#BEFRIEND DIVERSITY - MAKING FRIENDS FOR LIFE
#BEFRIEND DIVERSITY - MAKING FRIENDS FOR LIFE
#BEFRIEND DIVERSITY - MAKING FRIENDS FOR LIFE
foundations of life
7 Days of Rest & Reflection 2019 was dedicated to learning from and restoring right relationship
with the sacred Foundations of Life—Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Climate, Biodiversity and the Web of LIfe.
Below are wisdom offerings and meditations for each of the foundations with a link to explore many more offerings that were shared for the themes of each day.
This dialogue between Dr. Julie Krull and Dr. Shelley Ostroff offers a deeper understanding of what it means to develop an intimate connection with the Foundations of Life.
THE LISTENING FIELD & THE FOUNDATIONS OF LIFE~ WITH DANIELEA CASTELL 2022
The Listening Field is an online ceremonial space that was discovered by Danielea Castell and her Nature Elders during lockdown in June 2020.
The Listening Field is open, emergent, responsive and evolving. It is a safe, sacred space where groups of Humans and Nature Elders can meet communicate and coCreate in service to the healing and regeneration of Mother Earth and all her inhabitants.
Listening Fields can be opened for individuals and organizations who wish to connect with Nature Elders for consultation, networking, healing, action research and coCreative innovation.
Over the past 2.5 years The Listening Field has partnered with The World Water Law through the I AM A WATER BODY ecoLabs (2021) and more recently with Eco-Governance during the 99 Days of Peace Through Unity 2022 (2022). Consultations were conducted in the Listening Field with the 7 Foundations of Life and the 7 Core Needs guided by the first two Primary Tasks of Eco-Governance. The messages that were received from the Nature Elders are being shared publicly through visual memes and video clips curated by Danielea Castell, and unpacked for social research and transformative action.
The Listening Field is honoured to partner with the 7 Days of Rest and Return to Essence to provide daily opportunities for people to experience live communion with Nature Elders and deepen their embodiment of the 7 essences of the daily themes.
During World Unity Week 2022, The Listening Field partnered with Eco-Governance to open dialogues with the Foundations of Life: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Climate, Biodiversity and the Web of Life. Guided by the Primary Task of Eco-Governance each person asked the Foundations of Life, “How do we restore right relationship with you?” These are some of the answers.
Invitations to engage with the wisdom memes.
1. As you read these messages, notice what happens for you? What comes alive in you? How does the message inspire your imagination? How does it expand your field of possibility? We welcome you to share your experience on the 7 Days of Rest Circle in the Eco-Governance Community.
2. After you have read these messages, ask the Foundations of Life the same question, "How do we restore right relationship with you? Sense into and record what the answers are for you. We welcome you to share your experience on the 7 Days of Rest Circle.
From 7 Days of Rest and Reflection 2019
an invitation for rest and reflection with earth
We began the 7 Days of Rest and Reflection with a sacred offering from the Amazon
with Sacred Ritual Holder, Daiara Tukano. A blessing for Pacha Mama - for Mother Earth.
Guided Meditation:
Resting and Reflecting with EARTH
Offered by Shelley Ostroff
Reflections and practices offered each day. Journalling the thoughts, images, dreams, emotions, sensations and experiences that arise throughout the entire week can deepen your journey through these seven days.
DAY ONE: EARTH
Reflection offerings and practices for the day - Shelley Ostroff
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Intentional invitation: There are many ways to connect with Earth. Sense into the way in which you would like to deepen your relationship with Earth today. What are you inviting in for yourself, and for Earth? How can you best create the conditions for this to manifest.
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Breathing with Earth: Spend time quietly breathing and noticing the subtle sensations moving through your body. Become curious about the inner spaces within your physical body. What do you notice as you follow the inner sensations – the experience of the breath – the air, touching and nourishing you from within?
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Touching Earth: Spend time with the sense of touch. Open your curiosity to the richness of textures around you and of the quality of different ways of touching and being touched by Earth. How do you feel when you rest on Earth and with Earth? What are the qualities you offer to Earth as you touch her and walk upon her, and interact with her in your everyday life through the material world around you? How do you feel she would want to be touched by you?
