We all have innate sensory abilities that link us directly to the natural world. I recently taught a two-session Zoom class on plant communication. There were twenty-two students in the class from all parts of I’ll the world, all with different types and levels of sensitivities and experience. In the class, I gave a wide variety of ways to open up to nature and the plant world to receive information, messages, and lessons.

When you see animals grazing, they’re not just stopping in one spot and eating a whole bunch. They take a few little nibbles of the tips and then move on to the next plant, and in the process receive enormous amounts of information about adaptation and how to best physiologically prepare for coming events.

When the princess, Rose, uncovers the secret of her lost brothers, she embarks on a journey to find them, vowing to undo their enchantment. Her quest relies upon the help of wise elders, the length of the summer Solstice days, the guidance of dreams, the potency of nettles, and her own innocence, persistence, and skill in handwork.

Whenever I am guided to plant a seed in my garden and watch it sprout, grow and bloom, I feel as though I am witnessing one of nature’s many miracles. This is alchemy in action - the transformation of one small thing (a seed) into something much larger (a root, a flower, a medicinal herb).

The gateway of moving into heart space with nature is gratitude, and we can decide to bring more gratefulness into our lives and experience more joy. An excellent place within our daily rhythms to cultivate a steady stream of gratitude and to grow our connection with nature is in our relationship with our food.

The magical under-world journey of Thomas the Rhymer has been preserved in ballads and Scottish oral tradition for hundreds of years.

Everyone knows that seeds are magic. From Jack and the Beanstalk to the Biblical grain of mustard to marigolds in paper cups on a kindergarten windowsill, they provide a common and predictable miracle, a metaphor for potential, and a symbol of hope. They hold a sacred place in many religions, and humanists find them useful and evocative in expressions like 'seed money,' 'the germ of an idea,' 'finding fertile ground,' and so on. By working and playing with seeds, we touch the living future of the material world.

As I breathe and flourish as nature, I have evolved as a pattern hunter and explorer, working at the human’s intersection between the individual and the collective, focused on relationships, collaborations, and behavior change.

A Nature Evolutionary shares a timely article about working with fear and the help she received from her spiritual connection with the land.

Snags are where owls hold secret meetings and woodpeckers expertly stalk insects and a zillion microscopic worlds turn round. I sensed their underworldly importance as a keystone species of sorts, something dead but upright and life giving. Always leave a snag standing.

Come follow the adventures of the girl who must save an enchanted prince, through daring and cleverness and hardship, but also with the help of the ancients and the four great Winds.

Reflections from the Ancestors Connection and Healing Ritual from ONE member Rev. Tamara Grenier

Like most Druids, I have a deep kinship with the standing ones. They are my kin, my teachers, my friends and neighbors. They remind me how to breathe, to align, to connect, to give and to let go. As each one drops, my heart jumps in my chest. I pause, look, and give my thanks and blessings, again.

A drought has brought a famine to the Hopi people of Oraibi. When everyone abandons the village to travel in search of food, two children, brother and sister, are left behind. To console his sister, the boy fashions a toy hummingbird from a sunflower stalk. Then the magic unfolds.

Our blood calls us back to knowledge that is much, much older than time. Our blood is the memory of countless generations, all the way back to our common grandmothers of long ago.

All people in their indigenous practices, traditions or ceremonies, have rituals of connecting to nature to enforce the energy of sacredness. Through their prayer, chants, songs or mantras, they reconnect with the ancestral energies. Unfortunately, not all of us have had access or knowledge to these ancestral ways, and others have disconnected from these ways or have been taught that they were not significant. The teaching of In Toque Nahuaque, or being connected to one’s sacredness, begins simply with you choosing to create a sacred space and time for yourself.

We are offering a series of told stories for your enjoyment, healing, unwinding and leaning into the ancestral wisdom passed through tales, myths, and legends. In this story, “The Healing Leaves”, the great-hearted, but perhaps not-too-sensible hero, must overcome overwhelming obstacles to procure healing leaves.

The instinct to rush back to our “normal” lives is understandable, especially for those who are suffering the loss of their livelihoods, but do we really want to go back to the frenzied state of dis-ease we have been conditioned to feel is necessary for survival by our economy of extraction?

We are offering a series of told stories for your enjoyment, healing, unwinding and leaning into the ancestral wisdom passed through tales, myths, and legends. "Mountain Pears", a tale from Japan, tells the adventures of three brothers who undertake a quest for the mountain pears to help their beloved mother heal from a mysterious illness.