Dear community,
In this time of Covid-19, our thoughts naturally turn to you. For so many years you have inspired us to keep doing what we love most. You have expressed your friendship and trust by joining us in circle out on the land for healing connection. And, now in the midst of shelter-in-place and profound uncertainty, we reach out to offer our wishes for health, well-being and ease.
This is such a strange time we are living in. We see around us, family and friends suffering from displacement, illness, unemployment, and fear, yet there is also something else happening. Coronavirus seems to have wrestled us into a great planetary pause from business as usual. And, when we are being asked to stay out of public places and away from others, many of us are finally recognizing our essential interdependence with others and the natural world. We are indeed being confronted with the consequences of a world completely out of balance. And, for a time anyway, that world has come to a grinding halt.
This past weekend, crowds left their homes and flocked to state, regional and municipal parks and open spaces. Many of these places have responded by closing them temporarily for the “public good.” And, we are anticipating the need to cancel spring programs. Like you, we can feel the rumble in our bellies from a hunger to be out on the land and visit with our mother earth. Meanwhile, there is of course some solace in the blossoming of spring we see closer to home. Ultimately, even confined to home, we are never separate from our mother.
Wherever you are sheltering, please stay safe. This is a time that calls for level-headedness, patience and love. We look forward to being with you again before too long. Until then, we reach out with open hearts, news and reflections.
- the members of EarthwaysLLC
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We are thrilled to welcome
Scott Eberle
into Earthways. Scott
is a hospice physician, educator and writer who
has worked as a wilderness guide at the School of Lost Borders since 2003. In early 2020 he started a new private practice, offering rites of passage counseling and ecotherapy. Scott joins EarthWays, so he can do more wilderness work in his home area, Sonoma County. While Scott guides an array of wilderness programs, he has two special interests. The first is exploring how the symbolic death-and-rebirth dimension of a rites of passage ceremony is informed by his considerable experience sitting with people who are physically dying. The second is calling in the wonderful synergy of having your heart/mind cracked open while sitting alone in the wide expanse of the desert, or while sitting quietly on a meditation cushion. His first book, The Final Crossing: Learning to Die in Order to Live, explored the first interest. He is nearing completion of a second book, The Red Thread of Story, which weaves together both of these interests, while seeking to understand why and how we humans tell stories.
Scott can be reached at:
(707) 772-5317
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With our hearts full, yet heavy, this winter we bid farewell to our dear friends and fellow EarthWays members,
Susan Kistin
and
Cazeaux Nordstrum
.
Susan
co-founded EarthWays with Sara Harris, from a mere seed of a wild idea back in 2000. For over 20 years Susan has cultivated and grown an organization that has supported many people in deepening their connection with the natural world. She offered a multitude of programs, from Day Walks to Council Trainings to Circles for Seasoned Women. She is now stepping away from EarthWays to focus on her abundantly flowing clinical practice. The truth is, Susan will always and forever be a part of EarthWays. Susan can be reached at: 707-823-1319
susan.kistin@gmail.com
Cazeaux
joined EarthWays in 2015, bringing with her a vast repertoire of gifts in holding ceremony. During these 5 years, she has guided numerous programs, from Day Walks to monthly/seasonal circles to multi-day retreats for women. Cazeaux has contributed greatly to EarthWays during this time, including two years of seasonal newsletters and a rare year of interviews with EarthWays staff. She is now stepping away from our Collective to dedicate her time and energy to her Zen practice, and with it, the immeasurable jewels of the precious Dharma. Cazeaux can be reached at: 925-939-7464
cazeauxnordstrum@gmail.com
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What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love--
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
- Lynn Ungar
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Covid 19 Resources we recommend...
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Check out our Spring and Summer offerings on our Schedule page. Please plan to join us again soon.
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The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
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