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Tasting Earth: Spend time with the sense of taste. Expand your sense of taste. From the taste of soil itself to the rich diverse tastes of her Earth’s abundant garden – spend time exploring the way in which taste itself transforms as you attend to it with greater curiosity and attention. Notice the impact of the different tastes on your mind and body. Slow down your chewing and let the food dwell just a bit longer with the taste buds. Notice what you learn about Earth through the tastes she offers. Notice the vibrancy of her pure colors and vital nourishment as it moves through the taste buds into and through your digestive system. Receive inspiration from the Gateway of Nourishment.
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Seeing Earth: Gaze at Earth with new eyes. Notice the colors and the textures and the forms and the movements of Earth and all the creatures and plants and elements that live on and with her. Shift your gaze from as close as you can to as far as you can and back again. Expand your vision to take in as wide a perspective as possible and find yourself noticing the different directions and different perspectives. Now look at the world from her eyes. What do her different children look like to her? What does she want you to see when you look at her? What does she see when she looks at you?
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Listening with Earth and to Earth: Listen to the sounds of Earth. Can you hear her humming? How do the animals in nature free of noise respond to her and give musical expression to her through their own sounds? When you put your ear to Earth – what happens to your body through your ear drum? What is the song of the Earth that wants to come spontaneously through you now?
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Becoming Earth: Allow yourself to imagine you are Earth. What does it feel like to be Earth? What does it feel like to experience the world as Earth? Sense into which aspect of Earth reveals itself to you and for a few moments - become Earth. Dance the dance of the Earth. Dance this message into being.What does this experience reveal to you? What does Earth show you? What does Earth want you to know? What is her message through you to humanity?
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Earth Offering: What would you like to say to Earth? What would you like to offer Her. Sense into her nourishing essence – into her infinite offerings to all of Creation. Find her creative, nourishing essence within you. What would you like to offer her in return? You may want to say something to her. You may want to work in the garden or begin to formulate the kind of activism for her wellbeing you would like to engage in. You may want to make a pledge to her to transform something about the way in which you relate to her. What would you like to offer Earth.
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Art from the Heart of Earth: Let Earth inspire the Heartist within you. Express what is most alive in you through any form of art – dance, music, visual arts etc. If you use any form of materials in your art, attend to how they come from her and how the very materials you use can honor her. If you would like to share your Heartist offering and inspire others with it, please share it in our Community Sharing Space.
Blessings for a deeply meaningful day of connecting with, remembering and honoring Earth within you and beyond you.
'Resting with the trees that create, nourish and hold our soils against the erosion of wind and flood. Giving thanks for the food givers, the medicine providers, the shaders, the fuelers, the home makers - every floor board, wall and roof, for the cradle we are born into and the coffins that we depart from. For the privilege of paper and the written word, for endless mindless packaging, for clothing and clobber that once was thriving life, and for the ancient forests now coal and oil that have powered our civilisation to the point of awakening - may we give thanks to the standing ones that we cannot live without, that give us breath and that cool our world.'
DAILY REFLECTION INSPIRED BY THE TREES, OFFERED BY CLARE DUBOIS,
FOUNDER OF TREESISTERS
Artist: Alice Mason, artist partner to TreeSisters
an invitation for rest and reflection with water
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On the 2nd Day of 7 Days of Rest and Reflection we honour Water: Sacred Ritual Holder Daiara Tukano offers a blessing from the Waters of the Amazon.
A beautiful message from Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji of Parmarth Niketan on the holy banks of Mother Ganga focusing on the importance of honouring Water.
Guided Meditation:
Resting and Reflecting with WATER
Offered by Shelley Ostroff
Reflections and practices offered each day. Journalling the thoughts, images, dreams, emotions, sensations and experiences that arise throughout the entire week can deepen your journey through these seven days.
DAY TWO: WATER
7 DAYS OF REST AND REFLECTION
Reflection offerings and practices for the day - Shelley Ostroff
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Intentional invitation: There are many ways to connect with Water. Sense into the way in which you would like to deepen your relationship with Water today. What are you inviting in for yourself, and for Water? How can you best create the conditions for this to manifest.
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Breathing with Water: Spend time quietly breathing and noticing the subtle sensations moving through your body. Focus attention on the fluidity of the breath – sensing how the air moves through the fluids of your body. Sense into how it enlivens the cells as it is transmitted through the your veins as the rivers flow through the body of Earth. Breathe like a fish, through your skin and feel the water all around you as you take in oxygen through your skin. With each breath - remember that you are a watery being, and that over 60 percent of your body is water. With each breath, enable the fluidity of the water to expand the fluidity within you.
