Welcome to this meditation where we're invited to consider our beautiful earth.
I invite you to find a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down.
And to take some deep wide breaths.
Let your body soften and sink.
Notice where it's possible to let go.
To know yourself held and loved in this moment.
Gather in from the day.
Receiving the grace to be here.
I'm going to share a reflection that I've written.
And before I get to that,
I want to invite you to consider the Earth.
To consider the earth on your doorstep.
The beauty of her.
Maybe the sky,
The trees,
The fields.
Maybe the sound of a breeze in the trees,
Sunshine.
Maybe the sound of water falling along a river.
Or the waves of the sea breaking onto the shore.
Perhaps the sound of birds or crickets.
Spend some moments connecting with the earth.
And maybe you recall a time when that connection felt Real.
And tea.
And caused you to be in awe and wonder.
You may recall a sunset or a sunrise.
Maybe the simplicity of gazing at a leaf.
Or noticing a butterfly.
In this moment,
Welcome the memory.
And let it find a resting place within you right now.
Maybe you recall the feelings,
The emotion of this memory.
Maybe you feel it in your body as sensation.
As I share this reflection,
Hold this memory within you,
Hold it close to your heart.
As I share these words.
Gently notice how they arrive and your response to them.
This reflection is entitled,
I hold the earth.
I'm cradled in the brilliance of a billion stars.
Emanating their dazzling radiance,
Transfixed by her beauty.
Halted in world's wonder.
I reach out and trail my hand across her cool,
Depthless depths.
I brush across ancient forests,
Knowing for the briefest of moments the endless outpouring of their wisdom.
A wisdom long forgotten until this offered glimpse.
Instinctively I draw a deeper breath as I catch the fragrance of her.
Deep,
Rich,
Salt,
Wood,
Sunshine.
It makes me wonder if this is the smell of love.
The headiness of it permeates cell and bone,
Awakening a hibernating dormancy.
I feel a call to wake up and rise from my sleepy slumber.
I birthed this glory.
In eternity's past,
At the beginning,
I was there.
In the heart of the Creator.
Together we brought her forth from our wombs.
She is of me and I of her.
I hold her now,
Closely to myself,
Skin to earth,
Breast to forest.
I draw her to myself and cradle her as a mother does a young child.
As I do so a barely perceptible softening arrives,
A sinking into the embrace.
Comfort hers and mine.
In the holding we share a knowing recognition of one another.
What joy to be seen in this way without any need to hide or pretend.
Here to be vulnerably naked comes with ease.
This oneness is real,
Natural and normal.
We rest into the holding,
Perhaps for an eternity.
Perhaps we have always been this way and only now do I see it.
Love as pure as a spring flowing from a mountain in the wilderness,
Sustaining us.
Christ love.
Her love.
My love.
The one love.
A presence with substance sustaining us as we rest into our union.
I begin to sense her tiredness.
Her river running veins leak the lifeblood that she needs to survive.
How many times has she remade herself?
How many aeons has she offered herself willingly and with great delight?
I can't fathom how generously she has given herself.
And how she desires to give still.
This is her purpose,
Her joy.
It is everything to pour herself out in unedited abundance.
And now I know her struggle.
I feel it within my cells causing rivers of my tears to fall into hers.
She can't keep up.
She is unable to remake and renew herself as quickly as needed.
I feel the pain,
Millennia of ravaging,
Of being sliced,
Smashed and ransacked for more than she can restore from.
The scars are so deep they enter her very marrow.
The raping of her beauty and dignity ripped into the holiness of her love.
Life remains,
I see it as I gaze below her surface.
If she had the time,
Just the time to take a deeper breath.
She would recover.
She would once more erupt with fountains of colour,
Life,
Fragrance and sound.
She needs that breath though.
She is gasping.
And needs to breathe deep down into her belly.
In this moment I know her as the nourishment of a million mothers.
She carries wisdom in her cells and offers it to every open heart.
We continue on with our eyes closed and our hungry mouths gaping open to consume as much as we can of her into our greedy bellies.
I want to give her my love,
My delight.
I want to absorb her,
Share her joy at the wonders she brings me in every moment.
I want to weep for her too and tend to her scars.
I want to say I see you,
Knowing that she has always seen me.
I want to look at her and say I love you.
This ancient wise Mother Earth needs the wisdom and nurture of the deep feminine.
Can the wild,
Fierce tenderness of the way of the feminine rise up to meet her in her pain?
Can we meet her in her beauty,
Joy and grace?
The billionaires continue to gorge on her to line their own pockets when she says that there has always been enough for all.
She has been glad to offer her abundance but she cannot sustain the ravaging that greed scours her with.
It is the wisdom of the feminine that knows this and can make a way for her healing.
We the feminine,
In whatever body this lives,
Are the powerful,
The fierce,
The wild,
The tender lovers,
The ones overflowing with deep divine wisdom.
We are the mothers,
We are the ones whose hearts can beat with hers,
If we pause long enough to help her take a deep breath.
We are the ones who,
In the pause,
Can know what she needs from each of us.
It may look like little acts of kindness and love.
But the deep feminine knows that it's the small,
Daily actions of care that nurture healing into reality.
She is held in our care and love,
As we are held in hers,
As the divine embraces us.
Let this dance of pure love lead the way in the healing and transformation that is needed for us all.
Go gently,
My friends.
Amen.