Summer Motion, Summer Rest

Hello Reader

I'm sending out a little pre-Summer Solstice greeting and nature touchpoint for you before I head to the mountains this week.

Most of you may not know this, so I'll share here: I have my "ordination" this week for Seminary of the Wild, a two-year process I've been engaged in to become an eco-spiritual director/mentor. ["Director" is the classical term, but we often use "mentor" because director sounds a bit imperious.]

If you're curious about what that is, you can read more here. I attended the University of Chicago Divinity School in the late 1990's, before getting my PhD in the study of religion, so this week is definitely a new, connected, and yet wholly different loop in my life spiral arc.

Enjoy your solstice week (it's officially June 21st) and I'll be back next week!

Cheers,

Jennifer

​Ordinary Nature​

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Weekly Reflection 🌱
• Weekly Practice ✨
• Little Tender Things 💚
• ​New Video! 🎥 ✨

WEEKLY REFLECTION

Summer Motion, Summer Rest

Jennifer Ruth Keller

The temps rise, my calendar and plans-to-be-made loom. The strawberries hang deep in the garden, raspberries pop red in the sun, peeking out here and there from overgrown canes. Mama and Baby (our cats) scamper through uncut grass, stalking moths as they flit and rise in the air.

And I stand next to the pine who's been my companion for six years, who's seen it all, who needs nothing from me but gentle regard, water, and contact. A place of non-motion, even as, of course, the tree is always changing, I am always changing, life is always pulsing with alteration.

There's a still point at the pine's base, with my hand on bark, and my heart unguarded. The pine is where I come, again and again, for the still point that's yet chock full of vitality, the wellspring for better days when I turn around to rejoin my tiny mighty life indoors with those I love most.

Who might be your "pine still point" this summer?

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WEEKLY PRACTICE INVITATION

The what: Who (or where!) might be a nurturing still point for you this summer? Or an emblem of how you'd like your summer season to feel?

[Or, for our friends in the southern hemisphere, a nice winter solitude cocoon companion?]

The how: Super simple! Identify your "nature still point" possibility. Befriend them. Let them befriend you.

Could be visiting them daily, or weekly. Could be visiting them in your felt mind, imaginally, when you need to, when you're out in the summer high season and need a bit of repose or buffer.

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LITTLE TENDER THINGS

Hanging berries, I see you

dangling above the wire,

soaking up the last rays of day,

hoping the dogs don't nip

at your skins, rip the

juicy flesh you've offered

with such delicate

generosity.

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​New Video! 🎥✨

Every view (and sharing a video, or this newsletter) contributes to my effort to offer free resources and events because that's one way I develop partnerships and collaborations with regional organizations. Thank you!

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