Beneath the crust of earth, seeds and bulbs lay in store.

Beneath the snow, life is bursting, preparing for the next season.

Like the sun moving toward the shortest day, each moment arises—and is gone before we know it.

Of course there are people behaving badly during this pandemic, using it as an excuse to practice prejudice, to hoard, to blame; using it to divide and weaken us, cashing in on surface tensions for their own terrible benefit. The news daily shows these heavy things....

My four-year-old daughter has taught me this lesson: when a child wants to derail Business As Usual— to curb the hubris of adults who dare believe in schedules and plans and productivity— one fierce little body and one clear, piercing voice, strategically applied to the right pressure point,...

The strength of water takes on many, many forms—just as each of you has a unique and necessary strength that you bring to our community and to the work of love. Take a moment now to drop down into the deep wellspring of your own spirit and bathe yourself in the strength that is the groundwater of...

We gather here to remember this is our home, but not just ours....

We pause as the path of the sun reverses, seemingly holding its place for a moment of turning. Let us delve into the gifts of darkness at the winter solstice. We follow curiosity and contemplation down into the cold earth, taking a journey to the world below the surface....

On my worst days, it is gravity I am most grateful for: the way the earth pulls at me from her core, yearns for me, keeps me pressed tightly against her surface. When my own core is hollowed out, when I have no more mass than a leaf dead on the branch, still this is enough for the earth to find me.

I invite you now into a time of meditation. You may wish to adjust your position: your feet flat on the ground, your body resting easily against the back of the chair, your hands gently open, palms up, resting on your thighs, your eyelids relaxed and half-closed, your breathing soft and easy.

The winter solstice is a time to look back upon our ancestors, gather our family and friends close, and rejoice in the return of the sun. It is a time of renewed hope and a time of resurrection – for just as Arianrhod’s Wheel turns and the Oak King resumes his rightful place, so must we go on.

A glass of tea sweats a circle of droplets on an old table Drying, they pull dirt and stain from the wood, leaving a ring Water makes its mark Deep in the earth, in a cave, a drop falls each minute Where it lands, a great pillar of white rock has grown up Water makes its mark On the surface above...

EARTH, clay from which we are made and to which we will return. Soil, rich and aromatic, crumbling in my fingers, dark under my nails. This, cleansing dirt, the natural filter for aquifers, holds life....

Once, many grey autumns ago, I came upon a tree. The tree, a poplar, had dropped all of its leaves but for one, just one. Exactly one leaf remained near the topmost part of the tree, fluttering in the breeze like a little reddish-brown flag....

In the pagan tradition, which is grounded in a respect and reverence for the natural world, calling upon the four directions is the usual way to begin any ceremony. Each direction is associated with an element of the natural world, and represents some part of our human nature as well....

Spirit of Life, Ground of our being, Root of unified mystery Growing into myriad branches of expression, Bring us together now....

When I begin to bless this food and close my eyes I lose myself first just in green: how do leaves grow themselves this green and how do they grow at all to be so large and how do they make themselves from soil which in itself is only brown and sunlight helps and water but how is the end of this,...

What does deep spirituality feel like to you? Spirituality is impossible to define and difficult to describe. For me, it feels like connection—connection to myself, to others around me, to the earth and all of creation. Connection to myself feels like deep peace, awareness, calm, authenticity.

We thank you sky for your blue, Also, breeze, for what you do: Everything simple, Undivided, And too ordinary to be tried as true. The sound of rain when we’re warm inside, Purple shadows on the mountainside, Help us to notice, Open our eyes, Give us grateful hearts, And unclinging minds. That we...

Spirit of Life, hold us in our pain and comfort us in our grief. Our grief feels boundless; our rage eats at us. We feel pain for all the wild creatures of the Gulf and the wetlands....