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Tasting Water: Hold a glass of water in your hand gently before you drink it. And as you hold it you may want to bless the water, knowing that water carries information. What information would you like to inform the water before it informs you from within.Sense the water in the glass between your hands before you even drink it - what are you saying to it... what it is revealing to you. What is happening in the exchange in this moment. Sip the water very slowly, and allow it to stay on your tongue for a moment - feel the taste and sensation of the water on your tongue and how it impacts the rest of the body. You may want to swill it in your mouth for a moment, noticing how it touches and refreshes the sides of your mouth, under the tongue. How does your mouth feel touched by water? Then swallow slowly, and notice how much you can feel of the water as it moves through your body - expand into the sensation. And sense also how the water moves through the body out of the body, through the urination, the sweat the tears - feeling into these processes and what it means for water to travel through you in these different physical ways?
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Sensing Water: Spend time sensing into your diverse experiences with water in your daily life. What are the many ways in which you encounter and engage with Water as you go through your day? In what ways is Water present for you, around you and within you and how does water move through you? Sense the qualities Water brings you in these different encounters? Sense the qualities you bring to water in these encounters. For a moment sense what your life would be like without water – or if water was more difficult to access. Feel the water as it touches your skin in many different ways.
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Reflecting water: Research has shown how water remembers information and responds to human thought patterns. Sense into the way in which your own thoughts may inform and impact the water in your own body and in turn the vitality of your experience. And then expand this picture to sense into the way in which our culture’s stories and ideas impact the water in our waterways. What would we be like as individuals and as a culture if we drank water that was pure from nature’s sources and ensured that our water sources remained with the nourishing clarity of nature’s true vibration?
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Embodying water: Imagine yourself as water. What can you learn from water as you become still like a lake, or deep and vast like an ocean inhabited by diverse sea creatures, or shapeshifting from the solidity of ice, to the fluidity of water in the streams and the vapours of steam and the moisture of clouds and of the dewdrop? Allow your body to become these forms of water. How do you feel when you embody these different forms that water takes?
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Waters of the soul: sense into the waters of your soul and your psyche – the emotional and imaginative realms of your being. Sense into the tear drop, and how it travels through the emotional body to be released as a tear informed by so much feeling? Feel the stormy nature of your being, the fresh drizzles in the warm breeze of your nature, the icy coldness and the steamy sensation of your passion ignited. Feel it all as the watery, shapeshifting nature of your emotional body enriches your experience of yourself and the world around you.
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Messages from Water: In your imagination – invite water to reveal itself to you. What form does it take as it appears to you in your imagination now. Notice what it looks like, feels like, tastes like, and what happens as you attune to it – what happens as you listen in to its message. Imagine it has a personal message for you – a lesson. What does water tell you about the way in which it experiences your relationship with it/ What can you learn from water? What is the message water is asking you to share with humanity.
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Messages for Water: What would you like to say to water? Given these reflections, if water could understand you, what would you want to let Water know at this moment?
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Art from the Heart of Water: Let Water inspire the Heartist within you. Express what is most alive in you in this encounter through any form of art – dance, music, visual arts, poetery etc. If you use any form of materials in your art, attend to how they somehow are connected to Water. If you would like to share your Heartist offering and inspire others with it, please share it in our Community Sharing Space.
'Resting with the rain creators, the forests that transpire and provide the flying rivers that water our world. Blessing the rainforests that cool and cleanse, and the root systems that drain fresh water down into the aquifers that feed our streams and rivers. Blessings on the forests that sequester excess carbon so that it doesn't dissolve into and acidify our oceans, and for the coastal forests that provide the iron needed to support the forests of the sea - the kelp forests out of which so much life thrives and arises. Blessings on the trees that protect from storm surges on the coasts and the forests that guard against flood and slides. may we understand just how deeply trees are indivisible from the water of our world and bow to them...'
DAILY REFLECTION INSPIRED BY THE TREES, OFFERED BY CLARE DUBOIS,
FOUNDER OF TREESISTERS
Inaugurating World Water Year 2021
an invitation for rest and reflection with fire
On the 3rd Day of 7 Days of Rest and Reflection we honour Fire: Sacred Ritual Holder Daiara Tukano offers a blessing to the fire from the Amazon.
Guided Meditation:
Resting and Reflecting with FIRE
Offered by Shelley Ostroff
DAY THREE: GUIDED MEDITATION: REST AND REFLECTION WITH FIRE
Reflection offerings and practices for the day - Shelley Ostroff
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Intentional invitation: There are many ways to connect with Fire. Sense into the way in which you would like to deepen your relationship with Fire today. How can you best create the conditions for this to manifest.
