What good is a book of poems if you are
reading it while riding
in the back of a wagon that is heading toward
the edge of a cliff?
A greater awareness is what our relationship
is supposed to be about.
I was hoping something I might have said by
now could have made you stop, get your bearings,
and start traveling in a direction that will yield
lots of fruit. May be you are? That would be nice.
A Year with Hafiz- Daily Contemplations - Daniel Landinsky
A beautiful poem of hope for the planet as we get ready for the Global Climate Strike (September 20-27). Check out 350.org or globalclimatestrike.net to participate in events around you.
わたしのチイサナココロ [i have a small heart] is a short documentary accompanying one woman's journey along the Kumano Kodo through the Kii mountains of Japan. This ancient pilgrimage route, one of only two Unesco World Heritage pilgrimage sites in the world, is considered the spiritual heart of Japan.
Bajir Cannon/ Maki Itami Cannon/ Megumi Ueno
by David Whyte
In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.
What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.
To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.
You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.
Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?
Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?
from The House of Belonging, Many Rivers Press
The Pyramid, called The SHIFT Rx Challenge Pyramid was informed by Florence Williams’ research in her book The Nature Fix, as well as Tanya Denkla-Cobb/the Biophilic Cities Project’s “Nature Pyramid.” The SHIFT Rx Challenge Pyramid indicates optimal “doses” of nature. From daily micro-doses that can range from exposure to daylight and plant life multiple times per day to annual multi-day excursions into wilderness areas where people can disconnect from technology, the Pyramid offers recommendations for duration as well as location of nature contact.
“Time spent outside in nature is good for us,” said Christian Beckwith, Executive Director of The Center for Jackson Hole, SHIFT’s parent organization. “In an age when the average American child spends seven hours per day in front of screens and seven minutes in unstructured play outside; rising obesity rates add billions of dollars to health care costs; opioid addictions outpace car accidents as the leading cause of death; and the growing disconnect from nature, particularly in our urban areas, leads to stress, depression and increased levels of mental anxiety in our citizens, time outside has never been more important.”
Do you need help getting your recommended doses? I have the following offerings:
Women’s Pilgrimage in the annually/bi-annually category
Wise Women Walk in the monthly category
Custom Contemplative Walk in the “anytime” category
I also offer the following coaching while walking programs:
I hope to see you on one of those. Anne-Marie
Nature Rx is a grassroots movement dedicated to entertaining and informing people about the healing aspects of nature. More at Nature-Rx.org.
Fill your Nature Prescription with a contemplative walk. Details here.
