Inspiration for the Waxing Seed Moon

For the first time in the New Year, I managed to do one of my little solo rituals in the garden. And as soon as I started, I realised how long it had been and how much I missed it.

From the moment I reached out to the beings of the garden around me, I felt a familiar sense of centred calm come over me. As I walked the circle, weeks of tension melted from my muscles and I came home to myself.

How many times must I let this happen to me before I remember how much I need my practice? Deliberately connecting the spirits of tree and herb, of light and soil, opens my senses to the beauty around me. It reminds me that I am part of the Web of Life, of the Wholeness of Being. It opens my heart to the love I feel for my world.

Because love is what it is. This feeling of joy at seeing the very first spears of snowdrop and daffodil pushing up through the cold ground. The awe at the colours of a sunset, and the wonder of seeing a flock of lapwings veering in and out of existence over a field at dusk. These things have the power to break me open and let me fall in love, again and again, with the beauty of the world we live in.

In the Four Pathways to Connected Living, the Pathway of Love is first and primary. Love for the natural world, for people, for everything that is vulnerable and precious, and awe-inspiring, is the beginning of a journey to active engagement in protecting those things. Whatever cause we are drawn to, the initial motivation to get involved comes from love.

Letting our senses fill with this kind of unconditional love gives us so much strength. It can inspire us to do the impossible for this world, the one home we have. It can keep us going when the road seems endless, the task hopeless. It can make us brave in the face of despair. And it can heal our wounds when sorrow finds us.

Because, of course, loving fully makes us vulnerable. We will weep at the destruction of so much beauty, at the injustice done to so many. Sorrow will be a part of our journey. Taking the consequences of that love and that sorrow, living by what they tell me, will take more courage than I have on my own. But that is how we transform. And that is how we learn to serve.

So here I stand, at the beginning of a new year, holding my love for my world close. In community with my brothers and sisters, I will stand for what I believe: that every living being has a right to thrive. That every part of this great Web of Life is precious and needs to be protected.