About two months ago I took class on
Appreciative Inquiry for work. One of the main tenants of the philosophy is “what you
pay attention to, grows.” Last week I blogged about wanting to cultivate a less
mechanized and stress-based approach to living. I’ve known for a long time that
my online viewing habits are not conductive to a peaceful mental state, and I
finally committed to deleting all of my opinion news sites. I posted the
following message on Facebook about it:
“Today I
deleted my "New Sites" Favorites folder because clicking through the
articles in them just got too stressful. I do not need to start my morning
gulping News of Doom and Horribleness. I can figure out some other ways to stay
informed, but I don't want the angry energy of these sites in my mental space
anymore. I made a Favorites folder for spiritual practices...Druidism, Wicca,
Buddhism, etc. and will click through those with my morning coffee instead. I
want a more wholesome, nourishing internet breakfast--steel cut oatmeal instead
of Poptarts of Rage and Doom.”
This got a fair number of likes and lead to a spirited
discussion, not about the oppressiveness of the 24-hour news cycle but about…Poptarts!
Hey, Poptarts are nature’s perfect
food, and they’re a lot more fun to talk about than the broken state of
journalism in this country. Anyway, the point is that I want to start
consciously paying attention to things that will help me feel like less of
a victim to the circumstances I live and work under.
I recently listened to a podcast from the UK
with two Druids discussing fracking, something I haven’t paid
much attention to. I was completely appalled, but I was also deeply enriched by
the discussion. They talked in depth about how painfully and dangerously disconnected
we have become from our essential nature and about how the industrialized
world is toxic to our spirits. They discussed the problems inherent in moving from
a non-dualistic approach into a state where we see ourselves as completely separate
from each other, the natural world, and the ecosystems we exist in, to the
point that it’s considered morally upright to poison our land for short term
profit.
Off and on over the years, I’ve looked into
Druidism as a spiritual practice, but it always felt slightly archaic and
anachronistic to me. Nonetheless, once I even took a serious stab at it. It
didn’t pan out at the time, and I realize now that’s because the material I was
working with was written by a much older man in Scotland who lived in a very
different world than I did. The vegetation and trees required for the rituals
in the book out didn’t grow here, and one thing that does, Scotch Broom, I am
deathly allergic to. It was also very focused on the expression of male energy,
and felt out of alignment to my vibe. So, as is typical of me, I got huffy about it and
decided it just wasn’t for me. But as I’ve continued to read about Druidism, I've realized that there are numerous ways to practice it that don’t involve moving
to Scotland and making your own ritual dagger out of bones from a deer you shot
with a bow and arrow at the full moon.
I spend 50+ hours a week commuting through
downtown and working in one of the most dangerous parts of the city in one of the most complex industries in existence--health care. I don’t open
my door to a view of a natural stone grove, cavorting stags, and towering redwoods.
But still, I think there must be some way to integrate the practice of honoring
all life and respecting my environment; a patch-made practice of urban nature spirituality.
--Kristen McHenry
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