Day 22 (Tuesday 7.12.22)
Nature is a great teacher, wise and infinite. There’s no use in arguing with her.
This season of summer offers us an obvious and inspiring model of growth that’s so much more interesting than those straight & narrow paths & ladders.
Here’s more of teacher, author, and activist Parker Palmer and what he has this to say about the lessons of the season and how growth is not always (ever?) a solitary endeavor:
“Where I live, summer’s keynote is abundance. The forests fill with undergrowth, the trees with fruit, the meadows with wild flowers and grasses, the fields with wheat and corn, the gardens with zucchini, the yards with weeds. … [S]ummer is a stead state of plenty, a green and amber muchness that feeds us on more levels than we know.
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This fact of nature is in sharp contrast to human nature, which seems to regard perpetual scarcity as a law of life. Daily I am astonished at how readily I believe that something is in short supply. If I hoard possessions, it is because I believe that there is not enough to go around. If I struggle with others over power, it is because I believe it is limited. …
Even in writing this essay, I have had to struggle with the scarcity assumption. It is easy to stare at the blank page and despair of ever having another idea, another image, another illustration. It is easy to look back at what one has written and say, ‘That’s not very good, but I’d better keep it, because nothing better will come along.’ …
The irony, often tragic, is that by embracing the scarcity assumption, we create the scarcities we fear. If I hoard material goods, others will have too little and I will never have enough. If I fight my way up the ladder of power, others will be defeated and I will never feel secure. …
In the human world, abundance does not happen automatically. It is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and share our common store. Whether the scarce resource is money or love or power or words, the true law of life is that we generate more of whatever seems scarce by trusting its supply and passing it around. Authentic abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles of food or cash or influence or affection but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others who need them — and receive them from others when we are in need.
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Here is a summertime truth: abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredibly complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and, in return, is sustained by the whole. Community doesn’t just create abundance — community is abundance. If we could learn that equation from the world of nature, the human world might be transformed.”
When we were kids, my mom would send we three sisters out to roam our neighborhood to “look for signs of summer” (or whatever the season was at hand).
Now a mother myself, I can imagine she was, herself, looking for a few moments of solace. But I have to believe her invitation held deeper wisdom.
Whether you’re “officially” meditating or not, see what signs of this season of growth you can collect to arrange in a special place in your home — your practice space or altar or simply somewhere you’ll see it often.
Wild flowers, wild grasses, berries, branches, everything beautiful and abundant that you can gather.
You can literally let this walk outside be your practice today.
And if you have more time for “official meditation” today, check out the 11 minute meditation below.
to abundance & community & all of summer’s blessings,
Cath
LEAVE A COMMENT: WHAT DID YOU SEE ON YOUR WALK TODAY THAt reminded you of your own growth?
DAY 22’s BODY-BASED Early Morning Meditation (11 Min)
DAY 22: QUIET EVENING WIND DOWN PRACTICE (18 MIN)
More time still? Check out the Deep Dive materials of Ignite/Invite.