Spring Arising

                          Spring has arrived; come listen with me!

“I walk my forest land listening for whispers of these other-than-human intelligences, calling a litany of their names as I pass ~ Jewel Weed, Fiddlehead Fern, Beechnut, Curly Dock ~ naming their blessings.  They entice me back to my senses, which carry the collective earth-wisdom we have sadly lost.  Step by step, they bring me back to the living breathing Earth, sensuously alive with our composite Interbeing.  I invite you to walk with me through these animate worlds.  We will re-member, gather back into ourselves the scattered members of our wild foliated, feathered, finned, and furred family. 

We will step outside the door, listen, and as we speak “ruby-throated hummingbird” our shoulders muscles will recall the mystical lemniscate of her wings.  We will recite “honeysuckle blossom” and a heady, intoxicating sweetness will rise up within us.  Our ears will open to many wild languages calling to us come home.  Our skin will shuck off the tough husk of exploitation and extraction, so our soft animal body can feel rain as grace, wind as god’s breath, the taste of honey as love itself.”  From my book a Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology

  ******************

 Now it is spring; mists of green and yellow wash through the forest umbrella, wild cherries, forsythia and redbuds bloom, while on the forest floor morel mushrooms push through leaf litter.  Other new growth is sprouting, as well, and I am excited to share these opportunities with you.

Earth Responders:  I will be joining other speakers and presenters in a new course beginning this week!  This seven-week course is designed to provide insights, approaches, and tools for those who wish to bring deep presence to the global ecological crisis, this most immediate need of our time.  Find more information and registration here. https://inayatiyya.org/event/earth-responders/

Kinship With Nature is a Family Affair : In July I will be offering a five week course in collaboration with LifeWays North America.  This course brings together my two great loves: the guiding, healing, wise presence of the living earth will now more fully permeate my work with children, families and teachers! Research shows intimate connections with nature improve our mood, health and sense of purpose.  Science affirms that the child’s love of nature and its many health benefits, depends upon the adult’s depth of connection with the natural world. “Pass the torch” of nature connection to the children in your care.  Join this course and deepen your own inherent relationship with the Elements and Realms of Nature. I hope to see you there!

https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/kinship-with-nature-is-a-family-affair

Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing Our World: I have been invited to review Cynthia Jurs’ new book!  It is an inspired treasure trove of earth-wisdom and an account of the earth-centered peoples who have gleaned this wisdom over millennia.  It is also a book filled with the adventures both illuminating and terrifying that Cynthia faced as she set about fulfilling the ancient task she had been given.  Click the link below and you can read the review.  Read This Book! It is a “Do Not Miss” opportunity to broaden and deepen your horizons!  

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6396936325?book_show_action=false

More Ways to Connect: I’ve added a new page to the Wild Graces website!  It is full of new resources, online courses I have offered, links to webinars I have given, possible topics for zoom parent evenings, and even an interview on the ten spiritual books that have shaped and guided my life. Enjoy browsing!

https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org/more-ways-to-connect

 Please forward this notice to friends whose hearts and minds are in service to the future: our children and our emerald earth!

 Subscribe to Wild Graces and discover Nesting Circles of Belonging.

https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org  Scroll to the bottom to subscribe

Animalia

It is an early spring this year. Crocuses and daffodils bloom in the chill mornings while forsythia buds swell; they are yellow flags in the warm late afternoon sun.  Bluebirds inspect their house beside the rose arbor and goldfinches empty the feeders by midafternoon.  Today a sparrow and I entered a poignant conversation between bodies.  Tentative, trusting, waiting, hoping….

I.

She hears a small thud

against the window.

Sparrow huddles,

breath coming fast,

blinks as the woman

bends to hold her.

No flutter of wings

quieter still

inside the basket.

The woman pulls

soft flannel close

steps back inside.

II.

Forest animals

she bows to by day

return to her

under moonlight. 

