2024 May 26 Kinship with the Earth

Today at Starre’s Acres Learning Circle, Medicine Flower Alison McKim led “Inviting Kinship with the Earth”, which consisted of meditation, a lightly guided forest walk, and discussion. While all weather is good weather, today was an especially sweet sunny day filtered through the tall Oaks, Black Cherries, Tulip Poplars and Maples. We were invited to share our personal connection to nature. I stumbled around ideas when it was my turn to share. How could I (or anyone) condense my intense connection to the natural world into a few sentences? It’s everything. It’s ineffable.

However here I am every day trying to articulate this connection with words. I love to talk about nature. I like thinking about microscopic minutae of how ants find their path, to global concepts of the role of agriculture in modern society, or even existential topics that come up from a psilocybin trip. I never run out of topics.

Now that I’m focusing my life on my place in the natural world, I do need to work on my elevator pitch. I don’t want to use my career as my identity anymore. “I’m a teacher” was an easy answer for a long time. I could say I’m a Horticultural Assistant at the Zoo, or that I’m in Sustainable Agriculture, since those are my current occupations, but this is more of a life transition than just a career change. 

What do you call it when you want to do all of the things that humans do that improve the natural world around us? I think I put “Regenerative Ecosystems Advocate” on my new résumé.  “Advocate” is ok, but I need a stronger word. I’ll think about that.

The other folks at the Learning Circle had wonderful stories about their connection to nature. Other than the always articulate Medicine Flower, we all kind of stumbled around our words. I think more than a few of us are new to talking out loud about nature. For many of us, there’s something quietly spiritual about our connection. 

I like the word “kinship” that Alison brought up. For me it feels more like a “friendship”. When I see my old friends the Chives, or newer friends the Milkweeds pop up in the Spring I get the same kind of excitement as when a human friend comes to town for the holidays. I am happy when my friends do fun things like bloom or produce a fruit or change color or grow new sprouts! Sometimes new friends pop up out of nowhere! It’s really the same feeling as my interactions with my human friends. 

Today, the Catalpa bloomed! The blooms are so marvelous but also short-lived. It was very breezy, so the flowers were falling right off. 

My friendships also extend to fungi, insects, birds, animals and even seasonal weather. I keep popping my head out the door to see if my friends the lightning bugs have emerged yet. I can’t wait to see my first Monarch butterfly. Today I saw a Black Swallowtail on a dogwood tree. I heard my friends the Barred Owls discussing who will cook dinner tonight. I never feel lonely in nature because I’m surrounded by friends. 

This is my friend the Golden Oyster with my old friend Fern. These were found in my human friend Barbara Starre’s Acres.