As I walked my daily path in the woods yesterday and came upon my favorite bend in the creek, I was stopped in my tracks by your presence.
You see, I’ve been a great admirer of yours for many years. Your exquisite grace, the slow beats of your very broad wings, your long purposeful beak and winding neck. It seems the whole world pauses to marvel at your beauty when you depart from the earth into the sky.
The day we encountered each other, we were both taken by surprise. But you noticed me before I noticed you. In that moment you took flight, emerging from the shallow creek into the nearby treetop, just far enough to listen in as I shared some words of awe and admiration:
Great Blue Heron, you have been an essential connector for me and the more than human world. When I moved back to North Carolina in 2004 after having spent 15 glorious months in the wide open spaces of Sedona, AZ I felt claustrophobic with all of the tall greenness of this state. I didn’t know if I would find the divine as easily as I had in the high desert, with its dramatic red rocks and bright blue sky.
And then I found you.
Your beauty emboldened me to spend more time near the river, in the woods, learning to be quiet and observant so as to receive the many gifts the natural world has to offer.
For this I will always be grateful.
Thank you for choosing Earthseed as a resting place along your path. Thank you for allowing me a moment in time to share all of this with you. Thank you for continuing to inspire and bless my existence with your marvelous ways.
May we all learn to glide, swoop and soar through life as gracefully as you. With gratitude and respect, ~Zulayka
Ardea Herodias: Our most familiar and frequently seen wader, the Great Blue Heron has shown a remarkable increase in numbers across the state since about 1980. In fact, it was very poorly known as a breeding species as late as the 1970’s, with nesting colonies few and far between, mainly in remote swamps. However, with the great increase in beaver ponds, and a smaller increase in reservoirs and other man-made lakes and ponds, Great Blues have taken advantage of these new freshwater wetlands. Birds now nest in most of our counties away from the mountains, and nesting colonies are often easily visible around the upper ends of reservoirs and at beaver ponds. The species forages mainly at freshwater ponds, lakes, and streams; however, they also feed in brackish waters, especially at coastal impoundments, and rarely in salt water. Unlike most other waders, the Great Blue shuns nesting on coastal islands with other herons, egrets, and ibises. Instead, birds nest mostly by themselves, or with Great Egrets and/or Anhingas, with nests placed mainly in living trees — almost always in standing water — to deter predators.
Reconnecting with Ourselves, Each Other, and This Land
I come here to listen, to nestle in the curve of the roots in a soft hollow of pine needles, to lean my bones against the column of white pine, to turn off the voice in my head until I can hear the voices outside it: the shhhh of wind in needles, water trickling over rock, nuthatch tapping, chipmunks digging, beechnut falling, mosquito in my ear and something more—something that is not me, for which we have no language, the wordless being of others in which we are never alone. After the drumbeat of my mother’s heart, this was my first language. —–Robin Wall Kimmerer, from Learning the Grammar of Animacy
Today we honored the Winter Solstice at Earthseed by spending some intentional time listening: to ourselves, each other and this land. In a society that is so chock-full of noise, where we spend so much time in front of THIS screen, taking moments of pause, where we can actually listen carefully, become precious gifts,
We walked intentionally. We sat quietly on the forest floor. We listened. We reconnected with our breath. We heard each other clearer.
We remembered that when we cut through all of the clutter and chatter what is REALLY most important, is our ability to love ourselves and love each other. If we don’t get that right, then all the rest seems meaningless and empty. As we mark the end of another exhilaratingly beautiful and excruciatingly heartbreaking year, may we continue to grow our relationships stronger, rooted evermore deeply in the practice of love.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for the support, encouragement and inspiration you’ve offered along the way.
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn
by Wu Men Hui-k’ai English version by Stephen Mitchell Original Language Chinese
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
Photo: Snowy Day at Earthseed Land Collective, 12-9-18. Zawadi Luna on the bottom left included for perspective.
Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one.
We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she will continue to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect. Now our minds are one.
