A note from Erin:
Hello, beautiful human,
I love this sacred time of year, half way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. I’m sending Beltane blessings your way. It’s also the special time of year when our beautiful boy was born at home 15 years ago.
Last night during one of my Women Embodied groups, someone said, “I just love how beautiful and magnificent this life is.” Then she paused. And added, “And also how shitty and hard. And also how fucked up and also how magical.” Ain’t it so? My heart heaved a sigh of relief with the inclusive truth of her statement.
In most any group I convene, at some point I’ll nudge the conversation toward noticing what beauty is giving us ballast. Sharing these moments with each other nourishes us all. Our brain’s negativity bias makes beauty so easy to miss in the midst of (gesturing widely) all of this. None of this is to sideline our grief or distress, but to give ourselves the necessary ballast to meet it.
What beauty is giving you ballast these days?
A few of my recent beauty moments: Noticing the tender pale green leaves unfurling on our young ginkgo tree that made it through its first winter. (yay!) Admiring the singing house finches, gold finches, chickadees, and sparrows at our porch feeder. Watching a young fox squirrel with the shiniest black eyes climb up to take a drink from the bird bath in our urban front yard. The indescribably cheery orange of the California poppies that have just opened themselves fully to the sun, and will curl in on themselves tonight as it sets. Standing in front of our ancestors’ altar as a family, offering thanks and love to our lineages on the evening of our kiddo’s birthday, asking for their continued shower of blessings on his life and thriving, and feeling that timeless connection so vibrantly alive. In one of my groups, witnessing someone who had been so uncertain and shy blossom into inhabiting a radiant felt sense of belonging. I can still see her smile.
An excerpt of a piece I wrote recently over on
Substack:
“What if we allowed ourselves to be stretched into the wholeheartedness and openness found in the span between the great opposing poles?
Grief and praise.
Gratitude and the ache.
Sharing our unique medicine and becoming ordinary.
Reclaiming our inner authority and growing our humility.
What if we stretched between action and rest? For most modern people I know, it takes at least as much courage to stop the manic productivity and rest as it does to make bold actions.
What if we stretched between intimacy with others and quiet, spacious solitude?
Between intentional movement and intentional stillness?
What if we stretched between bearing witness to the horrors of the times and leaning fully into the beauty of the times?
Between allowing heartbreak as we witness the harms and dreaming up bold visions for a beautiful future?
Between speech and silence?
Spirit and soul?
Ancient ways and emergent ways?
Generous self-compassion and rigorous self-examination?
Between embodied presence focused on our own bodies, and embodied presence that is rooted in deeply remembering ourselves as embedded in the great web of life, remembering Earth as our greater body?
Between learning and sharing what we know?
Between right effort and relaxed pleasure?
As my friend Francis Weller often says, we are being invited to become immense. Not immense as in taking up all the space in a room. Immense as in making space for all these multiplicities.”
May it be so. May we remember to keep including what we love, even and especially the tiny, ordinary beauty moments – those filaments of connection that weave a life. May we invite them from others and share them generously. Beauty is ballast, and especially important during times like these.
My beloved and brilliant heart-friend
Leilani and I are happy to invite you to join us to go deeper with
Beauty as Ballast for a few hours this Sunday.
While it’s true that we ourselves are really looking forward to our 3-Sunday
Take Heart series, rather than tell you too much about why
we are so excited, I’d like to share some reflections from recent participants to give you a better idea of what these “workshops” are all about.
Just reading these words is ballast for me!
“I felt more grounded. More able to sit with myself and others during these VERY VERY challenging times. And to hold space for those who I feel angry at. This has been very nurturing, supportive of mental and spiritual health. Very grounding and it can give a “bigger purpose” and guidance when one feels scared, lost and confused. I am SO thankful for your deep work that shows, and that you so willingly and lovingly give and and want to share. I feel seen, heard, and held. Safe space. Sacred space and community building in very troubling times.“
– Andrea B., Utah
“I now have more acceptance of others who hold different beliefs, values. A deeper connection to Gaia. Accepting all the small changes that occur from my efforts. Such sweet gift received of care, comfort, connections, learning, and growth. Thank you both for bringing these needs with you.”
