Sacred Sit Spot Practice #1
/“A good way to start thinking about nature: talk to it, talk to the rivers, to the lakes, to the winds as to our relatives.”
Find a spot outside this week, a place you are exposed to the elements and can watch animals and insects. This could be in a wilderness area, neighborhood greenspace or park, your own backyard or front porch stoop, or even a balcony or designated balcony where you can see outside. For this practice you are intentionally distancing yourself from other humans so you can focus your senses on all of the wild others that also occupy that space.
Spend at least 30 minutes getting to know the place with all your senses, consciously waking up your animal body. Notice the lay of the land, what the air feels and smells like, where the wind comes from, how the water (if any) moves. Which plants, animals, and insects live there?
After you have spent time noticing the landscape with your senses, introduce yourself to the place. This of course will feel strange, and that is okay! We are discovering that anything “normal” is subjective and fleeting anyway. Verbally articulate who you are, where you come from, even why you are to your place. See if anything happens in response - at first nothing may, because places need time to know us. As John Fire Lame Deer (Lakota) said, “A good way to start thinking about nature: talk to it, talk to the rivers, to the lakes, to the winds as to our relatives.”
You are beginning the practice of seeing the land and wild ones as what Thomas Berry would call, “a community of subjects, not a collection of objects.” The simple act of deeper noticing and self-introduction begins the critical shift needed to see creation as a community with whom we can be in communion. This is essential for creating your wild sanctuary.