—The opening paragraphs of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, known more accurately in the Onondaga language as the Words That Come Before All Else. The actual wording of the Thanksgiving Address varies with the speaker. This text is the widely publicized version of John Stokes and Kanawahientun, 1993.
Today, many people across the United States of America gather with their loved ones to offer collective gratitude. This holiday has some heartbreaking history attached to it (to say the least) and we are currently living through some heartbreaking moments. Yet somehow, today we can choose to focus on the many gifts this life offers. In particular, the MANY gifts that we have received, and continue to receive the people who were indigenous to this land long before its European ‘discovery’. We are so thankful. (more…)
And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.
The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness. Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.–-Robin Wall Kimmerer, from “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants”
Fields Full Daisy Fleabane
These tiny flowers refused to go unnoticed on Earthseed Land! They started arriving a few weeks ago, and now they’ve managed to fully inhabit significant swaths of land. Erigeron annuus is their formal name, but the children and I refer to them as ‘tiny daisies’. Once you take the time to notice them, you’ll begin to see them most everywhere: along roads, trails, in fields and even in areas full of waste.
Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “Names are the way we humans build relationship, not only with each other but with the living world.” I struggle with feelings of awe and humility every time I sit to write this blog. How could I, not formally trained in anything plant-related have anything to say about the natural world? And yet, there is a deeper longing to reconnect that pushes me forward. I believe there are some other truths, not found in a university setting that nature bountifully reveals to us. (more…)
We are presented with opportunities to start anew many times in our life. On Earthseed Land this summer I’ve been reminded of this every time a dragonfly zooms across my path. Dragonflies (scientific name Anisoptera, suborder Odonata) are more than just another flying insect. They are magical creatures that experience their lives in two stages: The larval stage when they live inside of water (for up to two years!) and the stage we are most familiar with, occurring after they crawl out of the water, shed their exoskeleton, expand their wings and FLY!
I’ve been so inspired by the dragonflies this summer: their ability to begin again, their magnificent ability to see with their gigantic eyes, and their impressive flying skills. But mostly I’ve been taken by their sheer beauty. So much so, that as I launched a new chapter in my professional career I decided to name my consulting practice Libélula (dragonfly in Spanish) in their honor. In many parts of the world dragonflies symbolize change, often the kind of change that is connected to a growing understanding of the deeper meaning of life. This opportunity to start anew happens both at the individual and the collective level.
At Earthseed we get to remember this every time we gather as a group to celebrate milestones, observe shifts in the season, observe the cycles of the moon and every time we spend time on the land.
Thanks for reading. Thanks for caring. Thanks for dreaming.
2018 began under a blanket of beautiful snow. For some, this translated into disruptions to the normal flow of life. For others, it meant a welcomed moment of respite and wintry play. On Earthseed, the snow transformed the landscape into something so beautiful that it is almost impossible to capture in a photograph (yet we try). Once again we emulate nature’s cycle: slowly and in due time awakening towards a year of delightful work in service of our vision.
2017 offered us so many gifts. Some of these gifts came in the form of opportunities to grow stronger as individuals and as a collective. Other gifts: in the form of art as we got to experience the Parable of the Sower Opera, the creation of Toshi Reagon (who we had the honor of hosting on Earthseed Land last summer) and her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon. This was an important event for us because we share a source of inspiration for our work: the brilliant Octavia E. Butler.
Our name, Earthseed—is inspired by the decolonized mind and work of a woman who was well ahead of her time. The future that Ms. Butler depicts is a complex one: bleak circumstances from which there are so many beautiful lessons for us to take to heart: about what it means to truly be in community with one another, how much we need each other to survive, the resilience of the human spirit, and our ability to heed to the lessons that nature presents us time and time again. We see many parallels from Parable to the present we are living now. And in response to circumstances of such despair, we are affirmed in our commitment to plant goodness on this land. Believing fully that “Kindness eases change. Love quiets fear.” We have so many blessings to be grateful for, so many people invested in seeing this work flourish, and so many dreams yet to realize.
Thank you for all you have done/do/will do to support Earthseed!
