Corn teaches that anything in its full maturity gives of itself. The mature tassels of Corn plants generate pollen that is offered out, blown about by the winds to enter that lustrous, silky part of the Corn so those juicy kernels can grow. Mature land gives out to the animals and to us; its rich soil nurtures and feeds all that grows. Mature water bestows moisture and is steeped in minerals that benefit the land, animals, and people. Mature forests offer shade, shelter, beauty, food, and love and wisdom we have yet to explore. 

Prosperity means different things to different people. A curious example is of a Mexican healer, a curandera I worked alongside in a mental health center decades ago in Colorado. This woman was caring with everyone she met. She also looked after her childhood community in Mexico. When money was needed back home, the curandera used to go to a shopping mall and approach a stranger who appeared to be in need. She then brought this person a nourishing meal and shared meaningful time with him or her. In turn, the curandera told me, “Within a week I received an unsolicited donation for the amount we need at home. I give from my own heart and pocket to someone who really needs it, and that energy unfailingly returns.” 

It’s natural to desire and seek for ourselves and our families. Everyone wants to be happy and prosperous. Yet if we only breathed in and never breathed out, or if we only ate food and never expelled food waste, we would die. In the same way, the soul thrives through giving. 

Corn teaches that life fills us according to how we give ourselves to it; the fire we stoke is the fire that blazes. The Earth offers abundantly to all her children, and when we give back, really put our hearts to it, we entrain with our Mother and harmonize with her creatures. We join with nature in remembering we are the same light and love. 

As we give of ourselves to others, Nature, and all of life, I invite you to explore the programs offered through the Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC). Each of these programs support us in building a sacred and responsible relationship with the Earth, opening us to the rhythms of giving and receiving.  

From my heart to yours, 
Llyn Cedar Roberts, MA 
Founder and President ​

​The harvest season offers us many gifts—from beauty to wonder to cycles of completion. And while there are many more gifts that we could explore together, I’m most in awe of these three in particular. For this reflection, I will meander through the qualities residing within each of these gifts to express the deep gratitude I have for this special time of year.
   
Beauty: September in the northeast brings in fewer warm days and calls in cooler nights. The leaves begin their great turning from green to red, orange, yellow, and brown. Orchards bear bountiful fruit. A pull to slow down and settle in takes over. I steep in the comfort of a warm bonfire or cozy sweatshirt. Nature’s changing landscape wraps around me, offering a tender embrace. During the day, I get lost in the vibrant, blue hues of the sky. And as night moves in, I connect with the shining stars no longer eclipsed by the haze of summer. Out in the forest, I see nature’s creatures busy at work. Some are putting up stores for the winter while others are building warm dens for the cold months ahead or preparing to enter their mating cycle. Massive trees drop pine cones from their branches. The local streams begin to chill. The beauty cracks open my heart. 

Wonder: This September is full of blessings and ripe with magic. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we will experience 10 different meteor showers, a full Harvest Moon, and the Autumnal Equinox on the 22nd. We will also move into the beginning of the trecena of Tz'ikin on the 20th. A trecena is a 13-day period (considered a week) in the Mayan calendar. While each day of the Mayan calendar has its own energy or sign, the first day of the trecena sets the tone for the entire week. The energy of that first day reverberates into the 12 days that follow. Tz’ikin is the energy of the Eagle. It is the great winged one that soars to the greatest of heights on wings as wide as the sky. Tz’ikin is the all-seeing, taking in views from the highest of summits and peaks. It takes in dreams, inspirations, and imaginings. It sees with keen vision all that is and all that can be. Tz'ikin is connected with the west during this cycle, which is associated with autumn in many traditions. The wonder of these magical moments this September leave me in awe. 

Completion: I see the harvest season as a time of completion. While the last vestiges of summer life are coming to a close, a different kind of life is beginning. The joyful exertion of the past months come to fruition. Hard days of working in the heat come to an end. Bounty lands on the table and is stored in the pantry. Life does not stop with the onset of cooler months. It just changes form. It ebbs and flows with its own pace and rhythm, shifting from fast to slow. We complete yet another cycle. This completion causes me to pause and reflect on my journey so far.  

I invite you to consider what gifts the harvest season offers you and to explore the programs available through the Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC). An upcoming nature-inspired writing workshop begins in October and provides a creative outlet to explore and express your relationship with nature. Each of OMEC’s programs support us in building a sacred and responsible relationship with the Earth, opening us to nature’s beauty, wonder, and cycles of completion within ourselves and beyond. 

I hope this harvest season fills your heart as much as it does mine. 

From my Heart to Yours,
Christopher T. Franza OMEC Board of Directors  ​

On my latest road trip up the west coast from California to Washington, I kept noticing turkey vultures in the sky. I’d never given much thought to them and often mistook them for birds of prey, but it was pretty clear that they were going to be my companions for this journey.
 
Turkey vultures are from the family Cathartidae, which include condors. The name comes from the Greek (κάθαρσις) katharsis, meaning purification, cleansing or clarification.  
 
I had just resigned from my high school teaching job after 11 years, and while I was inspired by the community of teachers and students, I was too preoccupied most days to do the work that was calling me. When people asked me what was next, I’d say that I was going to work with Mother Earth, but beyond that, I didn’t know. 
 
Turkey vultures often work in cooperative communities for scavenging success and social interaction. Their extraordinary sense of smell (rare for birds) can detect carrion over a mile away. They also have good eyesight for spotting dead or dying animals. And they play a vital role in helping with decomposition.
 
