SACRED EARTH as of June 4, 2017/ with Slide Guide [1] ENTRY: choose stone from stones in bowls of (warm?) water, arranged artfully and elementally with herbs, candles, fans? OPENING: [2] Invocation: Calling All Angels (chorus). Laura & others, Cam shaker Calling all angels here to guide you Calling all angels to surround you Calling all angels to walk beside you Love, may you walk on solid ground, on solid ground [3] Welcome, housekeeping announcements: Laura We are seven women: mothers, grandmothers, and elders with about 400 years of combined experience, here to express a great love, to nurture a deep and abiding faith in the power and beauty of natural forces, to shore up together with you our grief and concern for a relationship that needs tending: our relationship to the sacred earth. Thank you for joining us. Please silence any beeping or ringing devices. Know that there will be no intermission. The program will flow indoors until approaching sunset, when we will finish outdoors. Restrooms are at the back of the social hall if you need them at any time. [4] E.B White letter Cam “As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right.” [5] One With The Earth led by Laura. All sing. [6] Who am I? I am one with the earth And all that I have and I am as a person Comes from the Earth, shall return to the Earth [7] There is no world apart from this one There is no life for me apart from this Earth [8] Who are we . [9] There is no world . [10] Stone meditation Cam, Laura on percussion Meditation on a Stone: adapted from Jill Hammer at Tel Shemesh In Jewish mystical tradition, stones are referred to as “domemim” or “silent beings” and are manifestations of the world of the earth. Stones have wisdom to teach us. They represent eternal knowing and remembering. Human beings have a special bond with stone. We place stones on a gravesite in memory of the deceased. We stand in awe of stone in mountains and monuments. We recognize something of ourselves in stone for we are of the same dust as the canyons and the cosmos. As you begin, feel in your body that you and the stone are both resting on the same earth. DRUM/shaker SOUNDS Observe its physical qualities. Try to observe as closely as possible, using eyes and hands. Close your eyes and meditate on the stone without looking. Feel the silence and the great age of the stone. Imagine that you are also a stone, with a stone’s silence. What wisdom do you learn from being a stone? Ask this stone, this domemim or silent being, to give you a teaching or vision you need. What does the stone tell you? Does it speak or express itself some other way? If you feel it is proper, ask the stone to give you a gift or a blessing. When ready, say farewell to the stone and offer it your thanks. [Offer a blessing to the stone:] Birthstone of the universe, you who dwell in the pebbles of the earth and in the furnace of the stars where stone is made, put in my heart the strength, persistence, and humility of stones. In the world of earth, the world of air, the world of water, the world of fire, in all the worlds, and so it is. Amen. [11] EARTH SECTION: [12] Things not Carried Away Poem by Lorraine, Laura joins on song I might be walking through grassland bejeweled with wildflowers. It’s happened when driving across the desert a left turn up a blind canyon there it is, the abandoned house, the fallen in root cellar, the apple trees still standing like arthritic old men with gaps between rows where some have fallen. I’ve found rusted tin cans and old bed springs high up in the Sierra mountains near a lake. Once somewhere in Alaska We came upon a whole log cabin with the roof fallen in the walls still chinked with moss, leaves and dried mud. Little tender secrets of an entire life that vanished I am intensely curious, what did it look like? What tired woman pushed open the door to the summer face of red blossoms? What man pushed back the black darkness of evergreens with a split rail fence? Whole lifetimes rising out of Sears Roebuck Catalogues Crisp white houses with wide porches surrounded by blooming nut trees, flanked by tidy kitchen gardens there it is - the barn where a harness still lies on the floor and the ghost of a dusty mule stands patiently on the hard packed earth I’m sorry if it’s necessary to continue to say I’m sorry to the earth for our carelessness without recognizing our place on it - there it is, the home, the love, the family, the music, the lilac where lovers courted, the fruit in a child’s hand. I believe that human nature at its center is not bent on destruction but on delivery. and when I find these labors long since gone quiet I am the midwife arriving too late, scooping the newborn from the bloody sheets, imagining a new and rightful relationship with the world. [13] SONG: The Lilac and the Apple by Kate Wolf Lorraine A Lilac bush and an Apple tree Were standing in the woods Out on the hill above the town, Where once a farmhouse stood. In the winter the leaves are bare And no one sees the signs Of a house that stood and a garden that grew And life in another time. One Spring when the buds came bursting forth And grass grew on the land, The Lilac spoke to the Apple tree As only an old friend can. Laura Do you think, said the Lilac, this might be the year When someone will build here once more? Here by the cellar, still open and deep, There's room for new walls and a floor. Lorraine Oh, no, said the Apple, there are so few Who come here on the mountain this way And when they do, they don't often see Why we're growing here, so far away. Both A long time ago we were planted by hands That worked in the mines and the mills When the country was young and the people who came Built their homes in the hills. But now there are cities, the roads have come And no one lives here today And the only signs of the farms in the hills Are the things not carried away Broken dishes, piles of boards, A tin plate, an old leather shoe. And an Apple tree still bending down And a Lilac where a garden once grew. [14] Earthworm Dance Mimi leads, Laura drums, all participate The earthworms dance with a wiggle and a bend The soil goes in the front and comes out the other end Comes out the other end and it’s better for the trip Do the earthworm dance with a sli-i-ide slip slip It’s the earthworm dance, wiggle wiggle wiggle It’s the earthworm dance, get down The earthworms dance with a slip slide slide They tunnel through the soil and let the air inside And that’s good for the roots, good for the shoots And good for the people who eat the fruits It’s the earthworm dance, wiggle wiggle wiggle It’s the earthworm dance, get down A worm looks simple, just head and tal But if it weren’t for the worms every farm would fail So here’s to the earthworms all in a coil Their dance is deep, their dance is deep, their dance is deep and they elevate the soil It’s the earthworm dance, wiggle wiggle wiggle It’s the earthworm dance, get down The earthworms dance with a glide and a curve The worms never get the credit they deserve When we really should be on the best of terms So come on everybody, c’mon, c’mon, let’s dance for the worms It’s the earthworm dance, wiggle wiggle wiggle It’s the earthworm dance, get down Poem Written on a Calculator Wendy introduces, Cam reads, Others sweep. [15] [intro] EARTH. From satellites we see our planet Earth as a blue globe in infinite space. Zooming in we find earth sometimes synonymous with soil, a surface layer perhaps four feet deep covering part of the planet. This is the “earth” in which billions of microbes flourish; in which plants, the base of our food chain, are anchored and nourished; the solid foundation for our homes. Soil has been called the ecstatic skin of our planet. And from another perhaps mundane perspective, we think of dirt and dust, particulate forms of earth. How can we keep a house clean, banish dirt, and still retain our love of earth? Cam will read one woman’s perspective. [16] An excerpt from Poem Written on a Calculator, by Marian H. Neudel. [Cam reads] I am fifty years old. My mother once decided I was old enough to sweep, and dust, and vacuum, [sweepers start] when I was ten.