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Breathing with Fire: Spend time with your breath and sense into how the fire element is present in your breath. Sense into how the spark of your soul, the passion that ignites your being and says yes to Life fuels your breath. How is the fire of your soul expressing itself through your breath now? What is it showing you about your relationship with fire?
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Sensing Fire: Sense into the essence of Fire – the potential of Fire – the birth of a flame, the explosion of a star, the spark of a soul, the potential of radiance coming into being, the potential of all that Fire brings with it. How do you experience Fire in your Life? Sense into your everyday relationship with Fire? In what ways you are conscious/unconscious as to its presence in every aspect of your Life, from the air you breathe, the food you consume, the lifestyle you lead? How is your relationship with your own energy reflected in your relationship with Fire, and what are the consequences for you and for the environment of this relationship? How does your culture relate to Fire? What are the short term and long term consequences of this relationship with Fire? What would you like to see transformed in your own relationship with Fire? In your culture’s relationship with Fire?
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Reflecting Fire: How is your relationship with Fire reflected in the way in which you experience your own energy over time? In what ways do you express and engage with your fieriness? When you look in the mirror what kind of Fire do you remind yourself of? How does your own fire need to be tended to, in order to radiate its fullness in Life-enhancing ways? How does the element of Fire feel about the way in which you relate to it, engage with it, use it, honor it? Look at yourself from the perspective of Fire’s experience of you? What is it showing you about how you impact it and what it would want from you in order to be in healthier and more honoring relationship with it?
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Embodying Fire: Imagine yourself as Fire. Let yourself sense into the Fire in you. As you become fire in your imagination, what happens to your body? Allow your body to become the dance of Fire. Perhaps it is the fire of a candle burning in the darkness, perhaps it is the warmth of the Suns rays, perhaps it is a raging Fire burning all that no longer serves Life, perhaps it is a fire out of control, perhaps it is a spark waiting to be ignited. Perhaps it is the experience of moving through all of these and more – what is your dance of Fire today?
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Fires of the Soul: What fires you up? What sparks your imagination, your passion, your courage, your rage, your creativity? What enlivens you in ways that are nourishing for you and for the world around you? What is that remembrance of the spark that feels like it is your soul’s deepest purpose? How do you nurture that fire? How do you radiate that Fire from within? How would your human and non-human environment experience that soul passion in its fullest manifestation?
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Messages from Fire: In your imagination – sit by the fire and watch its dance. Imagine that in the flames it holds a message for you? What is the fire showing you? What is the wisdom message that Fire is offering you? What would you be if you integrated this lesson from Fire? Imagine that the Fire is offering you a message for humanity? What would that message be?
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Messages for Water: What would you like to tell Fire? Imagine it as a conscious being with whom you are in relationship – what would you like to tell fire about yourself, about humanity, about what you need from it, about what you would like to offer it in return.
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Message from the Lions: Sense into the Radiance of the Lions and Lionesses and their connection with the Fire element. Take inspiration from our gateway on Sacred Relationship where we honour the White Lions and Lionesses and the work of Linda Tucker and Jason A. Turner.
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Art from the Heart of Fire: Sense into the way in which this dialogue with Fire wants to express itself through the Heartist you in any art form you wish. Offer your own courageous heart offering to the Heart of Fire
'May we rest in the darkness and fall into the embrace of our inner light symbolized by the Christmas tree, and may we understand who and what we have brought into our homes. May we find gratitude for every log that floods our hearths with living fire to warm, comfort and console us. Fire, our companion of ages is the gift of the forest whether todays wood, or the ancient forests turned coal or oil, fire that feeds us, warms and protects us, nurtures us and provides the energy of alchemy and transformation, birth and death. We cannot live without fire, and thus we cannot live without the gift of the trees, may we find our deepest gratitude and honour them..'
DAILY REFLECTION INSPIRED BY THE TREES, OFFERED BY CLARE DUBOIS,
FOUNDER OF TREESISTERS
Artist credit to Ana Castilho. An artist and partner to TreeSisters
an invitation for rest and reflection with air
On the 4th Day of 7 Days of Rest and Reflection we honour Air. Sacred Ritual Holder Daiara Tukano offers a blessing for Air from the Brazilian Rainforest.
