earth

Behold!

Behold! From before the dawn of time I have been here
waiting
for you…
I gave birth to stars that swirled away
into spiral galaxies
forming and reforming the molecules of me
into new stars
that died and were born again;
I grew larger and larger, and the stars of me
burst and joined again and again
and their partings and joinings made new elements
that danced toward each other,
and caught, and held on,
and my love made them alive.

Behold! This is all alive and dancing here together
in intricate motion:
a luminous blue-green ball whirling in space
filled with starfish and bats
and grains of sand that once were mountains
and belly-laughing babies and rivers and trains
and eagles and cats
and little buildings filled with people who love me.

Behold! From the dust of long-ago stars
I formed your ancestors
who died and returned unto me to be re-formed
into trees and rocks and soil and grass and YOU.

From air and fire and water and earth
I ripen into fruit that drops into your waiting hands.
I feed you and clothe you and shelter you
with my body,
I quench your thirst with my water,
my blood.

Behold! This is my body, grown here for you:
See, my round purple eggplants,
my many colored tomatoes,
my fuzzy rosy peaches, my little perfect grapes,
my juicy melons, my vigorous zucchini,
my beans and grains, my leafy greens,
my alluring herbs and spices.

Behold! I have set your table with good things!
Now—this is what I want from you:

Learn to share.
Clean up your mess.
Say thank you.

Blessed be.

Maple Seeds

Spirit of Life, Great Immensity of Love
in which we live and move and have our being:

Now is the time
when the seeds of the bigleaf maples
fall from the trees.

They could just fall straight down,
but maples have evolved a design
that causes their seeds to twirl.

Each time a breeze moves,
dozens of maple seeds
are blown from the mother tree.

They take to the air,
twirling and twirling
until they rest safely on the earth.

There are times when we need
to let go of the familiar
and take to the air–
times when we are tossed on the wind,
afraid we will break when we fall.

Instead may we twirl.
May our journey be a dance.
May love bring us safely down to earth.

Blessed be.

Singing

Spirit of Life,
You who rise greening in our hearts
as well as in the vines of zucchini plants:

Now is a time of great abundance,
when fruits and vegetables of every kind
are piled in great heaps in the markets.

Queen Anne’s Lace blooms in the meadows,
the clear pools of the river beckon,
and the trees are so fragrant
we want to gulp in the delicious air.

Yet fire season has already begun
taking the homes and lives of many beings,
little children are still crying for their parents,
and many we love are sick and in pain.

Help us know that
this is the way of things here,
on this little blue planet
hurtling through the vast starry deeps:
there is always both at once.

Both ravishing beauty and terrible suffering,
both immense joy and agonizing pain,
both glorious celebration and overwhelming grief.

Help us know that whatever we are experiencing
You are with us, whatever we call You—
Love, God, Universe, or no name at all—

for You are the love that binds all wounds
dries all tears
and frees all who are captive
and You are right here in our hearts
singing.

Blessed be.

Artwork: Aditi – Goddess of the Boundless Sky by Peg Green

The Dance

Great Spirit of Life and Love,
moving source of all we know:

A great upheaval is taking place,
a sea change,
and we can no longer expect the same steps
to take us to the same places.

The patterns must change.
The music is changing
and the dance must also change.

No more solo performances.

In times such as these
it is important to gather with others
and to learn how to move
together.

May we hold each other and ourselves
in loving kindness.

May we see that each of us brings a tender heart
aching to share its deepest desires.

May we see that each of us brings a seeking spirit
longing to grow and be transformed.

May we know that there is a love
deeper than we can understand
ever holding us in safety.

And may we ever be aware
of these great cycles and circles:
the earth orbiting the sun
the sun spiraling in the Milky Way
the whole expanding outward to infinity.

In this great coming together
of matter with energy,
let us ground ourselves here,
in this place,
with each other.

With our feet on the earth,
our faces to the sky,
and our arms out to one another:
let us take our places in the dance.

Blessed Be.

Ever Safely Held

Spirit of Life, source of all love,
You who body forth as our starry universe
and this luminous, blue-green planet:

Help us know you as the breath of our bodies.

As we mark the end of summer
and the beginning of autumn,
help us know you as the life force
that fills grapes and pears
with the liquid sunshine
that delights our tongues.

Help us also know you
as the force that turns green leaves yellow
and starts their slow spinning to the ground.

