Messages from the Edge
Sunday, February 11th
Earth Salon
I originally conceived of this Salon as a way of showcasing how collective members have learned to touch the earth. In the process, I discovered that this turns out to be how the Earth touches us. Like a gardener, I prepared the ground to see what would sprout. Here is what came to light.
We established a grounded foundation:
Anjie Cho – Earth Element and Feng Shui (recorded)
Anjie is a Feng Shui author and teacher living in New York City. Here, she speaks to the Earth Element: we would love to have her back to speak about Bagua and anything she wishes to share! Her latest book is Mindful Homes.
Jeff Scott – Touching the Earth (Recorded)
Jeff has been suffering from a lingering sickness while balancing this year’s Practice and Education wrap-up and goal-setting. He could not honestly commit, so I found a way to have him share through a chance interplay during the Shambhala End-of-Year practices. This question was posed, and it fit the criteria for inclusion in this session. Here, we speak of Touching the Earth.
Bob Cervelli – Earth Touching Us (recorded)
Again, not being able to commit to being here live, I went for the next best thing: asking for a recorded offering. Bob has contributed profoundly over the years and offered an almost perfect next step to Jeff Scott’s offering: Bob urges us to open the doors to having the Earth Touch Us!
Alfonso Taboada – Sharing Joanna’s 3-dimensions (recorded)
This year’s Don Season was particularly heavy for Alfonso. Though he was initially available, he was overwhelmed when I got back to him. Not being one to take no for an answer, I asked him if we could show the video he had once
shown me and thus be able to participate. He readily agreed. In his stead, we offer you, Joanna Macy, discussing the three dimensions of the Great Turning.
And we proceeded along a path:
Richard Peisinger – Portable Lhasang Kit (recorded)
Richard was booked for the Victory Over War series and could not commit to presenting. But he readily agreed to record his offering, which we accomplished with some ease. Richard chose to share his Portable Lhasang Travel Kit, which I am pretty sure may not be the best thing to try to take through airport security. But, as he suggests, build a kit and remember to take it with you on your nature excursions!
Dickie Swaback – Sit Spot (live)
Dickie Swaback (Swah-back) is no stranger to our Collective. We are very heartened to announce Dickie has joined the STEC Steering Committee. Dickie has been a continual source of inspiration, and here he shares the important practice of Sit Spotting’ or choosing a specific location and getting to know it intimately over the seasons.
Emily Takahashi – A Year of the Sun Ceremony (recorded)
Emily took the idea of the sit spot and found a way to incorporate Traditional Wisdom Thanksgiving practice. She describes her year (365 days) of welcoming the dawn and, therefore, getting to know both a time and a place. Had we had time, I had wished to introduce the Welcoming Dawn with a snippet from CTR’s 1979 Lecture, sometimes called the Fully Human talk
Bob Howard – contemplative gardening (live)
Forty years ago, Bob had me double-digging beds at Hedgerow Farms; it appears he still is at it today. By the way, that was a Cooper Beech and not a Copper Beach. And as much as I liked the root cellar, the scree bed in the Rock Garden made my bells ring. I agree that we must enter the garden and treat it like a natural sit spot. Let’s bring Bob back for a full Salon!
Which opened up the possibility of fruition:
Nicole Wolf – working with mushrooms (live)
Nicole and Ben run a mushroom farm here in Boulder. I thought how perfect it is to have mushrooms anchoring the fruition aspect of your Salon. She did not disappoint.
Don Hall – Imagining a future (live)
Don is a community builder and author. When navigating uncertainty, it helps to have a reference point to direct our compass toward. Don shared with us an exercise that helps establish our vision to provide us a sense of direction when chaos surrounds us-time only allowed him to describe the process. Hopefully, we can arrange a time to have him lead us through the process summarized in the shared document. The Visioning exercise would make an excellent Touching the Earth workshop. The document that Don shared may be found right here.
David Takahashi – Lessons from a Cow Herd
If we had time, I would’ve shared a story from my teenage years involving springtime, the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and a herd of cows. This will have to wait for another gathering of the Collective. The cows are a segue into an uncertain future: round and round we go, where we stop, nobody knows…