They inhabit her dreams

            She holds a wedding

            bouquet of living snakes

            Bees deposit honey

            into her lap

            Birdsong becomes

            elixir in a crystal vial

            A stag with diamond antlers

            stands in shallow creek water

Her house of dreams

is a living bestiary

herds, packs, flocks, schools

species, times, seasons, eons

are waves on the sea

rising, merging, rearranging

patterns of furred, finned

 feathered bodies

surfacing and receding

III.

When humans stood to walk

face forward, gaze level

the underside

~ belly, womb, heart ~

were exposed

vulnerable for the first time.

Rolling over

wolves submit

with a lowered head

tail tucked

underbelly soft and visible.

The woman rounds

her body, bends low

forehead on the ground

to bow bare

before the Sacred.

IV.

One sparrow

the weight of feathers

and a heartbeat

launches into flight

from a basket rim.

From my book A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditations on Sacred Ecology.  For Nature Inspirations to arrive in your inbox, scroll down to Subscribe.  And click on the Books tab to order your own copy.

Photo by Anastasiya Romanova on Unsplash

Become New Again

Now it is the time of Imbolc, an ancient Celtic feast that celebrates new life stirring underground. As seeds roll over in their winter sleep it is incumbent upon us as well, to awaken to our highest human ideals.  In these pre-springtime days let’s feel- into the crucial question “who can we become,” as a solution to our global crisis?  The earth is calling us to become new again!  

Importantly, it is not simply what we do, but also who we are as we act.  Let us learn new and ancient ways of being human, in right relationship with all life.  This consciousness will arc out in resonant fields and work in conjunction with all the good actions that must be done.

Together let’s pick up the primordial thread of Oneness and ~ through meditations, dreams, ceremony, through honor and gratitude ~ explore our biological-spiritual roots in the cosmos.   Let’s carry this thread of the sacred into the future.  We do this for our children, our children’s children and to the seventh generation.  

We bring with us not only the traditional wisdom regained through right relationship with all our fellow earthlings, but also the rich treasures our new science offers.  The ancient knowledge and new science converge at this time as a fresh chapter arising within the very old love story of earth and cosmos.  In collaboration with Gaia, we can help speak wholeness into being.

From my book A Litany of Wild Graces.  For earth inspirations to arrive in your inbox, scroll down and SUBSCRIBE!   https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org

Only Love is Strong Enough

Only Love is Strong Enough

We walk into a New Year which is filled with the terrors created by the prevailing Story of Domination and Exploitation.  Yet the very ancient seeds of healing and wholeness, which have lain dormant for centuries, are stirring underground.  These ever-new, ever-eternal energies are too subtle to be caught in the web, the glare of news media and social media….yet they are powerfully awakening and a chorus of voices is singing this new birth into being.

“Wild, uninhibited love is the single force powerful enough to send us head over heels, out of our minds and into our bodies; to bring us home to our senses. The enchantments of the senses ~ the same magic used by the flower who seduces a honey bee to carry pollen for his petalled love ~ hope to entice you to love the world in ways you have forgotten.  Carry this breath of devotion into the world….

To become bellows

that blow the spark of love,

kindling human hearts.

To set ablaze a love-fire

that burns out dead wood

~ domination, greed, exploitation ~

and leaves fertilizing ash.

To impregnate minds,

and midwife the birthing

of the new

To love the world is to walk the path of restoration and regeneration: a radical new-and-ancient relationship that sustains the one-being we have always been.   And now we become again.” **

Let’s begin the New Year with Martin Shaw’s words ringing in our hearts:

“What we need is a great, powerful, tremulous falling back in love with our old, ancient, primordial Beloved, which is the Earth herself.”

