The medicine of intertwined liberation
How beautiful is it that our liberation is bound up with each other and with the land?
How lucky are we that our acts of love and softness have ripple effects?
How trippy is it that as we heal, we heal backward, forward, and across our mycelial networks?
We are an extension of the Earth, and in this specific age of apocalypse we can use our imaginations to create a portal to a world in which we are careful with our intertwinedness, rather than careless with it.
I mean, what an absolute honor to be on a path toward freedom alongside owls, raging rivers, apple trees, and toucans. Alongside all of our relations.
In times of scarcity, bring yourself back to the abundance of a collective journey. In times of overwhelm, remember that we all carry this together. In moments of silence, hold that peace sacred for all of us.
Bring along your anger, your grief, your hurt so we can build a compost pile that lovingly creates fertile soil from all that burdens us.
“Getting free is about acknowledging the hurt, connecting to our anger, but also situating ourselves in deep love, and that love says everyone deserves to be free.” - Lama Rod Owens
I am in the process of creating a communally written prayer throughout this spring and summer. I invite you to comment, email me, DM me, text me, or mail me your addition(s) to this. The format is loosely:
We so loved the Earth so we ___________________________
and/or
And we so loved our planet while we ___________________
Please share the invitation with the young people in your life, the elders, the partners, the neighbors. When you submit them, please share the following information so I can include you in the credits of this creation:
What you want to be called
Your age
Your location
All parts of this prayer will be shared on ourmedicine.substack.com
A course I created titled Elder in training is up for grabs on my website.
Being an elder – and not just an old person – requires a lifetime of preparation and intentionality around your legacy. Eldership means healing and cleaning up your side of the road in your younger years so that you can guide the youths with clarity and from a well place. This course is designed by me, a hopeful future elder. Throughout the course, you will be invited to carve out time, space, and resources to imagine a future filled with elders who are well, centered, nourished, and woven into communities of care.
I, of course, don’t have all of the answers. Instead, I invite you to find your own unique set of answers as you plan toward eldership. I want a community to explore this with.