The land knows you, even when you are lost.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
In increasing times of unrest and uncertainty it can be a common human experience to gravitate towards more “certainty” rather than less. Yet, in the Zen tradition “not knowing” is most intimate. The natural world reminds us of this intimacy and offers us refuge. There is something waiting to find us but in order to be found…we sometimes must first admit we are “lost”.
No matter our ancestry, we are all a part of the lineage of this living planet. And because of this it is in our marrow to be called to the land and into ceremony especially during personal and collective transitions. Courageously we surrender to the mirror of our wild environment, and to memory, the looks-within-place. We enter into the mansions of nature’s soul, pondering the questions: “who am I?” “Who and where is my community?” And “what is my intent?” We wander the precincts of loneliness, where vision lies waiting. We drink at the springs of our own soul and quenched with Self-recognition.
This can be a different kind of humbling – one rooted in the humus of belonging to those that are still here and those that came before. In our aloneness we shed off the “should’s” of modernity revealing something much bigger. However small amongst the company of stars, now may be the risky business of truly taking our place, claiming the brightness of our gifts and more fully committing to that which we are called to tend and be tended by. We are embraced by place and re-membered amongst the communities of red mesas, coyote and cliff swallows. Retrieved: a bone-knowing clarity. What is not important falls away. The work needing to be done lies ahead.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.
– John O’Donohue
Program Overview: The twelve day ceremony involves four days of preparation, four days and nights of fasting alone in a wilderness place, and four days of incorporation. You will be readied to physically, psychologically, mentally, and spiritually benefit from the experience of fasting alone in the wilderness. You will be given an ancient means of looking into the mirror of nature (the Four Shields).
Program Questions Contact: Emerald North at [email protected]