– Kelly O., Wisconsin
“I’ve realised if I see from other minds (eg. ancestors, other beings) that the world narrative changes dramatically and I have words to say what I’ve been dying to say but have not been able; I’ve started bringing these perspectives into conversation with friends and loved ones where before I was afraid to speak up.”
– Sharron M., Homemaker, Mother, Sailor, Australia
“DO IT! You will never be the same! Erin, I’ve done groups with you and this one was as life-giving as the others. Leilani, I’m so happy to have been in this group with you as a co-facilitator! You two working together are more than the sum of your parts and WOW! That’s saying a lot.”
– Bobbi M., Social Worker, Utah
“I loved being in the group and that your facilitation seemed to flow with the wonderful grounding at the beginning, the gorgeous beauty as ballast that set a sacred tone of why I’m here, lesson and song and movement and discussion all intermixed. I feel that I am growing into the person I want to be, and I know I will continue to stay connected with the Work that Reconnects. I looked forward to this time on Sunday each week. It was a very sacred time for me. Thank you, thank you.”
– Lisa H., California
“I feel more light-hearted and I allow myself to be so more often. Thank you so much for your openness, sincerity and truly amazing facilitation. I love how lovingly the two of you work together.”
– Mirjam R., Facilitator & Mediator, Germany
“I fell more deeply in love with the earth with every session. Having experienced so much joy and healing through these earth centered practices it has flowed naturally from me that I want to look at how I am interacting with earth, using her resources and protecting her beauties. To anyone considering signing up, yes! You should do it! It will shift your perspectives on life and perhaps why we are really here?”
– Corinne J., Social Worker, Utah
“This is the type of workshop and time together that feels so incredibly important right now. Afterwards, I felt more connected to myself and life, which is such a gift during these times. The care and presence that Erin and Leilani brought to the group (along with all the dear ones who joined), the shared beauty and togetherness that was created, and the wonderful practices shared really created a sense of ground and resourcefulness for me. I can still feel it lingering within me. Deep gratitude to you both for the medicine you offer the world.”
– Lauren R., Georgia
“What a tender and strengthening gift these deep times were. Still ringing in my heart. Grateful to have these resources.”
– Brooke K., Therapist and Educator
Click here to learn more and register to join us! We’d love to have your company for a few hours as we gather on Sunday.
We’ll begin this Sunday with Beauty as Ballast. This day is all about resourcing ourselves as we harvest, in an embodied way, the abundant gifts in the wide, wild world and in our ordinary lives. We’ll practice becoming permeable to the beauty and the goodness present in our lives, so easy to miss when we are distracted and distressed. Beauty offers ballast to help us meet the times as our most well-resourced selves.
You’re warmly welcome to join us for 1, 2, or all 3 Sundays. All will be recorded for those who can’t attend live.
If you know an earth-lover, protector, caregiver, regenerator, healer, activist, artist, or ordinary good human who might appreciate this offering, we’d love it if you’d forward this email to them.
As beloved writer Brian Doyle wrote, “You cannot control everything. All you can do is face the world with quiet grace and hope you make a sliver of difference. You must trust that you being the best possible you matters somehow. That being an attentive and generous friend and citizen will prevent a thread or two of the social fabric from unraveling.” May it be so. And whether you join us or not, may you find great ballast in the abundant beauty that still abounds in the midst of the mess.
From my heart,
Erin
p.s. I’ve included links below to some of our other upcoming offerings. Carl and I are so fortunate to get to be in nourishing communal spaces with so many wonderful human beings and we warmly welcome you to join us anytime.
p.p.s. Thank you, as always, for making the world a more kind, supportive, and soulful place for all.