Guided Meditation:
Resting and Reflecting with AIR
Offered by Shelley Ostroff
DAY FOUR: GUIDED MEDITATION - AIR
Reflection offerings and practices for the day - Shelley Ostroff
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Intentional invitation: There are many ways to connect with Air. Sense into the way in which you would like to deepen your relationship with Air today. How can you best create the conditions for this to manifest.
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Breathing Air: Spend time greeting the Air as you breathe. Spend time with it as you inhale it, as it settles, in the pause between breaths, and as it moves through you in the exhale. What are the qualities of Air that are being revealed to you as you pay it your honouring attention?
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Sensing Air: Sense into the essence of Air – what is its role in the Web of Life? What is the story of Air? How does it breathe itself into existence? How does it replenish itself? What is its unique intelligence as a life giver and information carrier? How do we stretch our imaginations to sense into this extraordinary intelligence invisible to the human eye? Sense into the different ways in which Air is present in your Life, not only in your breath, but as an essential part of Water, of Fire, of the living breathing Earth? What does air taste like, sound like, feel like?
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Reflecting Air: In what way is your relationship with Air reflected in the way in which you breathe? How does Air feel moving through you? How spacious and nourishing are the inside chambers of your being to this life-giving guest, as it moves in and out of your most intimate home? How does your culture relate to Air? Air is a carrier of information – what is the consciousness with which your culture imprints and informs the Air you breathe? In turn how does the Air that is a product of your culture, inform our own consciousness and in turn our own bodies?
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Embodying Air: Imagine yourself as Air. Become Air-like in your body, in your being. Sense the lightness, the boundlessness, the invisibility, the paradox of its gentle powerful presence within you. How does the body express Air in movement through you as you give yourself to this element in your imagination and become as Air? Give yourself to Air to dance through you.
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Airy Inspiration: Sense into the air of your consciousness, the stagnant thoughts, the breezes of fresh perspectives, the winds of change shifting your most favorite assumptions about the world. How do you greet new information? How do you open the windows of your consciousness to inspiration from unfamiliar sources?
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Messages from Air: Allow the essence of Air to offer you a wisdom message from its unique perspective? How would you become enriched if you became more like Air? What is the message that Air would like to offer to Humanity through you?
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Messages for Air: Sensing deeper and deeper into your ever-present relationship with Air, what is the message that you would like to offer Air? What would you like to tell Air if it could understand your language?
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Message from the Winged Ones: Sense into the birds and insects that move with Air and inform Air. Sense what it would feel like to be able to navigate air like they do. What is the special relationship that air has with these winged creatures? How do they nourish air and how are they nourished by Air? What winged insect flies into your imagination now? What is its message about its unique relationship with Air? What can you learn from it? What bird flies into your imagination. What is it showing you? What is its unique relationship with Air and what can you learn from it?
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Message from the Trees: Sense into the mutually nourishing, intextricable relationship of Air and Trees. The trees are often referred to as the lungs of the planet. What does this mean to you? How does this information transform your way of relating to Trees and to Air.
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Art from the Heart of Air: Sense into the way in which this dialogue with Air wants to express itself through the Heartist you in any art form you wish. What heartful offering wishes to be expressed through you in Honour of Air?
'May we rest in the knowing that the trees will keep breathing with us, as long as we keep tending the forests of our world. Our most crucial partners in life, the trees that breathe in our carbon dioxide as their food and breathe out the oxygen that we need to thrive and survive. Bless the trees that filter so many gases, toxins and fumes from our air, that we might breathe clean; the trees that shade us in heat and moisten when dry. May we become more conscious of the gift of breath that we take for granted, and may we give thanks to the trees.'
DAILY REFLECTION INSPIRED BY THE TREES, OFFERED BY CLARE DUBOIS,
FOUNDER OF TREESISTERS
an invitation for rest and reflection with climate
On the 5th Day of 7 Days of Rest and Reflection we honour Climate. Sacred Ritual Holder Daiara Tukano offers a blessing for the Climate from the Brazilian Rainforest.
We pledge to honor the planetary Climate Code and learn from it, so that we can become welcome guests upon the earth, leaving it richer for having been here.
Guided Meditation:
Resting and Reflecting with CLIMATE
Offered by Shelley Ostroff
DAY FIVE: GUIDED MEDITATION - CLIMATE
Reflection offerings and practices for the day - Shelley Ostroff
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Intentional invitation: There are many ways to connect with Climate. Sense into the way in which you would like to deepen your relationship with Climate today. How can you best create the conditions for this to manifest?