 With Love, Sharifa

 ** From my book A Litany of Wild Graces; click on the Books tab to order.

Early Winter Gratitude

Earth Offerings

In the spirit of Thanks-Giving, let’s turn toward the living earth and make offerings of gratitude.  A simple leaf, a seashell, a stone are sacred gifts we return to the Giver of all Life.  Our ancient ancestors gave honor and praise to the immanent deity.  Our original foundation is not separate from the earth, not a transcendent spirit removed from a mundane and fallen earth.  Rather spirit is present, permeating the animate and breathing being we call Gaia.  A nature altar can be as simple as a few late autumn leaves,  a unique stone, berries ripening on woodland vines. Every child knows this instinctively, stops to bend and touch, smell, ….to participate in relationship with an ant or a fallen leaf. 

We can return to this state of innocence; our children can lead the way.  Go outdoors into the park or woods.  Go slowly. Open into a soft gaze.  Reach out. Listen, touch, smell, breathe.  Allow wholeness to flow in. This can heal the past and shape the future..  Make an offering of our own heart and the beauty we see around us

Generations

bare winter branches

bow to cold winds

chimes chant prayers

summer’s hydrangea stalks

rattle sun-drenched thoughts

that skitter past frozen ferns

cardinals call from

dogwood’s silver branches

etched into winter’s brocade

poplar and spicebush

hickory and beech

employ mycelial spinners who

thread by thread

weave arboreal

connective tissue

make a living membrane

between pine and oak

red maple and magnolia

bring nutrition

give warning

nurse illness

interspecies collaboration,

or can we finally see

it is love.

My feet walk and sing,

I bow to

Gaian  ancestors

 who arise through

my soles

enter into human veins

which are not unlike

those of

sugar maple leaves

alluvial  spirits reweave

my connective tissue

make a living plasma

mend places

torn by the past

and weave as well

toward the future

interspecies collaboration,

or can I finally say

this is love.

From my book A Litany of Wild Graces: Meditation on Sacred Ecology

Go to the Books tab for more Earth Inspirations

Ten Favorite Spiritual Books

Hello Friends,

Autumn is the perfect time to begin to turn inward as golden, burnt umber, and crimson leaves begin their winter journey of slumber, and regeneration. The following is an idea to inspire your inner trek this year .

Recently I posted about a wonderful opportunity that came my way, and I want to follow up with you.  I had the great pleasure of being interviewed for Sandie Sedgbeer’s No BS Spiritual Book Club!  Sandie interviews authors about the ten most influential spiritual books that have shaped their lives and their work.  What an insightful adventure! To re-read my all-time greatest ten books was a time-travel journey! As I re-explored each book, I remembered viscerally, emotionally and cognitively my exact place and mood when I first encountered it. Rereading these favorites so many years later, I could remember the powerful Aha! moments I experienced. I also uncovered layers of meaning I missed at a younger age. Current books, as well as my classic favorites, have joined this list.

I hope you want to join me in this and I encourage each of you to meander through your own exploration of your “ten best!” Doing this is a heart-expanding entry into a life-review!  Walk over to your bookshelf now and begin browsing…. 

 My list of Ten Best has been posted on Sandie’s website here:

 https://www.sedgbeer.com/sharifa-oppenheimers-10-best-spiritual-books/

The interview will air this Thursday November 2, at 1:30 ET

See it here : https://www.facebook.com/sandiesedgbeer

Or watch the recording anytime after that, here

https://www.youtube.com/sandiesedgbeer/streams

I hope this adventure inspires you to move toward winter’s repose, to gather your books, curl up in a sunny window and begin to read.

Enjoy!

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Wild Graces News and Notes

 Hello Friends,

 I’m excited to share with you a few notes and updates from the world filled with Wild Graces!

Starting September 20th  I will be teaching a six month online course Brain Science and your Child’s Journey Toward the Self

in partnership with LifeWays, North America!  The following is from the LifeWays website:

“This exciting course, with Sharifa Oppenheimer, author of Heaven on Earth and With Stars in Their Eyes, will be a six month exploration of the gentle ways teachers and parents can bring cutting edge brain science into their classroom and home, to support the children’s finest brain development!

