“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.”” Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak
“Spend enough time with the Earth and She will tell you what you need to know. She already knows you, no matter where you are.” gkisedtanamoogk The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations
What is Earth saying? How might we listen with our whole bodies? What practices might reveal our entangled relationships with the places we dwell, and see a wider picture by sharing encounters with others? While increased activity is calling to the human world, we don’t need to travel to be in relationship with Earth. We invite you to explore becoming more fluent in the languages and ways of Earth through direct encounters and listening practices that let both gratitude and grief speak their ways of knowing.
Deepen your connection with Earth for 2 days in July and commit to 101 days of daily earth practices to stay in conversation and commitment.
Intention:
Take time to pause and listen to the land that holds and nourishes us daily
Deepen reciprocity with place in service of relational justice and right relationship
Share your sense of place with a community of people from other places on earth to see a wider lens of relationships and perspectives
Standing with the practices of the Center for Courage & Renewal, touchstones and core principles provide human relational protocols to guide this inner/outer journey
Contribute to a community of care - givers who are committed to centering Earth in discernments and decisions on the daily and ecosystem levels.
Dates:
July 23 -July 24, 2021 - Retreat-In-Place - in your local ecosystem, be it your home or another location with which you are in relationship.
Aug 17, Sept 14, Oct 18, Nov. 2, Monthly calls to support 101 days of practice of Earth Language - Learning and alignment.
Location:
Your location on Earth. We will stay where we are living, connecting daily by zoom or phone in support of focusing on the relations beneath our feet and close at hand.
Offering:
1 packet of provisions for the journey, including daily invitations to connect with earth, poems and prompts as portals to open into deeper relationship
26 hour retreat-in-place at the full moon in July, centering earth and moon, with time to connect in community once a day. The flow is invitational, with ways to listen, nourish and be in relationship with place.
4 community calls for 90 minutes in the late afternoon for reflection, connections and story sharing, to support 101 days of personal practices to apprentice to the gifts and voices of place.
Optional night fire on Saturday, July 24th - offered in Northern Vermont and Minnesota/Wisconsin - or lit in your dwelling place.
Facilitators:
Holly Wilkinson lives on a dirt road in Vermont among a river, brook, mountain and meadows. Holly is a listener & language learner - exploring the earth languages including milkweed, grapevine and horsetail “weeds.” Holly is a Courage & Renewal facilitator & Executive Director of WholeHeart. Summer Courage Earth gatherings are part of her seven year practice to deepen relational justice with Earth.
Paula Pedersen tends a micro-farm and gardens amidst the forests of the Lake Superior Watershed in Wisconsin - close to the arbitrary border that connects with Minnesota. Along with being a Courage and Renewal facilitator, she is a consultant for organizations seeking a more just and inclusive lens.
Cost for the three month journey: $400 covers materials, planning and co-facilitation for this three month practice. Please pay at the level you can offer.
Schedule:
Friday, July 23:
Welcome & Opening: 4-6 pm CT / 5-7 ET We will set off on this journey and welcome the wisdom of the full moon. Consider sleeping outside if possible to be with the arc of the moon and night.
Saturday, July 24:
Morning & Afternoon - Day in place with Earth.- listening, learning, expressing gratitude to the land where you dwell that holds you no matter what is unfolding in and around you. The provisions packet will provide invitations to be with earth relations.
Closing: 4-6pm CT / 5-7 ET. We will gather via zoom from our various places on the planet, to share the gifts and lessons of our dwelling places.
7 pm CT / 8 pm EST:
Keeping the Fires Lit: People are welcome to join Holly or Paula at their home dwellings to share in campfire story telling - or light a fire or candle in their own home places to spark energy for the 101 days of Earth Practice that begins at dawn the following day.
July 25 - Nov. 2: 101 Day Earth Practice
Monthly Tuesday Evening Community of Practice Calls: Aug 17, Sept 21, Oct 18, Nov. 2 - 4-6 pm CT / 5-7 ET