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Breathing Climate: Sense into your breath and how you with each breath, you are breathing in the local and global climate, and with each outbreath, breathing out your internal climate. Experience that sense of the boundaryless of Climate – the space of no separation between the climate within and the climate without - the Climate that you inhale and exhale through every breath.
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Sensing Climate: Imagine the climate as the loving coming together of the elements – the loving of the Earth, Water, Fire and Air in dynamic relationship with each other, creating the precise conditions for you to replenish yourself and flourish – creating the perfect conditions for all Life to flourish. How are these elements coming together within you right now? Sense into each separately and then sense into the relationship among them. What do you notice? What elements are in need of greater balance? What elements are in need of more attention from you? What elements need a more precise flow of communication between them?
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Reflecting Climate: What are you noticing about the climate within you? What is the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual climate that you are cultivating within you right now and what is the relationship between these aspects within yourself as they meet each other and work together within you? How does this internal climate that you cultivate within you impact the climate of your close environment? How does that impact ripple far into the distant reaches of the planetary ecosystem? What is the message to climate that you are conveying in your lifestyle and ways of engaging with it? How does climate feel to experience your contribution to it?
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Climate and Culture: The climate can be seen as the general culture that is more than the sum of all the parts. It is the dynamic sum of the relationship among the parts. Sense into the relationship of climate and culture. How do the thought patterns, emotions, physical structures and spiritual worldviews of your culture impact each other and how do they manifest in the cultural climate in which you live? How is the environmental climate a reflection of your culture? In what ways does your culture impact the global cultural climate – and the environmental climate of the biosphere?
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Embodying Climate: Imagine yourself as Climate. Become the different seasons in your body. What does it feel like to be summer, autumn, winter, spring? What does it feel like to be a desert climate, a temperate climate, a tropical climate. What is the unique movement and expression of these different climates and seasons as you embody them? What is their unique dance? Allow yourself to embody and dance the seasons and the climate zones, noticing how your body feels as you move through the different seasons and zones with the winds and the rotation of the Earth.
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Climate and consciousness: Sense into the code of consciousness that regulates the dance of the elements within you. What is that code of relationship that enables the whole to work together with such precision to enable the pure conditions for your body and soul to flourish and regenerate? Sense into this master intelligence that regulates temperature and moisture of the entire planetary body - sense into its ancientness and its evolutionary path. Sense into what it must need in order to process such vast dynamic and evolving information simultaneously. What conditions does the climate need in order to be able to function as nature intended. What does it need from you? What does it need from Humanity?
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Messages from Climate: Imagine yourself in the presence of the climate code and that it has a message to offer you for your own personal benefit.. What is the climate showing you? What can you learn from the climate by becoming more like the Climate? What is the message the climate wants you to offer to humanity?
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Messages for Climate: Sensing deeper and deeper into your ever-present relationship with Climate, what is the message that you would like to offer this incredible code of Life? What would you like to tell Climate if it could speak your language?
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Art from the Heart of Climate: Sense into the way in which this dialogue with Climate wants to express itself through the Heartist in you in any art form you wish. Offer your own Heartful offering to the Heart of Climate.
'May we rest in awareness and gratitude for the forests that are our primary partners in the moderation and stabilzation of the climate. May we recognize the vital role that trees play in the hydrological cycle of our world as balancers and creators. May we honour how they guard against extremes of flood and drought, in healing our soils and sequestering carbon. May we rest in gratitude for the breathtaking gift of our trees and make a choice to restore the forests of our world as a crucial way of providing for our children. May we restore our forests consciously, deliberately, carefully and respectfully."
Jason Leung
DAILY REFLECTION INSPIRED BY THE TREES, OFFERED BY CLARE DUBOIS,
FOUNDER OF TREESISTERS
an invitation for rest and reflection with biodiversity
On the 6th Day of 7 Days of Rest and Reflection we honour Biodiversity. Sacred Ritual Holder Daiara Tukano offers a blessing for Biodiversity from the Brazilian Rainforest. With deep gratitude to Daiara Tukano and Marianna Soisalo
Guided Meditation:
Resting and Reflecting with BIODIVERSITY
Offered by Shelley Ostroff
DAY SIX: BIODIVERSITY
Reflection offerings and practices for the day - Shelley Ostroff
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Intentional invitation: There are many ways to connect with Biodiversity. Sense into the way in which you would like to deepen your relationship with Biodiversity today. How can you best create the conditions for this to manifest?
