Hope Will Not Be Cancelled

Dear Wild Nature Hearts,

I wanted to get a brief message out acknowledging the difficult moment we are in and to offer a reminder of our resiliency and resourcefulness as intelligent and empathic creatures of the earth.
 
Do you wonder if the deeper meaning behind the pandemic, the power outages, the headlines screaming crisis is to release us from our superficialities and reconnect us to what really matters?

The growing ecological and social uncertainties of the moment has many of us searching for what to do and can elicit a range of emotional responses, from anxiety to denial to hope for a way through. Is it possible that the forced slowing and shutting down has within it the grace of a sacred pause that allows for deep listening, for cultivating deep belonging, and co-creating solutions for leaning into this Great Turning?

Is it yet another opportunity to take big steps toward another story?

 In a time of social distancing, continue to offer your heart, your story, your grief, your wisdom; continue to listen to and move your body; continue to take walks in nature.

If you are in a place of emotional, financial, or spiritual resourcefulness, abundance, and health, please share and offer support to those who need it. If you need support, do not be afraid to reach out and ask for help from those who probably also want to connect.

Sure, stock up on canned goods and hand-sanitizer. But also stock up on your core values, your expanding heart, connection, and community.

When in doubt, introduce your bare feet to the earth, sit with a tree elder and wild water, hold hands with the sunset or a friend, and welcome the birdsong into you.

Some Wild Nature Heart in-person offerings may be postponed and re-scheduled at a feasible time. Some in-person events may migrate into Online offerings. The Ecogrief Resiliency Circle: Honoring Our Pain/Love for the World is re-scheduled for March 29. Deep Belonging Courses are now starting April 5 in McKinleyville and April 3 Online. The Write Your Wild River DayQuest is still on for April 18. Follow on Instagram/Facebook and check the website to stay up-to-date on happenings.

Ultimately, hope will not be cancelled. Meaningful conversations will not be cancelled. Love will not be cancelled. Poetry and song will not be cancelled. And our deep belonging to the earth, our wild purpose, and each other will not be cancelled.In all the best and wild mysteries,
Ryan 
Director of Creative Earthiness

PANDEMIC by Lynn Ungar


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.