The following resources were gratefully shared at the OneLight Gathering on Friday 11th August 2017 at London's monthly Interfaith Ceremony, generously hosted at Notting Hill's Essex Unitarian Church.
READINGS
Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Peace is all around us -
in the world and in nature -
and within us -
in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace,
we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith;
it is a matter of practice.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Green Gulch Farm
by Wendy Johnson
Plants and animals in the Garden,
We welcome you - we invite you in - we ask your
forgiveness and your understanding. Listen as we
invoke your names, as we also listen for you:
Little sparrows, quail, robins and house finches who
have died in our strawberry nets;
Young Cooper’s Hawk who flew into our sweet pea
trellis and broke your neck;
Numerous orange-bellied newts who died by our
shears, in our irrigations pipes, by our cars, and
by our feet;
Slugs and Snails whom we have pursued for years,
feeding you to the ducks, crushing you,
trapping you, picking you off and tossing you
over our fences;
Gophers and moles, trapped and scorned by us, and
also watched with love, admiration, and awe
for your one-mindedness;
Sowbugs, spitbugs, earwigs, flea beetles, woolly
aphids, rose-suckers, cutworms, millipedes
and other insects whom we have lured and
stopped;
Snakes and moths who have been caught in our water
system and killed by our mowers;
Families of mice who have died in irrigation pipes, by
electricity in our pump box, and by predators
while nesting in our greenhouses;
Manure worms and earthworms, severed by spades,
and numerous microscopic lifeforms in our
compost system who have been burned by
sunlight;
Feral cats and raccoons whom we’ve steadily chased
from the garden;
Rats whom we poisoned and trapped and drowned.
Deer, chased at dawn and at midnight, routed by
dogs, by farmers, by fences and numerous
barriers;
Plants: coloured lettuces, young broccoli, ripe
strawberries and sweet apples, all of you who
have lured the animals to your sides, and all
plants we have shunned; poison hemlock,
pigweed, bindweed, stinging nettle, bull
thistle;
We cal up plants we have removed by dividing you
and separating you, and deciding you no
longer grow well here;
We invoke you and thank you and continue to learn
from you. We dedicate this ceremony to you. We
will continue to practice with you and for you.
Closing Prayer
Thank you, Earth, for living sustenance;
for allowing us to experience physical life.
We bow to the ancestors who carved pathways
of survival through the wilderness.
With gratitude for opportunities, we uphold
the present moment,
preciously cupped in our own palms.
We meet the
benevolence of Divine
Creativity with our active choices.
Because our thoughts and actions
shape the future we ask for
encouragement and inspiration.
As we share our planet with all of life,
may we make decisions that
grow from the heart of
Wisdom and respect.
We pray for our planet’s waters, air and soil, and for its diversity.
We pray for people in need;
for people who experience disaster and violence;
for those who have died and those who are born now.
We ask for healing for the wounds that come with
learning and growing together.
May we receive
the blessing of All That Is upon
our precious, beating hearts
and may our great Earth
be truly respected and blessed.