Six engaging multimedia lessons, with group discussion and valuable resources will be released the third Wednesday of each month, September through March (excluding December). Participants are also invited to join Sharifa for three Zoom conferences for face-to-face experience of the content and connection with the course community.” Here is the link for more info and to register.

https://lifewaysnorthamerica.org/workshops_training/brain-science-and-your-childs-journey-toward-the-self/

In the world of Wild Graces Poetry, my essay Sacred Place was published on the Biodynamics Journal Blog as well as in the hard copy Journal itself!  Please check it out here, for a deepened sense of the sacred in everyday spaces: https://www.biodynamics.com/blog/202301

I have the great pleasure of being interviewed for Sandie Sedgbeer’s No BS Spiritual Book Club!  What on earth is that?  Sandie interviews authors about the ten most influential spiritual books that have shaped their lives and their work.  What a fun adventure!  To re-read my all-time greatest ten books was a time-travel  journey!  The interview will be posted on her website in early November, and I will keep you posted for the date.  Meanwhile, you will want to visit Sandie’s multi-dimensional work here https://www.sedgbeer.com/the-no-bs-book-club/

Thanks for joining me in deepening our relationships to Family, Nature and Spirit! hope your autumn is abundant with joy and beauty!

Green Blessings,  Sharifa

Sunflowers by Eve Supica

You Are Invited

You are invited to join me and the Nature Evolutionaries!

Join me for a free webinar Thurs March 16th at 3:00!

Join me at the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries! Choose one event or join for both!! Here's what they are saying:

 We have two exciting opportunities to connect with Sharifa Oppenheimer coming up! 

Join our free webinar with Sharifa on Thursday, March 16 at 12 PT / 3pm ET : "Sacred Earth ~ Sacred Self"

Register here for free https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/teleseminars-1/2023/sacred-earth-sacred-self?fbclid=IwAR0VgulWD-q3gLDkElg-5H3UVR4HHp1ckPpxExvTRHA7q-G54ip3dE6vM6o  

AND, we invite you to participate in our upcoming Kinship with Nature course, with Sharifa Oppenheimer ~ March 21-April 25 

https://www.natureevolutionaries.com/kinship-with-nature-course

 Do you notice that your worries subside and your happiness quotient increases when you are in Nature? 

Perhaps your soul is whispering for growth and transformation! 

The Kinship with Nature course helps you discover your inherent relationship with the Elements and Realms of Nature. Through song, movement, story, breathwork, visualization and deep internal inquiry, your innate connection to the natural world will flourish. 

Springtime is the perfect moment to immerse yourself in the healing life-forces of Mother Earth. These are do-not-miss opportunities

New Year Wishes

Winter Forest

It is quiet and slow in the winter forest, at the dawn of this New Year.  Stop and breathe for a moment.  Join me as I walk the Winter Labyrinth; she is wearing her subtle colors and the song of the wind is low, sweet. I pause, reach down and….

For more poems, order A Litany of Wild Graces at https://bookshop.org.

Winter ~ Slow ~ Quiet

In winter dawn’s pure

shadowless light

            mountain’s north face

shapes emerge, recede.

Her slow pace stops

she bends

holds in her palm

the smooth

flat hip bone

            last winter’s venison

weathered to a richly

embroidered surface.

She sees synaptic deltas

of her mind

reflected in bone’s

fractalline calcium terrain.

Fingertips trace

its ivory in

ever repeating

diminishing

patterns.

She gazes soft, open.

Its infinite living form

refracts outward

visible in forest’s

fine tapestry

            stone, mycelium, bark

Her branching

veins, arteries

are reiterated

in bare winter’s

intricate, eloquent limbs

in reindeer moss

etched by crystals of frost

and velvet lichen

grown chocolate brown

on walnut trunk’s

north side.

