Blog #2, written by Kari Hamende
The second prayer, in a series of 2 Hemisphere Prayers celebrating the Season of Creation, took place via Zoom on September 8/9! Our Australian friends joined us from the southern hemisphere in their early morning on September 9, at the time when the other half of us in the northern hemisphere were entering into late afternoon on September 8.
Sally Neaves welcomed us to the prayerful space, reminding us that the lands, which all of us were on at that moment, are the lands of the First Peoples. As we all centered ourselves, connecting heart to heart, we remembered the gifts of the First Peoples: “storytelling, ritual and generous reciprocity, listening to earth.”
Kathy Sherman led us in her beautiful song, exploring our “blue green home,” which is a “community of life and beauty, diversity and miracles.” And, it is our call “to protect this sacred home for all.”
Our beautiful song together ushered in Pat Bergen’s reflection on the “Wisdom from our Planet.” She shared how wisdom is conveyed through the Books of Wisdom, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and through the Christian tradition:
…Lady Wisdom, Sophia…is mobile beyond mobile, She penetrates and pervades all things, She makes all things new, She deploys her strength from one end of Earth to the other ordering all things for good, She is the designer of all, She exists before all things and is at play everywhere in the cosmos.
Indeed, the wisdom of nature tends toward the whole “in a magnificent integral communion of diversity.”
Also, Pat shared a story about a dolphin/human encounter, which mesmerized the over 60 participants gathered:
There is a story of a scuba diver. As he is ready to go deeper a dolphin approaches and nudges him. He decides to follow the dolphin, finds the female mate caught in a net and giving birth. The diver knows the new birth can only live 10 minutes without air, so he immediately frees the female so she can give birth freely. The diver swims away. The male dolphin follows the diver and touches him on the cheek [as if to give him a kiss, thanking him for helping his mate]. The dolphin knew the human had the power to save his mate!!
It was something magical that allowed the mutual understanding between the dolphin and human, providing the time and space necessary for the birth and survival of the calf. What was this “something magical”?
This lingering question in everyone’s minds was silently brought into a meditation by Margie Abbot. We each connected to our breath, inner body, and we felt reverence for all that is – the wisdom within “me,” the bird song in the background, and feeling the Source within where Divine Wisdom leads. Individuals shared their one emerging word/phrase in the chat box; what followed were 68 versions of words describing gratitude, awe, wonder, connection, love, joy, listening, wisdom, whole.
We were then sent into small breakout groups to share the stories of each of our words. When returning to the whole group, we shared our “WE space” word/phrases.
After an additional moment of contemplative silence, to take in all that we had heard, we were invited to share from the whole what word or phrase was newly emerging; Pat recognized these final “WE space” words were in fact “calls” to all of us as we move forward in the weeks ahead – that we enter into:
* Deep listening
* Deep reverence
* Tender attentiveness to our interconnection
* Quiet sitting with Earth, and to listen to know how to speak with it and for it
We closed our prayer together, hearing again Kathy sing the words, “Planet Earth a home for all.”
If you weren’t with us for the second prayer, we invite you to join us next time! We would love to see you. By joining together, we are helping creation sing!
Download a PDF of blog #2. Please share with your friends.