So, be grounded, be humble, work hard, play hard. Let’s try to remember that we came into this world, into these incredible bodies that don’t have operating instructions. I mean really… we have hands for Pete’s sake! Wow. And these bodies! Part of our mandate is to explore and understand how that animal body fits into the web of life here, and through that web of life begin to experience joy and compassion for all of the other life forms on the planet. So, a practice. Find a practice. Find a way to return to your center, over and over again so you can make this journey. So, you can rise into your calling and fulfill your gift to give in this world.
I never had a practice before, I was always someone who was very much in my body, as a young person, all about the experiences and the parties …
weeeee! And never could do anything that involved going somewhere else to have my practice. Over the years, I have to say it was through the garden that I also came into myself. The garden is my go-to teacher for everything. It has been the teacher of how to be in place and to not be afraid to do my rituals outside. It was in the garden, and in nature, that I learned my second way to ground into myself and into place.
This is the practice of walking, walking in place. Ritual walking to the water, past the particular tree, shrub, rock outcropping, that is part and parcel of what makes this home. Whenever I can, I walk to the Bay which is close to me. I have a stretching ritual that really is a calling in of energy and ancestors of place, and is a practice of prayer for the stability of my home region. I practice this out in the open, out in a promontory that goes out on the Bay and I know people can see me doing this work. It used to make me feel really weird, but then I thought, yeah, why not, I am wearing on my sleeve my intense love for this place, and you should join me!
Have I been knocked off? Yeah, everybody gets knocked off. Usually more than once. The financial crisis of 2008 was particularly challenging. My husband and I run a small business which is a juggling act in the best of times and a nightmare when a recession hits. I don’t know if I would have gotten through that if I hadn’t already been grounded in my practice. At my age, it was very disheartening to watch all of the savings and equity we had built disappear. We were struggling just to keep our business afloat. We were struggling to keep our employees employed. Keeping these families employed was so important to us. It was a responsibility that was bigger than our family and bigger than our personal financial health, and bigger than the community we came up in. We both are life long Bay area residents and grew up in neighboring towns. We have both have lived here our entire lives. This is our only home so we just had to do our best because we were not going anywhere.
When you are in place, and of place, even when hard times come, you don’t just leave. We do everything in our power to stay and help support place, help restore and heal that place, and the people of that place. So, it is very helpful to have a practice, to help support you as you move in the world supporting your home, and supporting others.
When I get knocked off I come back to the physicality of the practice. No matter how I am feeling, no matter how tough times are, what hasn’t been said, what has been said, I am still here, I am still in a body, my body still moves and through that movement, I come back to myself. For those who are struggling to find a practice, or keep going with one they have tried to start over and over again, I offer a permaculture principle…start small. Use slow and small solutions and learn to forgive yourself.
“For those who are struggling to find a practice, or keep going
with one they have tried to start over and over again,
I offer a permaculture principle…start small. Use slow and small solutions and learn to forgive yourself.“
Starting small is really important. The practice I just mentioned when I first started can take 10 minutes in the morning. So, I get up, I hit the floor, and ten minutes later, bam I’m done, I’m in my center, I’m ready to go. It can even be shorter than that. It can be just a few minutes, just to wake up, to be grateful that you woke up, that you are still in your body. Each day waking up and consciously practicing the awareness that you have another opportunity to live in this world, and that you can live it the best that you can. Sometimes just realizing that every morning is the beginning of the practice. You don’t have to spend money to do it. You don’t have to travel to do it. It comes from within you and the more you do it the more it helps you.
It’s just like meditation, the more you do it, if you miss it, you let go of blame and you just keep coming back to the practice. Even if you missed a week, even if it’s been three months, just keep coming back to it. Every time you realize it has been a while, go back to it, and go back to it. Again and again, it is only going to help you in the long run. And forgive yourself when you fall off.