A Child is Born

There are many winter stories from various traditions and cultures, especially within our temperate climate, which use the images of light being born out of darkness. For me the telling of these stories is a way to wrest the deep spiritual significance of the cyclic transformation of light, and its corollary importance in the human soul, from the societal marketers and money magicians. These stories image the transformation of consciousness, beginning with the story of the mineral kingdom in the crystalline formation of the snowflakes, moving through the plant kingdom, with the story of the little fig tree, and on to the animal kingdom in the story of the birds, and the animals’ speech.  The final one is the transformation of our humanity, the story of the “child of light.” ,  In each story, we see the central figure take a step in evolution; we see something brand-new appear.  I have been told these stories come from an ancient medieval tradition.  They are stories to delight and inspire! Here is the final one in this winter series. I hope you and your children will be warmed with the simplicity and beauty.

Once upon a time, on a cold and snowy winter day, an old man and  young woman started out on a long winter journey.  Their little sweet donkey carried their bags upon her back and so, they trudged up and down one snowy hill after another.  After they had gone a long way, the young woman said “Oh, my I am so tired, I don’t think I can go any further!”  But the old man replied “Never mind, my dear, I will carry our bags and the donkey can carry you”

            Mother and Father walk uphill and down

            Uphill and down, to the little town.

Mother on donkey all shaggy and brown

Father beside her with staff smooth and round.

Uphill and down, uphill and down

To the little town.

Finally, as the sun began to set, they saw in the distance the twinkling lights of the town.  Soon, they came to a small inn on the outskirts of town.  The old man said “Here we are, my dear, I am sure we will find a bed so we can rest and sleep.”  He went to the door of the inn and knocked, asking for a place to sleep. 

            Knock, knock, knock at the door

            “Is there room here to sleep,

On the bed, on the floor?”

But the innkeeper said

“No, no. No room at the inn

I have no room to let you in”

So they went on their way through the snowy dusk, looking for a place to sleep.  At each inn they said

Knock, knock, knock at the door

            “Is there room here to sleep,

On the bed, on the floor?”

But each innkeeper always said

“No, no.  No room at the inn

I have no room to let you in”

Finally they came to the last inn at the edge of town, and again they asked

            Knock, knock, knock at the door

            “Is there room here to sleep,

On the bed, on the floor?”

Again this innkeeper said

“No, no. No room at the inn

I have no room to let you in”

But now the innkeeper looked at the young woman’s face and saw how very tired she was.  And so he said

            But, my animals live close-by in a stable

            It has no bed, no chair, no table

            Upon the floor is straw and hay

There I’ll gladly let you stay

They  were so happy to have a roof over their heads, they went right into the stable.  The old man made a soft bed of sweet-smelling hay for the young woman.  Although the friendly animals came close to her, their warm bodies and breath were not quite warm enough.

            So, the old man began a fire to build          

            For the air was cold and chilled

            And to them this wintry night

Soon, very soon would come

            The Child of Light

On the hillside close by, shepherds were tending their sheep, preparing them to go to sleep.  When the sheep were cared for, the shepherds lay down and slept as well.

            Stars shone bright and brighter still

            Shepherds slept upon the hill

            But to them this wintry night

            Came an angel dressed in white

            The angel sang:

            “Shepherds, wake this holy night

            Shepherds, seek the Child of Light”

Shepherds shake their drowsy sleep

from this night filled with dreams so deep.

To them, again, this wintry night

sang the angel dressed in white:

“Shepherds wake this holy night

            Shepherds seek the Child of Light”

Finally the shepherds woke up!  The first one said

            “Child of Light, this holy night?

