Connecting With Our Relational Field Of Care

Thank you all.

I am so happy to be here with members of my team,

The beloved Miko Brown.

Hi.

Martin Vitterino.

Hey there.

And Kai Horton.

Hey all.

And we're here today to lead you in one of our favorite practices,

Relational field practice,

Which is a way of helping us learn to reconnect,

Re-remember and reclaim our sense of connection or relationship with land,

With lineage,

With community and also with ourselves.

And as we begin to start the practice,

We like to say with encourage that the practice starts now.

We need not wait for a kind of formal bell or someone to say start,

But we can also already as we're sensing into beginning to take our seat,

Sense into our connection with our environment,

With what's around us,

With the land beneath our feet.

And so we're taking a moment just to find our seat together.

So opening into the practice by centering within our own inner landscapes.

You might take some time to gently position yourself as you would like.

Closing your eyes,

Softening or casting down your gaze.

And just taking your time to let your awareness come into your body in its own way.

Doing all of this only as you and your unique body are able.

Maybe sensing the whole of your body on whatever you're positioned on,

Noticing whatever contact there may be there.

And letting yourself be supported,

Resting into that support.

And bringing awareness now to your breathing.

Letting your breathing be as it is.

Just noticing the flow as it comes in through your nose or mouth.

Expanding into your chest and deep within before flowing out again.

Taking a moment here to attend to this breathing exchange that we have with the deeply rooted trees.

Breathing as they do,

Rooting down as they do.

And from this space of attending and awareness,

You might just pause and hold the question.

What's connecting me with the land,

With the earth,

With the ground?

And just notice if it's possible to welcome whatever comes in response to that question.

You might just sense your legs,

Your feet,

The soles of those feet,

Your toes.

And taking a moment to gently root down and lean into the support of the earth,

Noticing how it rises up to meet you.

Offering grounding and solidity.

And just welcoming a moment of pause here to recognize that this is always here and available for you.

This holding by the land,

This grounding and touch.

And being in relationship and connection with the land here,

You might inquire and sense into its qualities.

Attending to it.

How does it like to be just being with this practice of inquiring?

How does this land like to be?

What does this land like to grow?

Who lives and has lived here on,

Beneath,

Or within this land?

Who else has loved and stewarded this land?

Who else has been or is being held by this land?

How does this land want to be loved,

Cared for,

And stewarded?

What feels loving to this land?

Here,

In contact and relationship with the land,

You might take a moment to ask yourself what the possibilities are.

For a loving and consensual relationship.

What intentions could you have and commitments could you make that align with those possibilities?

Take a moment to sense into and identify those now.

To affirm those intentions and make those commitments now.

And here in contact with the land.

This land holding you.

Just notice if it's possible,

If it's maybe possible,

To hold that land back.

To co-hold together in relationship and care.

And gently resting now.

Resting into that mutual support.

And as we stay connected to that relationship with land beneath our feet,

Beginning to sense into our back bodies.

And the lineages,

The beings,

The mentors,

The teachers,

The grandmothers,

The leaders,

The healers,

The activists,

The wisdom keepers that have come before us.

And a few moments to begin to call these lineages to mind.

Maybe your ancestral lineages,

Your spiritual lineages.

And sensing that these beings are at your back.

Maybe even that there's a feeling that there is a gentle hand at your back.

And calling these beings to mind as vividly as you can right now in this moment and maybe it's one being or five beings or many,

Many beings that are part of this infinite field or web of care.

You might sense their embodiment,

Literally the way they hold their body.

The expressions on their face,

The tone of their voice.

Or you might connect more with their felt sense,

That kind of energy or presence,

The qualities that they embody.

Like love,

Compassion,

Wisdom,

Persistence,

Wit,

Joy.

And as you sense that field behind you,

See if you can allow yourself to be drawn into resonance with the energy of that field.

Almost as if you're being tuned into a radio station.

You're being invited to kind of rest in those qualities,

To be enveloped by those qualities,

Embraced by those qualities.

Just truly held by that field,

That network of care.

And sensing that as you're connecting to or seeping in those qualities,

You're strengthening or awakening those qualities within yourself.

And that in turn you're sort of being invited or empowered by this lineage to continue the work of that field of care for generations to come.

And this way we start to sense ourselves even more deeply in relationship to the past and to the future.

And when you're ready,

You can allow some of these images of these beings to fade and allow your entire mind and body to just rest into that energy of care.

Sensing ourselves in relationship to those around us,

To those next to us in our home,

In our neighborhoods,

Our families of origin and chosen family,

In relationship with our communities.

Sensing into the ways that we are not isolated beings but that we are deeply connected to one another.

Feeling into the ways we are connected through our heart center.

And through our full embodiment.

And being aware of our longing to be in more authentic relationship.

And feeling more deeply connected to one another.

And feeling ourselves as part of a collective we.

And that through these relationships,

Qualities of the heart awaken such as compassion and care.

And that through our relationships we can truly know gratitude for the ways that we've been cared for and nurtured by others.

And sensing into our relationality,

We can sometimes touch into the sorrow that can be present here as well from loss of connection,

Loss of relationship.

Perhaps our longing for deeper connection.

Or the longing to sense into that connection that's already here.

Just allowing space for all of this to arise.

All of these elements at play that bind us to one another.

And sensing to this quality of mutuality and relationship.

The ways in which we give and receive care.

And support one another.

Lightening the burdens for one another.

And as we sense into our relationships,

We might feel shifts in our embodiment as our shoulders open and relax downward,

Making more space for the heart center to fall open.

Really sensing into our width.

Allowing the arms and the hands to be open.

Inviting deeper connection.

Really opening the heart to its natural capacity for care for others.

And being able to be held and seen and witnessed and heard.

And just simply spending a few moments feeling ourselves in relationship to our communities.

And finally,

From a space of allowing,

Letting be,

Simply being aware of our deepest intentions,

Our deepest work.

Allowing whatever has arisen here today in this practice,

On this land,

In our bodies.

Aware of our lineages with whomever we brought here into the space with us today.

We use this as a guiding force.

A call home.

A call forth.

A guidepost that orients our life and our work.

And together,

We set an intention of living into this sense of relationality.

A way of being.

A way of thinking and loving that's allowed to be here.

A sense of being that helps us reclaim our sense of connection.

Guiding us back to ourselves.

A sense of being that brings us home.

And as we bring this practice to a close,

We invite you to notice.

Just simply notice that moment of transition.

A sense of practice,

Of being,

Of intentionality.

To perhaps the physical space around you.

Shifting back into some sort of routine.

We invite you to sense into what it would be like to allow spirit.

Allow this practice to continue to reverberate in your being.

To resonate.

To continue to imbue your energy as you go about your days.

Taking good care of this beautiful body.

Both this one and the collective.

A sort of remembering.

A sort of coming home.

A sense of being.

And I want to thank you,

Dear ones,

For co-leading and co-holding that practice.

And for reminding all of us that all of it is practice.

And to all of you out there listening and practicing with us,

We hope you take this with you.

And we hope that you can be able to reflect or reclaim our sense of relationship.

With land,

With our lineage,

With our loved ones.

And as we deepen in this practice,

We might also notice that there are more possibilities for that kind of connection.

That that relationality is actually already here.

And we're really excited by that more and more each time those moments of connection arise,

Manifest.

We can use all of those kind of nodes of emergence as opportunities to really continue strengthening that connective tissue.

So thank you.

We hope you take care.

Thank you.