Lessons from the garden hose :)

As I care for my gardens in the hot-hot-hot of this summer, my garden hose is teaching me about working in cooperation with the flow of life. For instance:

• One little crimp in the hose can completely stop the flow. When we get knotted up about something--the way he said that, what she did, what I wished I had instead--the flow of peace in our life gets damned up while we fret and stew about whatever issue has temporarily crimped us.
• The best way to uncrimp the flow is to move the hose *in the direction of* the crimp. This seems important to me because when I have a problem in life I sometimes resist it or ignore it or try in some way to negate it (by pushing the other direction). When I push the hose in the direction of the crimp, I am accepting the situation and putting my energy and focus where it needs to go to solve the problem, and the crimp releases easily and the flow continues unobstructed, almost like it's cooperating with me. Ahhh.
• Crimping builds up pressure which will need to come out sometime. Sometimes when I move the sprinkler from one spot to another, I temporarily stop the water flow by folding the hose in on itself. But then, after I put the hose down and release the crimp, the water flows with twice the energy it had before it was damned up, which usually means I get wet. I can see that in my life, keeping energy, faith, love, honesty, and trust *flowing* is much better and healthier for me than saving it up, moving it around, judging where to let it out. That creates a kind of unnatural pressure that may cause it to gush out with abandon when that's not what I intended. I think an even, natural flow, with no damning, is a beautiful thing.

Happy watering today! :)

Katherine

Eco-Spirituality Convergence :)

If you are drawn to a closer understanding and practice of the organic of eco-spirituality, you might be interested in the Summer Symposium on Religion and Environmental Stewardship being offered by Yale Divinity school in June (June 5-7, to be exact). The subtitle for the conference is "Environmental Education for Clergy, Lay Leaders, and Seminary Faculty Bringing Together Science, Theology, and Ethics." Doesn't that sound fascinating?

I am planning on going myself...if your soul is stirred by this subject too, take a look at the link below! Here is info provided by the Forum on Religion and Ecology:

Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship

Environmental Education for Clergy, Lay Leaders, and Seminary Faculty
Bringing Together Science, Theology, and Ethics

June 5-7, 2012
Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven CT

Sponsored by:
Yale Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale

Dear colleagues,

We invite you to join us for a conference that the Forum on Religion and Ecology has organized between the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale Divinity School from June 5-7, 2012 on Religion and Environmental Stewardship.

The program is listed below and the URL for registration is

http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium

Please note that students can participate free of charge.

We look forward to seeing you there!

With all good wishes,

Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
http://www.emergingearthcommunity.org
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org

A Simple Guide to Eco-Spirituality coming soon!

Last night my sons and I went to dinner to celebrate the completion of A Simple Guide to Eco-Spirituality, available March 1 (!) from Luminis Press. I absolutely loved writing this book. I used a similar approach to the topic that I offer in the graduate-level course I teach in Eco-Spirituality at Earlham School of Religion. Here's an idea of the types of topics we cover:

• Finding your own Earth story
• Exploring your family geography
• Looking at Earth care through the lenses of different faith traditions
• Connecting with reverence in the here-and-now
• Exploring eco-justice and spiritual balance
• Moving toward sustainability
• Advocacy and blessing

The book includes ideas, exercises, and resources and I hope it will inspire you to continue learning more about this important, dynamic, and ultimately loving connection of spirit, self, and planet! I've also started a new blog, called Simply Eco-Spiritual, which offers posts, tools, and resources (like free downloadable presentations) so you can continue to spread the world and help educate your family, friends, and community. Thanks for loving the planet! I'll post a PDF sample when one is available (if the publisher says it's okay).

Smiles and blessings, Katherine

Belonging to your place

I love this passage from Gail Straub's book, Circle of Compassion: Meditations for Caring for Our Self and Our World and I use it in my Eco-Spirituality course:

We have forgotten what we can count on. The natural world provides refuge.... Each of us harbors a homeland, a landscape we naturally comprehend. By understanding the dependability of place, we can anchor ourselves as trees. —Terry Tempest Williams

• I put down deep roots where I live. I belong to my place, this is the very grounding for my rhythm of compassion. This helps me belong to myself. 
• To create my sense of place I begin by becoming intimate with the particulars of my home landscape: the plants, creatures, stones, trees, buildings, landmarks, and people.
• I create my sense of place as I walk every inch of my surroundings, feed the birds, or plant indigenous herb gardens.
• Today I practice mindful intimacy with my place as I stop and notice the subtle details of the sounds, sights, smells, and textures that surround me.
• This week I study the maps and history of my region. I am falling in love with my place. I write a love poem to my home landscape.
• Over time I fall in love with the light and shadow of the days and the cycles of the seasons. As I learn to live in harmony with the cycles of my place, I begin to live in harmony with my own seasons and my own light and shadow.
• Today I focus on Terry Tempest William’s wise words about place, “Each of us harbors a homeland, a landscape we naturally comprehend. By understanding the dependability of place, we can anchor ourselves as trees.”
• There are few things in life as steadfast as my place. It is my ground for meaning. As I belong to my place, I belong to myself. I am rooted in my rhythm knowing when to pay attention to myself, and when to focus on the world.