            A bottle of milk I’ll take”

The second one said

            “I’ll take some flour, to bake a cake”

The third one said

            “I’ll take soft wool, for a pillow to make”

So, they set off singing through the snowy hills

            “We have heard the angels bright

Singing in this holy night

Now we go to seek the Child

Little baby meek and mild”

Away they went, singing and dancing up hill and down, uphill and down.  Finally they saw a bright golden star shining in the cold night, and below it was a  humble stable.  They could see a rosy golden light pouring out from between the cracks in the stable walls, so the snow glittered in crystals.  They went and knocked upon the door

            “Open up the door we pray

            Shepherds we are from far away!”

When they went inside they saw that all of the golden light was shining from a new little baby that had just been born!  They brought their birthday gifts:

            The first one said “I beg you this milk to take”

            The second one said “I brought some flour to bake your cake”

            The third one said “I brought soft wool, for a pillow to make”

The old man and the young woman, the warm and friendly animals and even the stars were so happy to welcome the shepherds!  The all sat by the fire and smiled and smiled at the new little baby, who had come from so far above, down to the earth below.

A child is born, and by this birth, a rosy glow spreads over the earth.

 This is an adaptation of a circle-game offered by Janet Kellman many, many years ago.  Janet’s words are indented in verse.  Sharifa’s story-line ties them together. Many thanks Janet for inspiring decades of children’s Christmas dreams!

photo @isaacquesada

Light is Born into Darkness and all Earthlings Rejoice

And now the Solstice Light is with us!

We now celebrate with all our fellow earthlings, for the celestial corner has been rounded and Light returns! Minerals, plants, and animals rejoice.  We humans, whose bodies are composed of these living ancestors, give gratitude and honor to all creation.  These poems have come as gifts from the dream world; they arrived to me as visitors in the velvet night.  For more poems subscribe :  https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org  Click on the thread A Litany of Wild Graces, or order the book from the Books tab.  Happy Solstice to all!

Mineral

Hillside forest.

Spider webs are quilted sunlight.

Her veins open into this dawn.

Tourmaline crystals

tumble at her feet.

She is mineral.

Plant Woman

Her ancestral home

succumbs to fecund

silted flood waters.

A chair rocks slowly.

Lavender grows

in the palm of her hand.

Waters slowly rise.

Land Animal

Her hair becomes silk banners,

flags flying in mist-laden wind.

She dances on tiger’s back.

Jungle fronds sway,

green waves parting

as the she-tiger passes.

Human

We are composite

permeable form

a place

the world-spirit

travels through:

            minerals

            waters

            plants

            animals

            starfire

wind

all these

gather fragments of humankind

carry bits of our genetic alphabet

downstream or disperse them

on dandelion filaments.

We greet these guests

spirit embedded in earth

tend them

as they flow through us

know that elements borrowed

from star-born

ancestors will be returned

for our children’s

children.

Photo Kate Knott@a_clear_lens_photography

We honor the Animal Realm, as we approach Solstice.

#15 As we approach Solstice, this week we honor the Animal Realm.

A medieval principle of kinship invites us to imagine that all of nature….as well as we humans, feels rising anticipation for the return of the light. In the time preceding Solstice, week by week, each of the realms is honored and recognized as kin. In this vein, I offer you ~ week by week ~ a poem honoring mineral, plant, animal and human. These are from my book A Litany of Wild Graces. Click on the Books tab to order!

Animal

Wide cretaceous wingspan
heron descends in majesty
steps high
with ancient grace
through autumn’s garden stream.
Cool intense gaze
studies creek-bank
stream bed
plucks a
crayfish midstream
an elegant Asian woman
she reaches with chopsticks
to extract a plump water chestnut.
Woman moored at the window
a slight quiver trembles between
shoulder blades
as bird ascends
cruising
with slow deep wing beats.

Coyote prints in mud
bear scat amid birdseed
possum’s marsupial parenthood:
we bow to
their warm blood
salute the sun-being
who walks across
his blue arch
raying out beneficence
generosity.
The father of all incandescence
brings light
by the gift of fire.
Our limbs are warm
hearts ablaze
free.

Photo by Pixnio