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Breathing Biodiversity: Sense into your breath and how the breath activates the diverse biological intelligences in your own body. Notice the different sensations as it moves through the ecosystem of your own body with all its diverse functions working together in community.
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Sensing Biodiversity: Sense into the biodiversity within your own body – the rich aliveness of all the different parts of your being – their different colors, sizes, shapes, textures, densities, functions and intelligences. Sense into the uniqueness and differentiation of these different parts as well as their fundamental interconnectedness. Now extend your imagination, to sense into the infinite communities of animal and plant species in your close environment. The birds, the trees, the insects, the micro-organisms, the plants, and trees, that reside in your home area, in your local environment. Sense farther and farther into the larger environment, imagine bringing all the living creatures in the waters, and soil and skies across different climate zones and bioregions into your immediate sense of community of species. What do you notice as you encounter this extraordinary richness? What do you feel? What are these diverse species revealing to you?
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Biodiversity, the elements and the Climate: Sense into the connection of all these diverse biological beings with Earth, Water, Fire and Air. How do they express and engage with these different elements? How do impact and how are they impacted by climate?
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Reflecting Biodiversity: Sense into the richness of your own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual being? In what ways do you acknowledge and cultivate the diverse aspects of your own being? Sense into the way in which your relationship with the diversity within you is reflected in the diversity within your close community. Sense into the way in which your relationship with diversity within yourself is reflected in the way in which you relate to the diverse species in the world. How does your everyday behavior impact the biodiversity within you and around you?How do those diverse humans and non-humans in your environment experience your relationship with them?
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Nourishing Biodiversity: Sense into how biodiversity manifests? Sense into all the conditions that needed for the biodiversity to exist and flourish? How do you nourish the biodiversity within you? How do you nourish the diverse intelligences within you? How do you attend to the diverse parts of your own body, mind, emotions and spirit? What do these diverse parts of you need? How is your relationship to the biodiversity within you nourished by the food that you eat? How do you nourish the diversity of your body through the rainbow colored fruits and plants of nature's kitchen, informed by pure sunlight, water, soil and air working together with the recipes of Mother Earth's precise nourishment that has evolved with Life over millenia? How do you nourish the diversity in you in hte way which you breathe, learn, move, think, feel and express yourself? In what ways do you nourish the biodiversity of the environment that nourishes you?
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Embodying Biodiversity: Sense into the essence of biodiversity - the spark of biodiversity that manifests in its infinite spectrum of Life. What does it feel like to dance the dance of biodiversity, to explore and discover biodiversity in your dance? Imagine becoming different forms of Life? What does it feel like to become a sea creature, a bird, a butterfly, a tortoise, tree, a leaf, a coral reef? Allow these forms of Life to inspire you as you shapeshift into becoming them. What do they feel like and what insights emerge?
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Biodiversity and consciousness: Feel what it feels like to perceive the world through the eyes, and consciousness of different species? How does this shift your picture of the world?
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Messages from Biodiversity: Imagine yourself in the presence of the essence of biodiversity and that biodiversity has a message/wisdom offering for you personally. What is biodiversity showing you? What can you learn from biodiversity by becoming more like it? What is the message the biodiversity wants you to offer to humanity?
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Messages for Climate: Sensing deeper and deeper into your ever-present relationship with Biodiversity, what is the message that you would like to offer this essence of Life? What would you like to tell Biodiversity if it could speak your language?
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Art from the Heart of Biodiversity: Sense into the way in which this dialogue with Biodiversity wants to express itself through the Heartist in you in any art form you wish. Offer your own Heartful offering to the Heart of Biodiversity.
DAILY REFLECTION INSPIRED BY THE TREES, OFFERED BY CLARE DUBOIS,
FOUNDER OF TREESISTERS
'May we rest in the knowing that nature will always seek to bring life back into balance if we let her. If we side with her, choose to restore her by giving more of her nature back to herself, she will always move towards thriving. May we thank the forests for being the crucible of life, the womb out of which so much life emerges, the most species rich and biodiverse places on earth, and may we protect their sacredness and sanctity. May we give thanks for each species still held and protected, and for those still unknown and may we hold the indigenous custodians in our waking prayers, that they may be upheld as the sacred stewards of our most precious places on Earth...'
Jeremy Gallman
an invitation for rest and reflection with web of life