Kinship with Nature is Our Birthright

I walk in the early summer forest; it glistens as afternoon sunbeams penetrate the new, broad viridian leaves. I greet the plant-beings in this way:

Your branches are reiterated in our veins,

You give us food, medicine, clothing, shelter.

Your shade brings cool midday relief.

You are our elders and teachers.

We breathe in the symbiosis that is love.

The forest replies, coming to me in this dream. My task is to learn the language the worms use, as they tunnel under the bark. To translate this for human understanding.

Dream Forest

Her feet walk

heart listens.

She wants to know

the way the worm knows

tunneling beneath his bark

through balsam dark

writing in a germinal hand.

Blind in his world of xylem

he makes poems

in her dreams

writes in wooden braille

tells of stardust

caught by trees

netted roots.

Each earthen word

becomes a point of light.

Star poems map

fourteen billion years

from now…

to now,

written always

in this eternal moment.

He measures evolution

in time filled with presence,

time

full

fecund

wild

round as the trunk

of the poplar

she stops beneath.

Round as tracings

she sees written

in bark.

Round as all

she wants to know

beneath her feet

that walk and listen.

From my book A Litany of Wild Graces

https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org/sharifas-books

To learn forest-lessons, we must slow down, one footstep then another.  We stop, breathe, listen to language heard only by the heart. We listen….we bow.

Would you like to deepen your kinship with nature and rewild your heart?  Would you like to bring this nature-connection to your family as well? Join me as I teach a five-week Kinship with Nature course through LifeWays during July!  This course is designed for all adults, yet includes an added focus on family. We’ll explore earth, water, fire, air, minerals, plants, animals and more. We will be engaged with movement, song, stories, breath-work, Jungian explorations, scientific understanding and inner inquiries! I hope to see you there.  For more info and to register: https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/kinship-with-nature-is-a-family-affair/

Photo by Kora Oppenheimer, my grand daughter!