it to look up into the branches of the majestic trees. There, a foot in front of my face, was a spider web flashing rainbow colors. Really!! I watched transfixed as the sun shone through the web and each intersection of the web lit up and flickered like a prism. Each drop of light along the web went from orange to yellow, green to blue then violet. The breeze moved the web and the light show became a shimmering rainbow kaleidoscope. Wow, what a gift!
The Gifts of Earth
The beauty and generosity of the Earth and all her beings broke my heart on this retreat. Meditating on the endless stream of gifts we receive from Gaia is humbling. We are gifted everything; air to breath, water to drink, food to eat, energy to use, beauty to behold, and amazing companions on the journey. We can never repay the Earth for her endless love and continual gift of life, but we must learn to give back in ways that are healing for Earth’s living systems--and we can keep saying “Thank you”.
The lack of understanding of our inter-dependence with the web of life has led to climate disruption and species extinctions as well as social unrest and illness. We modern humans are moving so fast, trapped in our human-centric worldview, that we have forgotten to acknowledge the gifts we are given every moment and to slow down enough to say “Thank you”. The grief of this also broke my heart.
There were literally rivers of acorns on the mountain’s fire roads. It felt to me that the trees were brokenhearted that no humans were harvesting and eating this abundance of food they were providing. For millennia, indigenous peoples around the world have harvested acorns for food and done ceremonies of gratitude for the trees. I kept saying “Thank you” to the trees for their generosity even as I crunched their rivers of acorns under my hiking boots.
Gratitude and Reciprocity
Gratitude is powerful. Practicing gratitude leads us to a deeper understanding of our inter-connection to all life and takes us out of our small sense of self. This is liberating and can shift our sense of “not enough” to a sense of being blessed. This was just what I needed. I left my retreat feeling totally blessed by multiple rivers of generosity and love; from Earth, from my ancestors, family and friends as well as from many spiritual lineages. My heart was broken open and I want to share the abundance with everyone and everything in my life.
The desire to give back to the Earth is very strong. We all at our core want to help her to thrive so that the amazing life forms on this gorgeous planet can continue to live, including humans. There are many ways to engage and it is so vitally important that our species act fast to slow global warming by eliminating fossil fuels, using renewable energy, creating local sustainable food systems, educating girls and so much more. See
www.Drawdown.org for more information on reducing carbon.
There are millions of organizations around the world working to create
the more beautiful world we know is possible-aka
the Great Turning. We are Earth's immune system kicking into gear. We can do this! Engage wherever you are called to action. The Earth needs all of us to wake up to our interconnection and interdependence and to take action on behalf of life.
Here is a link to a
Document to Declare a Climate Emergency. This is a Dharma approach to activism for the planet. This is a very similar approach I take in the
Empowered Elder Webinar so if you are an Elder interested in engaging in activism, consider taking the webinar along with other like-minded and awesome elders from around the country.
Engage with me. I hope you will join me on some of these journeys.
I intend this year to facilitate more
in-person workshops and retreats. I love the webinars I lead and am blown away by what technology can do--and I really miss working with people in person. So if you would like to host either a Work That Reconnects retreat or an Empowered Elder Workshop in you community, please
contact me. I am willing to travel. Workshops can range from a few hours to all day and retreats can be between 3-10 days long and can be designed for the needs of your community. The Work That Reconnects is excellent for connecting with nature, others and self to build resilience for the hard times ahead. It supports us in working with the grief and rage that is arising due to our political and environmental crises.
I am particularly interested in working with
educators as this work is so essential for teachers and students of all ages. I have a M.A. in Education, and have designed several teacher training programs. Now I want to share this work with teachers so they have a way to process the grief they feel for the earth and the fear they hold for their student’s futures. The Work can also give them tools to share with their students, so they too can process their grief and rage and direct it into positive action for the Earth.
Elders Action Network - Weaving Elders back into our society and empowering them to act on behalf of life.
Empowered Elder Webinar, a 7-session webinar series.
Holos Institute Eco-psychology Conference April 6-7. I will be presenting at the
conference and training their Eco-Psychology Certificate program participants in the Work That Reconnects.
The Spiral Journey - A Work That Reconnects Facilitator Development Program that is educating an international network of facilitators from Japan to Jordan and Brazil to Canada.
The Work That Reconnects Network - supporting an interconnected network of Work That Reconnects facilitators around the world to further the work and build resilient communities. I am a member of the Network Weavers team; we are working on initiating Facilitator Gatherings around the world in 2019 and 2020 to support facilitators in their own work coming to terms with the crises in the world today and to find new ways to take the Work out into the world that so needs it at this time.
The San Geronimo Valley Visions group is working to weave together the community around a common vision for the former San Geronimo Valley golf course. We want to create a resilient and self sufficient community.
Gaia Girls Passages - A group working to reweave girls into their power and into nature. This wonderful organization is looking to develop rites of passage retreats for adults as well as girls. We are looking for Elder Women to act as mentors hold the space for girls. If you are interested please contact me.
I hope to connect with you in some way soon.
With Love and Gratitude,
Constance
