{Biosphere} Humble & Awake

“Look well to the growing edge. All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such as the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men (+ women, non-binary) have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of the child – life’s most dramatic answer to death – this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!”

—  Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

Main Movement Meditation

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Planning and Pairing Ideas:

• Pre-plan one or two walks/rolls/strolls with the guided meditation alongside a group of people (family moving together, two families/couples, social/groups, colleagues, teams). Have each individual listen to the meditation together at the same time. You might consider doing this in a large park or have a simple route identified so people can easily find one another after the meditation. I would strongly suggest (and you might be doing some of this already on Holy Saturday) that the primary practice is in silence... listening to the meditation and then the group continues in reflection and silence, perhaps with the self-guided prompts below. Then, reflect as a group for the last third or quarter of your time together.
• If you are in a situation where you are with kids and children, you (adults or young adults) might listen and practice the meditation beforehand for yourself. From there, you can find ways to integrate some of the invitations with your kids. For example, you might invite them to say to themselves “humble” as they step with their left foot and “awake” as they step with their right foot. You can explain gravity to them and ask them to reflect on why don’t we just “fall the ground all the time?” What keeps us going? What keeps us “rising up”? You can also say, why might it be important for us to not always rise up? To lay down on the ground? To listen to what gravity is possibly teaching us?
• {Same as WK 5} You can also set this up virtually. Invite a group of people to participate in this mediation at a set time. You know that energetically your group, family, and collective are out moving to this at the same time. Then, after, you can set up a conference call or zoom call to continue walking/rolling and processing together while on the phone.

Additional Practices & Meditations

• Into the Void Walking Meditation (via Insight Timer)
• Ways of Walking Series: Walking as Mystery: Moving into the spaces between. The fog. The complex relationships of the seen and unseen.
• Ways of Walking Series: Walking as Humility
• Ways of Walking Series: Walking as Vulnerability

Additional Resources:

• {Book} Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
• {Book} Joy Unspeakable by Rev Dr Barbara Holmes

Prompts: 

Consider writing one or a few of these down on a piece of paper. Take them with you both and if you are curious and interested, pull one out and read it first silently to yourself and then again out loud to your walking partner. You might cut them into pieces and randomly draw/split the prompts to read and guide some of your movement. Be open and attentive to what arises. Release the need to solve anything or arrive somewhere.

• As often as you can, or when you think of it: With your In-Breath: “I am Alive, I am Awake”. With your Out-Breath: “I am Humble, Humbly Moving on the Earth”.
• With the step of your left foot (or when looking to the left while rolling) honor your Humility. You might say to yourself “Humble” as you step. With the step of your right foot (or when looking to the right while rolling) honor that you are Awake. You might say to yourself “Awake” as you step.
• Take extra breaks in your movement to notice anything that might be blossoming from the ground or from buds on branches. See the details. See the slow growth. Invite this beautiful gift from Creation into your own journey of blossoming and growing.
• Consider saying and possibly repeating the following frames to yourself and to the world around as you move:
  

• I am enough. In my very breath.
• I am here. I am alive. I am awake.
• My shadows move with me. I must be humble.
• I have what it takes. I have what it takes to Rise. To Rise again.
• I am noticing what is blossoming, opening, and reaching in my heart. In my breath.
• As I move, I shed old skin that no longer serves me. I walk into new skin, into new life.
• Gravity wants me down on the ground. I honor my steps and my desire to keep moving, to keep living.
• I am enough. In my very breath. o I am here. I am alive. I am awake. o I am love.

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San Francisco & Bay Area Resources

•  The Great Highway from Lincoln Ave to Sloat Ave. - 4 miles round trip
• Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park - 1 mile loop
• Philosopher’s Way in McLaren Park - 2.7 mile loop
• McLaren Park - 313 acres of trails, paths, playgrounds, etc
• SF Crosstown Trail - around 17 miles but can be walked in sections
• AllTrails - database of trails
• Mount Davidson - start at Juanita staircase, up to the cross and around the mountain
• Glen Canyon Park