Based on the poem of the same name by George Ella Lyon I am from lakes and waters, goose poop and ponds From rowboats and ice skates, growing snapping turtles in the garden I'm from wild raspberries in August, and climbing apple trees, Grandmother Willow who listened to endless songs sung on the swings. I'm from homes and hideouts in the trees. I'm from GM, Ford, and Farmall, old car smell and gasoline, pickup trucks and bluegrass. I'm from Saarinen and Booth--a love of beauty, learning, Nature. I'm from counterpoint and polyrhythms, Figaro and Rite of Spring, the musty smell of Orchest ..read more

From my time at the Rising Earth Immersion, I've compiled and synthesized some intentions and agreements that you might like to use as a starting place to co-create agreements within your own community. None of these are my own original ideas. I've tried to cite sources as best I can. Many of these ideas come from Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown. For terms like "connection", "belonging", "courage", "vulnerability", and "resilience", see the work of Brené Brown. Community Agreements Intentions: collective liberation (term coined by bell hooks) Dream big. Practice visionary fiction ..read more

Friday 21 August 2020 ​​I had a wedding today. I didn’t know it was going to happen when I woke up this morning. I had at one point planned to get married today. He and I got engaged a little over a year ago, and then in February it fell apart.   But as my friend Addie reminded me, “Things fall apart so something else can fall into place.”   In February, with my life suddenly wide open and absolutely no plans, I enrolled in a program a friend recommended called the Rising Earth Immersion at The Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain. First I spent a few weeks leading a backpacking trip ..read more

I am heartsick. I've been separated from my loves.   Yesterday I left my fellows—my comrades, my family. I carry with me our “thick, tattered web of bonds,” tied lovingly around my wrist. My phone has become a sacred tool, the one I use for reaching out, for seeking reassurance that they are still Real. I cannot help but worry that it was “just a dream”—that “in this world they too should turn out to be played by actors” (Morgan Hite, “After the Adventure”). But I sense that’s not true. There is something deep about our bonds. Our roots are intertwined.   We have become part of a li ..read more

Written by Brian Shircliff, originally published on vitalitycincinnati.org grief: because to return to old ways of life only leads to death ​i grieve i grieve the ill the dead those who care for them for those who wish they did i grieve for ones who have not yet awakened that this is a brand new day but most of all i grieve my life, for what i missed in living long before the outbreak made us revisit mortality (how stupid could we be to forget) i grieve my old life, embarrassed by the clutchingness, the grabbiness, the overindulgyness …all of it having so little to do with life somethi ..read more

My body is strong and healthy. My hips and shoulders carry my pack, and my strong legs carry me up and down hills. My fingers, hands, and arms are adept at setting up tarps and cooking dinner. I feel good in my body. It is a pleasure to move. I take care of my body, especially my feet and hands, for I have learned I can do little without them. I attend to scrapes, bruises, circulation, and sensation. I eat when I am hungry, knowing I need the calories to fuel myself. I drink water plentifully, knowing dehydration is one of our biggest risks. My clothes are functional. They keep me warm and d ..read more

I recently led a backpacking trip for high school sophomores. Often we would catch up to the sophomores to find them sitting on the ground looking discouraged. "What's going on?" we'd ask them. "What happened?" "Well I feel like maybe we missed something or we passed it." Their reply always included something about the distance on the map to the junction or the campsite and their sense of how long and how far they'd hiked. (Often it had only been 15 minutes since they last stopped.) But of course, they had no watches to tell time and no way to measure distances. Most of the time they w ..read more

I'll talk about this more on my Facebook page, but I wanted to share some links to resources for what we're all navigating these days. Take what you need; disregard the rest. Don't try to do everything at once! Breathe. Just do what's easy. I also want to acknowledge that everyone's experience with this is different. Some of us are luxuriously quarantined with nothing much to do, some are working more-or-less as usual, and some are very ill, worried about finances, food, safety, or on the front lines dealing with the virus. Again, take of this what's relevant to you, leave the rest, and ple ..read more

Cultivating A Movement-Rich Lifestyle By Rivkah Moore As I sat down at my sitting desk, computer screen on, blank page ahead, and ready to write, I could feel a rising resistance in my body. My awareness was telling me that my body wanted to move. However, my mind was telling me that I needed to sit down in order to write. Normally I would’ve listened to my mind, suppressing the resistance felt in my body, but because of the Awareness Through Movement classes that I’ve been enjoying biweekly there was no way I was going to stifle this new-found awareness that I’ve been cultivating. I wanted ..read more

​People often wonder how I got into Feldenkrais or why it’s so important to me. So here’s my story:   I discovered Feldenkrais as a student at a chamber music festival one summer where it was offered as an elective. When you’re in a field that’s that competitive, you take advantage of every opportunity that might help. I enjoyed the classes and found that Feldenkrais was offered at the university I attended, so I signed up.   I was always stressed and anxious about school, and I slowly found that the Feldenkrais classes helped me feel more centered and on top of things. I learned to ..read more