Welcome to the first edition of The Journal of Elements and Seasons! I’m honored that you chose to be here. I’d like to begin with a brief introduction about my intention for this journal.
This is a place to write, share, and cultivate community. My work of late is poetry inspired by personifying the elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air in Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse about motherhood, mental illness, and joy. This collection is not yet published and I will share pieces of it throughout the Journal while I send to it various publishers with my fingers and toes crossed in search for that elusive “yes.”
Substack is a forum where writers offer the depth of their own work and engage community. While I am inspired by the elements and seasonal rhythms of the year, I will allow myself a certain latitude in what I write while keeping to the intention of reflections, poetry, contemplative prayers of the people, and creative invitations.
Kinship with Earth
A few years ago I sustained a concussion. In the early days after the injury when I couldn’t read or walk or do much of anything I lay on the couch and listened to Robin Wall Kimmerer read her bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. One of the primary ideas she offers is the wisdom of reciprocity. Earth cares for us and we have a responsibility to care for Earth. Our relationship to Earth is one of kinship not dominance.
I’d already begun personifying the elements in my poetry when I listened to Braiding Sweetgrass but I think the idea of Earth loving us informed many of the poems.
Sometimes I stand in the forest and feel a vast indifference, like nature doesn’t care about my dailiness. I feel shut out, disconnected, exiled. Other times I feel stone and water speaking comfort. I hear the woods and waves calling to me to come join them in existence.
Some days I am careless with Earth as I waste food or plastic packaging. Somedays my love looks like watering the plants, watching the community of birds outside my window, and taking the rotting food out to compost.
Kinship with Earth is like any human relationship. It requires presence, listening, attention, and perhaps, a degree of curiosity and storytelling. Sit next to a stream and weave a little dialogue. See the haggard look on the face of the cashier and wonder. Listen to stories told and untold. Remain open.
I offer this poem from Elements of Being. It is Earth’s voice introducing herself in the narrative, calling out the wisdom of kinship and reciprocity.
Earth
Weight of stone
Texture of soil and sand
Home to roots and rhizomes
that dispatch intelligence throughout
the community of forest and field.
She comes to me seeking solitude, wonder, provision—
all that is sacred and alive.
And I deliver the arc of seasons,
messenger spirits traveling on the backs of raven, redwing and chickadee,
morning dew and mountains that expand her heart for one more drop of love
bringing her back to those sad days when she stood empty and grieving.
Only now she feels joy for she has learned my secret.
To live in this world,
to incarnate,
is to always walk with
Earth and Sky, Wind and Water, Fire and Air
sorrow and joy.
These are the elements of our Being
And I am Mother to you all.
Creative Invitation
Before each Solstice or Equinox I set an intention for the season ahead as a reminder of how I’d like to be present and engaged.
My intention for this summer is Embrace Joy. Joy is different than happiness and exists in proportion to our ability to make room for sorrow, fear, loss etc. When I embrace joy I open to the full spectrum of human experience. I allow myself the dignity to feel down when I am down, frustrated when I am frustrated, calm when I am calm, full of wonder when the world makes me smile. I also seek the delights of summer: my son’s bright eyes and exuberance in the water, berries, time away, green tomatoes, wildflowers. In my prayer and meditation I hold space for those who are mired in circumstances so horrible that joy may feel impossible. I pray that by embracing my own joy that energy will spill over as loving, attentive, and purposeful action in a hurting world.
Your invitation for the month is to gather your journal, a piece of paper, or canvas, or perhaps sit with your knitting and contemplate What is my intention for this season? You might illustrate it or post it or meditate with it. Maybe there is a special object you could add to your altar if having one is part of your practice. Maybe it’s something you’d like to dance. I encourage you to keep it short and manageable; something you can let work on and through you in the days ahead.
Prayers of the People
The other aspect of this Journal is inspired by my favorite part of the Episcopal liturgy called Prayers of the People. I started writing these for the Contemplative Prayer services at Abbey of the Arts where I work (we call them Prayers of Concern). I will offer one each month with the opening reflection for free subscribers and a second mid-month prayer and supporting creative prompt for paid subscribers (and maybe an additional poem if I can manage it).
This month’s opening prayer is drawn from one I created for the Abbey to accompany the coming of the season of blossoming and ripening. Inspired by the work of Simon de Voil, I use the word “Godde”oo with a gender neutral spelling.
Godde of Greening life, tend to our blossoming as we tend to the Earth. May our care for one another be one of reciprocity born from the knowledge that we are all kin in your Creation. Attune our ears to birdsong and the tender softness of grass underfoot. May our listening to all that is at play in this world extend to what is ignored. We ask for the courage to respond to the cries of our fellow beings pleading for relief from war, famine, injustice, and destruction of habitat. May our flowering bring beauty and justice, mercy and grace, as we move beyond our limited imagination and into your fertile, exuberant, Creative Joy.
With love,
Melinda
** All photos taken by me
So lovely Melinda. Thank you for adding your voice to raise our devotion to our home, our beloved Earth and all Her faces, Her elements.
I’m so thrilled to be connected with you through this format. I love being able to share in your creative life!