Listening to the Land, Listening to Ourselves: Kardia Conference in Melbourne
Two weekends ago, on my birthday, I led a workshop, called "Listening to the Land, Listening to Ourselves" at a Spirituality Conference in Melbourne run by Kardia. The conference title was "Imagining ourselves in a Spiritually Expansive World".
In my session LISTENING TO THE LAND, LISTENING TO OURSELVES we looked at the what it means to be Australian - to be sharing the land now with those who have been here for up to 80,000 years and have the oldest continuing cultures in the world! Participants came on a walking meditation out into nature at the grounds where the conference was held and we learnt some ways to connect with the natural world, right where we were.
In the workshop room, I created a centrepiece which expressed some of elements of the many stories we carry - those from lands where our ancestors came from and those where we find ourselves now. My hope is that as we learn more about Australia's first people, we can increasingly journey alongside one another - that is the expressed hope of Miriam Rose Ungunmerr who wrote the Dadirri reflection where she speaks about this. http://miriamrosefoundation.org.au
It was lovely to receive written feedback from the workshop such as:
"Awe-inspiring – the invitation to commit to earth and allow earth to teach", and
"Sitting in the rub between western culture and an ancient way of time and spacious listening".... and
"...personally touching – my deep yearning for connection".
For me it was hugely satisfying to delve back into my Masters study and bring together this material in a workshop that would offer people a space to connect to the natural world in a "felt sense" - to parts that we can connect with when we slow our minds down and connect through our senses to nature - that help us to feel the deep spring that is in all of us, and connect with a feeling of wholeness and expansive connection to Life.
During the slow walking mediation, people were awestruck by the beauty and detail of "ordinary" trees and their bark, the sensation of the air on their faces, and the feel of the Earth under their feet that busy minds and lives often obscure. It was great fun!