Sacred Sharing - Hannah Helms

Each month at our Monday Meditations, our community gathers for connection, conversation, and mindful practice that invites us each to deep engagement with sacred spaces in the living world wherever we are. This time is grounded in reflection on the week’s Note from Nature and by short exercises of contemplation and attention. These opportunities to be together as a community, to pause at the start of each month for guided practice has become a beautiful feature of our ongoing exploration of spirituality in nature. 

At the close of our time together in these monthly calls, we reflect on some of the gifts and insights gleaned in our practice. Through this rich sharing, community members take a cue from the wilder world, serving as far-journeying pollinators seeding growth and abundance beyond any limitations to imagining.

A record of the wisdom shared in this space would fill volumes. And perhaps it should!

May this reflection from our friend Hannah Helms of Kentucky be the first of many sacred sharings from this special community:

I am blessed to live in the woods, to be surrounded by trees, trees that speak to me when their leaves rustle in the wind, trees that invite and shelter a variety of birds that typically form a chorus this time of year. But sadly, I am now 73 years old, and my hearing has been failing for many years. Hearing aids are my lifeline when it comes to maintaining communication and hearing what humans have to say, but they are mostly inadequate when it comes to hearing what my feathered friends have to say. 

Yes, I can still hear the fussy wrens and nuthatches, the loud caws of the crows when they decide to visit. I can also see and hear the friendly chickadees and titmice as they visit my feeders. But to my ears, warblers and many others are silent as they pass through my woods each spring and fall. I would not even know they were near if it were not for the miracle of modern technology! The Merlin app hears what I cannot. It names these visitors and displays them on the screen for me to read. 

While I am sad that I cannot hear them to help me catch a glimpse of their brightly colored bodies high in the green canopy, I get immense satisfaction just knowing they are there and that my woods are providing food and respite during their long journey… 

Our next monthly Monday Meditation is June 8 at noon ET. We hope to see you there, and hear your sacred sharings.

Register here.