Help us know you as a love so large
that in all beginnings,
and in all endings,
we are ever safely held.

Help us rest in that love,
as we look with open eyes
upon the suffering within us and all around us.

Fill us with the loving kindness we need
to relieve this suffering.

Help us to breathe your love and peace
into our scarred and beautiful world.

Amen.

To Do What is Needed

Great Spirit of Life:

My heart is sore today, and I am lonely.
For lo, these many years I have been failing you.

This blue-green ball
that you have given us to live on,
Your sacred body,
this miracle of interwoven cycles
of water, air, earth, fire,
is heating up.

One by one we are killing our relatives:
tigers, grizzlies, elephants, oaks, otters,
whales, salmon, grasses, butterflies,
gorillas, orchids, lorikeets.

Thousand by thousand we are killing ourselves:
women and children first.

My voice is small
a whisper lost in the wind
Those who hear it laugh at me
and tell me how impractical I am
to want to find a way to live here
in love.

But please,
please:
help me not give up.
Help me receive Your gifts
and use them to save us all.

Grant me the presence of a mountain
implacable and unarguable
Grant me hope that grows like tiny tendrils of grass
after just one rain
Let me be rooted deeply and reach high, like the pine tree
flexible enough to weather the storm
Let me be as persistent as water
wearing away resistance one molecule at a time
Let me be as fierce as a grizzly bear
that I might protect all of the earth’s young
Grant me the endurance of the salmon,
the instinct to keep swimming upstream.
Grant me the vision of the hawk,
that I might see what to do next
Let me keep the wonder of a tiny child
and the joy of a baby’s belly laugh

Great Spirit,
the Web of Life is torn.
I place myself in your hands,
that you might use me to mend it.
Keep my heart full of the love that will sustain me
that I might find a way to sustain You.

Thank you for all you have given me.

Blessed Be
Amen

Unto the Hills

When I am out here in the hills,
I am in God.

I am air warming and rising and cooling and falling; I am the hawk soaring on the air currents; I am the turkey vulture sweeping out from the rock over the canyon. I am the patient stone, worn to smoothness by millennia of caressing water; I am the water flowing, carrying, carving, rushing, quieting. I am trees rooted deeply and reaching high; I am wind dancing in the trees; I am the play between trees and wind; I am the song the two together make. I am the rocks on the hillside and the rocks inside the hill; I am the heaved and folded layers of the earth’s crust. I am the blue sky, the gold sun, the tiny white cloud, the fragrant green leaves, the rustling dry grass, the glinting darting dragonfly. I am bone, blood, sinew, muscle; I am the trail made by unseen deer, I am the walker on the trail. I am nothing. i am Everything.

Prayer at Summer Solstice

Spirit of Life, Source of all Being:

We stand on the edge of the Summer Solstice,
the longest day of the year,
the time when the earth’s tilt brings us
closest to the sun.

It is the time of most promise,
the most lush growth—
and yet also the time
when daylight begins receding.

Both at once,
both splendor and loss at once.

This is how it is here
on this beautiful blue-green ball
hurtling through the vastness of space.

There is great joy here.
There is terrible pain here.
And with it all,
there are moments
of illumination and grace.

May we be thankful for all of it
for in better and in worse
this is where we belong.

Here on Earth is where we belong.

Blessed be.

Prayer at Summer’s End

Great spirit of life,
mystery beyond mystery:

The wheel of the year is turning
and the days begin to grow noticeably shorter.
The great waters begin to cool
and waves stir in the wind.
It is the end of one season of life
and the beginning of another.

What experiences did we store up
in our hearts this summer?
What new things did we learn?
What joys will we keep with us
as the earth moves in its orbit around the sun
and the days grow shorter still?

What flowers did we see?
What fruits did we taste?
Whose beloved faces did we kiss,
whose arms did we enter?

If there were many,
may we be thankful
for the abundance of our lives.

If there were none,
may we know that here, in this place,
love and joy abound.
May we have the courage to partake of them.

Blessed be.

Labor Day Prayer

Great Spirit of Life and Love:

We have before us a great work to do.
It is no less than to restore
the beauty and diversity
of life on earth.

May we know in our bones
that we are up to the task.

If we falter may we look around and see
these good companions we have with us.

May we know, always, the infinite love that holds us
and the power that it gives us
if we will only open ourselves to it.

Blessed be.