Autumn Rambles Day 3

An online resource from The Prayer Bench and used with permission

Focusing Thought
Robin Wall Kimmerer writes,
“We are showered every day with the gifts of the Earth, gifts we have neither earned nor paid for: air to breathe, nurturing rain, black soil, berries and honeybees, the trees that became this page, a bag of rice and the exuberance of a field of goldenrod and asters at full bloom.” (- “Returning the Gift”)

Reflection
Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.  As you ramble today, find a place that invites you to pause and soak up the atmosphere. Open your heart to earth loving you and let this be your prayer.

The Practice
Take a moment to read this poem "Blackberry Eating " by Galway Kinnell.  You can also listen to it by clicking on this link:
https://poets.org/poem/blackberry-eating
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.
After your ramble, write your own poem, prayer or hymn of gratitude for a gift of Earth or blessing that you see around you.

"Let us thank the Earth
that offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies."
John O'Donohue