Wild Earth Gathering

Wild Ones,

We gather at Carderock, 3:00 Sunday, April 2 to follow-up on our afternoon with Mutima to consider par-centra leadership and how we move with purpose through our broken world.

There is memory of ocean,

the swelling of waves,

the movement of great things,

just beneath the surface.

My conscious mind staggers,

a part sleeping begins to waken.

What is this great thing

That has caught us up?

Beloved…

Shall we find out together?

Shall we travel to a land

where two-dimensionality does not rule?

Where all that we encounter gazes back at us?

Where directions for the journey

are written in the shape and textures of the land?

Where we see, as far as the eye can touch,

the soul of us opening outward?

Shall we take that step together?

Leave the comfort of the porch,

and strike cross country,

to find the place where the Teacher lives,

the place where the big and the little become one,

the place from which we came long ago,

the place we have heard calling since before we were born?

Shall we go out Beloved

and take the path before us?

Shall we let the perfume of our love

fill our three bodies?

Come, take my hand,

it has awaited the deep you to fill it,

a length of time too long for remembering.

Come Beloved, let us take this journey together.

My feet are hungry for the first step.

-Stephen Harrod Buhner

From Alison:

The type of aliveness Buhner speaks of in this poem captures some of what I experienced on my recent vision quest. On the first day of the quest, I wrote in my journal to savor every moment because I anticipated a difficult return. I wrote that when I return home, “I may be happy to have some creature comforts again, but not happy to be exiting the mythic realm and being alive to all of my senses and the world.”

One of the things we explored last week was what is breaking our hearts right now. For me, part of what is breaking my heart is returning to the “real world” and feeling the fade of my experience in the desert. Seeing a different way to live that is so invigorating and life-giving, and then coming back and trying to find piecemeal ways to stay connected to what I learned without having that supportive container of the intensive experience and complete vulnerability of the group.

I think there are some big questions here that can apply to all of us. How can we reach out and experience mystery and the holy in our daily lives with so many distractions? How can we strive toward a healthier society and culture, when right now the over culture is sick and affects us all? How can we mend our broken hearts while simultaneously working toward a better world, a world where aliveness is imbued in everything?

Let’s explore some of these questions together. It is in community that we find the answers we need.

Carderock, 3:00 pm Sunday, April 2. Co-led by Alison and Sarah

(If you haven’t joined us before make sure and read the directions to our location! Otherwise, you will not find us.)