Living a Love Song to Earth
(( Earth Day Special Post ))
Earth is within
I spent years trying to “get better.” I went to traditional therapy, I went to AA, Al-Anon, I talked and talked, and wrote out all my problems. I was searching for something to “fix me” and make my life feel tolerable. Eventually, I started somatic therapy. Going inside and healing from there allowed me to accept myself and feel truly alive for the first time since my teens. My body held the key to my thriving.
When I began embodied practices, I started to feel a deepening connection with nature and my relationship with Earth became an integral part of my healing and my joy.
Realizing I am nature has been the greatest gift. It allows me to slow down, attune to the natural cycles in and around me. It makes it ok to be messy and to do things in my own time. It makes it ok to be human and flawed and it also makes me more aware of my gifts and the beauty all around me when I pause long enough to take it all in.
Life is hard and it is beautiful if we let go and let ourselves be who we really are. When you are feeling called to land you are also being called within.
Earth is the greatest lover
Earth is there for us through it all, loving us patiently, nourishing us, and supporting us when we are not even noticing. I started working with plants and plant medicine five years ago and through this work I learned that Earth truly wants to help. Tracing my lineage back to my ancestors who revered nature, and learning from indigenous wisdom today, I know this is a reciprocal relationship…
So I make offerings to trees, I sing healing songs to bodies of water, and I do what I can to take good care of the Earth.
Slow living is a love song to Earth
Slow living is an antidote to a system that has caused so much harm to our precious planet. It asks us to look at all aspects of our lives and find the places instant gratification is robbing us of what it means to be human, taking away our nature, and harming the Earth and our chances of continuing to live on it.
There are a lot of definitions of slow living out there and we can decide what it means to us personally. For me slow living means literally slowing down my body and mind, and taking in my surroundings, appreciating the beauty of nature and relationships, growing plants from seed, practicing patience & gentleness. It means divesting from harmful systems, eating locally grown produce, purchasing used furniture and clothes, supporting local shops & artists, listening compassionately to people when they speak, finding moments of joy, prioritizing my health and process over productivity and products.
Slow living will disrupt harmful habits we have been taught like urgency, perfectionism, toxic productivity, and competitiveness. Slowing down is good for everyone…
May we heal the Earth as it heals us.
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Sending love,
emily/autonomous muse