Contemplative Hiking

Earth Day marks the anniversary of a pivotal moment in time, when 20 million Americans took to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable relationship between humans and the planet. Earth Day founder, Senator Gaylord Nelson, proposed setting aside an official day on the calendar to commemorate the event. His efforts eventually led to [...]

During their time in the wilderness, there was symbolic meaning from things they observed from the weather, animals and the landscape that they interpreted in relationship to their own life. The “messages” they received told them of their purpose in life, revealed their special gifts and talents, and instructed them how to use those gifts to benefit their tribe when they returned.

This year, we have even more serious and global challenges in the form of climate change, peak oil and mass extinction of species. Although no one of us can solve the world’s problems all by ourselves, we can set aside the day to be mindful of our role on Earth, to think about how we may contribute to the healing of our planet, and to take small but important steps lesson our personal impact on the environment.

A mindfulness exercise to do outside during the blue moon on New Year’s Eve, 2009.

I designed a do-it-yourself winter solstice ritual around the concept of preparing a seed that will hopefully sprout and take root in the spring, both literally and figuratively.