For me, how I found this practice is actually pretty funny. Because you know I have lived in the same place all my life, I have a large circle of friends and acquaintances. A dear friend was visiting from Hawaii and she took up with another dear friend and during that time it turns out he had been doing this particular practice for 10 years. She taught me the Five Tibetans practice. It was so casual. She just taught me once, there may have been a book involved and it clicked. I went oh! this is the thing.
It was a little bit of a challenge at first. It took me six weeks to working up to doing them all. It is 21 repetitions of different exercises. I could just see right away. It started to feel correct. I miss it when I don’t do it. It is moving meditation, sometimes I get into it in the morning and it is difficult to keep track of how many reps I did because you enter a timeless space. Once you get into that flow you find it so nourishing, and in a way, it is the same thing that happens when you are fully engaged in any activity you are doing, what they call Flow State. It is that same sort of thing, with practice it is really easy to just snap into it and that moves outward into other aspects of life.
“…if you are going to do any practice and you can walk, a
ritual walk is so useful. It is a way to tie your personal grounding practice to place directly. It helps you connect with place multiple times a week, and over the years you become in tune
with the changes that are happening there.”
The other practice of doing the public land blessings came from reading Gary Snyder’s passages on Circumambulating Mount Tamalpais. Other people have taken it up, and there is an annual ritual Buddhist inspired circumambulation of our local Mount Tamalpais, stopping at places for appropriate blessings. A circumambulation is a walk around, usually a landmark. It is the act of walking to honor the place. I was so charmed by that practice because I know all those areas and so it is very gratifying.
I actually feel like if you are going to do any practice and you can walk, a ritual walk is so useful. It is a way to tie your personal grounding practice to place directly. It helps you connect with place multiple times a week, and over the years you become in tune with the changes that are happening there. That is when you really start to feel grounded in your home. To be there over time and see those changes come back around.
And find the comfort in …
Oh! the swallows are back.
Oh look! The turkeys are nesting.
The camellia’s bloomed early this year.
Chickweed is out! The nettles are coming soon!
It is going to be a good acorn year.
To begin to notice, and feel yourself to be a part of all of that is very nourishing. What does it mean to come into place, when you are on the hoop? As nomadic as many of our young people are, I think of them like dandelion seeds. They are people who have yet to root. They are moving around waiting to land…maybe some of them never will, but I feel like as humans we crave a home, crave a home place and most of us are looking and longing for that even if we are nomadic.
As you are being a nomad, I would continue to study botany, I would continue to educate yourself about the plants that are circumpolar. The ones that continue to show up wherever you are as long as you are in the same general bioregion. When I travel, I always look for the Coast Live Oak, or any Oak, really. It’s a little hit of home for me. I know something about this plant, I can settle in with this place through this plant. We have ample opportunity to do this because so many plants have traveled with us. Anywhere you go you will find familiar plants. You will find plantain, you will find dandelion, you will find nettle. Learn about these traveling plant friends, partners and teachers, they will help guide and ground you. These plants are our are parents. They came before us and help us along. We are like children to them. The human relationship with plants is deep, arising before we had language. They will help us ground, they will help us be at home wherever you find yourself.
“Anywhere you go you will find familiar plants. You will find plantain, you will find dandelion, you will find nettle. Learn about these traveling plant friends, partners and teachers, they will help guide and ground you. These plants are our are parents. They came before us and help us along. We are like children to them.“
We live in a fractal universe. As such you can study and connect with nature’s patterns wherever you might be. Those patterns hold anywhere, for instance, if you are tending a multi-acre forest or you are growing a polyculture in a planter box. In any new place you will find examples of the universal patterns which form the substrate of our collective reality. Recognizing this commonality as you settle into a new spot can jump-start your understanding of any place unfamiliar to you.
The key again to the journey is to find your ground, find your center in any way that you can as you move through this world becoming people of place, becoming people of practice. So, find your practice, connect with nature, and all of the plant neighbors and friends around you along the way. Forgive yourself when you fall off. Keep coming back to the practice. Keep coming back to your center … to yourself, over and over again.
