First, find a quiet and sacred place. Even if you’re in a crowded room, sit with an uplifted but relaxed posture. Spend a few moments to rest your mind. Focus on your breath. Relax in the moment. Breathe in your own sacred presence and be at ease. When you’re ready, take 7 long, deep, mindful breaths.
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I begin by taking seven breaths to honor the seven sacred directions.
Known partly as north, south, east and west; also as air, land, water and fire; the sacred directions of the sky and the earth, also known as Father Sky and Mother Earth; and to the seventh direction inward – our inner spirit, our inner core that connects us to everything that is living, everything that is past, everything that is present and everything that is future.
I also begin by taking seven breaths to acknowledge the power and the teacher that can only come in us taking the time to be still and to be silent.
I also take these seven breaths because I have also found in my work in the world that we are afraid of the silence, and we are afraid of what lies there, and so we fill up every second of every day with so much that we have no room left to learn through the listening and through the quieting and the stillness.
As I take these seven breaths and acknowledge all these things, I give my humble gratitude to be somehow a part and somehow connected to these things. I give my gratitude to learning the lesson of taking time to be still and be open so I can learn from the unseen forces in the world.
In this acknowledgment, I feel the breath going into my heart. And I give my gratitude to the incredible lessons I have learned of how to take actions from a place of the heart.
And as I take those breaths into my heart, and I feel it going into my body, I give gratitude to everyone in this room for having the courage to care, for having the courage to act – to use our bodies, our minds and our hearts and our spirits towards the collective good, towards service.
I give gratitude that we’ve been given this time, to live – even in all of its challenges and difficulties. And breathing in, I give gratitude that we are awake in this time, able to create positive change.
And through our bodies, I feel the connection to the chairs we’re sitting on, the floor that’s beneath us, the walls that are holding us, the roof that’s above us, the structure within it, the lights on the ceiling – everything that’s in this room, I recognize that it comes from earth – and, for me, this is Sacred Earth.
I acknowledge how earth is all around us – how it’s not something that is outside or separate from us, that it is woven into the very fabric of our existence.
In this moment, in acknowledging the space that hold us, I continuously ask that I not forget that I’m constantly walking in the presence of Sacred Earth.”
In acknowledging these things that hold us and participate with us in this moment, I acknowledge the people who are part of this place – the people who’ve labored to build it, the people who now labor to clean it and to upkeep it. These are the people in our society that are the unseen ones – the ones who work in the kitchens, who work in hotels, who work in the spaces that our out of our sights and out of our minds. Whatever they may be, I invoke them into this room and into this conversation – the unseen people that are so woven into the fabric of our lives, I invite them, with their lives, with their struggles; and with humble gratitude I acknowledge them for the work and the service that they do in the world.
And with this acknowledgment, I commit myself in gratitude to creating a world of equality, justice and sustainability.
As I feel myself going deeper, as I feel the earth that’s holding us, I acknowledge and give gratitude to the original relatives, the original beings of this place – the four-legged, the thin, the winged, the one-legged, like the trees and the plants. I acknowledge the water that even now is running by outside ; that this building is itself a constant connection between earth and sky. To the rocks, to the minerals, to the mountains – all of these are relatives — I bring them all into this space and I acknowledge them in a humble way with gratitude.
And through this, I connect to the original two-legged, the original keepers of this place. I acknowledge that in their time, there was no need for conferences. I acknowledge that, in their time, there was a way of being with the world that was so connected to the earth and to each other that there was no need to keep talking about it – because it too was woven into the fabric of their lives.
I acknowledge the names of the original keepers into this space – names like Abenaki , Mahican, Pennacook and Paucatuck. I acknowledge these as the original stewards, the original keepers, the original be-ers. In a humble way, I ask for the opportunity to be on this land and in this space.
I acknowledge and give gratitude to all those present here, for showing up, for their act of courage to care.
And finally I acknowledge and give my gratitude to the Creator – in whatever way we may or may not relate to a creator.
I ask that this time we spend together will be in service towards the connections – towards the healing, towards the peace, toward the justice, towards the equality – for all beings on this planet.
From Solutions Conference, “Bridging the gap between environmental and social justice issues,” in conversation with Van Jones, Dartmouth College, 2004
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