This journey was part of an ongoing effort to sift through what was important to me. It had been two years since I’d made a formal commitment to Mother Earth and two years to summon the courage to break away from a “secure” life. I knew in my heart that this lifetime was about more than accomplishments and acquisitions. I was stepping into the unknown and learning to open my senses to the messages from the natural world.
 
A group of perched vultures is called a wake and a group spiraling up to gain altitude and ride the thermals is called a kettle because they look like water coming to a boil. And I understood this energy in my own decision to change paths. The play between the grounded vigil and the effervescent flight, sometimes as high as 20,000 feet, reminded me of the interplay between being rooted and uplifted toward the light, like the trees I’d sat with in the rainforest and what I hope to nurture in myself.
 
I camped at Usal Beach on the Lost Coast for the last two days of my trip. The black sand beach, slate colored ocean, thriving tidepools, diving osprey, and bushy-tailed fox, were all offering their own lessons, but the turkey vulture was still the main teacher who was never out of sight. As I packed my car to leave, I spotted a few of them silently soaring along the slope of Redwoods. I felt in my own body the micro adjustments to the wind and the changing topography. This trip had been cathartic and purifying, and I sensed the peace of being in Earth’s sacred rhythm. I understood that like these magnificent birds, I would find my way if I kept to my strengths and stayed alert to what is calling me. 
 
And now, months later, I am finding my way. This October, I’ll be offering a six-week virtual nature-inspired writing course through Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC) entitled Remembering Our Place in the Sacred Circle of Life. My intention for this class aligns with OMEC’s mission of helping people connect with their own and the Earth's deep mystery to recover the passion that heals us, and our world. I hope you will consider joining me. You can find more information about the course, including an outline for each week and the reading list on the OMEC website HERE.You can also contact me by email christinamburress@gmail.com with any questions. 
 
From my heart to yours, 
Christina Burress 
OMEC Committee Member ​

It is with respect that we share the spiritual elder and traditional teacher of the Mayan Ajq’ij and Day Keeper--Tata Pedro Cruz Garcia—and the visionary founder of the Mayan women weaver’s community, Casa Flor Ixcaco--Teresa Ujpan Perez—departed from this spiritual plane this month. They passed within two days of each other. 

Tata Pedro Cruz Garcia 
Tz’utujil elder and guardian of the ancient oral traditions, Tata Pedro, was one of the few surviving members of the Mayan Council of the Elders of Tz’utujil, which is a branch of the Maya Qui-che. He was a traditional Mayan Ajq’ij and Day Keeper, and one of the principal authorities of the Council of Mayan Elders of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. He received the title “Heart of the Lake Atitlan” by his fellow Mayan Council of Elders and Tz’utujil people.     

He taught internationally as a ceremonial leader and spiritual guide, sharing knowledge, ceremonies, and practices. He was the interpreter of dreams for his community and a leader of the preservation and education of Mayan day keeping and fire ceremonies.   

Tata Pedro recognized the interconnectedness of all people, the expanding consciousness of the planet, and the urgent need to unify our spiritual, cultural, and ethnic wisdom for the benefit of the planet and humanity. 

We honor Tata Pedro Cruz, a beautiful spirit who contributed so much to the world and to the Mayan peoples during his lifetime. 

Teresa Ujpan Perez 
The vision for the women weaver’s community, Casa Flor Ixcaco, began in 1950 through seven-year-old Teresa Ujpan Perez’s interest in backstrap weaving. She eventually moved to the coast to begin work as a cotton picker. The job gave her the opportunity to learn about the plant and cultivation.

After marrying and starting a family, she needed to provide financial support for them, and so she returned to the weaving loom. Since the income from working in a shop wasn’t sufficient to meet her family’s needs, she formed her own group of weaving women.

In 1984, Teresa learned how to spin cotton, and in 1996, she began organizing the group so they could commercialize their own handmade products. In 2009, the market had grown, and the women decided to weave exclusively with organic cotton, planting their own cotton just outside of the town in the mountains. Today, Casa Flor Ixcaco houses 22 families dedicated to the production and commercialization of natural handcrafted items.

The Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC) has supported the women weavers of Casa Flor Ixcaco for many years through OMEC textile purchases sold in the United States, by sponsoring Mayan weavers to visit the United States, and with our engagement during our sacred expeditions. We are deeply moved that the women use all organic cotton and plant dyes, while emphasizing the spiritual qualities of the plants and preserving the ancient Mayan backstrap-loom approach. 

We honor Teresa Ujpan Perez, a beautiful spirit who contributed so much to Mayan women and children in her lifetime, and to preserving ancient wisdom ways.  

From my heart to yours,
Llyn Cedar Roberts, MA
OMEC Founder and President

​Spirit has many faces. And yet, with all of this diversity, everything is united; each unique expression connected to and reflected by another. It’s been over a year since I soaked in the magic of the Hoh Rainforest with my mentor and guide, Llyn Roberts. I still feel the imprint of the Hoh in my heart—the antlers of the elk, the glistening trail of the banana slug, the playful splash of the otter. My journeys and dreams often transport me back to the Hoh—moving through time and across distance—where I feel her embrace and marvel at her magnificence once again. 

In the weeks before my trip, I heard a chorus of words resounding within my soul: mother, lover, self, and other. Even though I knew there was significance to receiving this message, it wasn’t until my time in the rainforest that I understood why. The Hoh revealed that these words offer me new ways of relating to the natural world.  

Nature is our mother—a nurturer who sustains us and a teacher who reveals the truth of reality on Earth. She challenges us to hold many seemingly opposing forces like birth and death, destruction and restoration, and intensity and gentleness. It all belongs and has a place in the circle of life. Mother is also a verb. It’s a way of relating and being with all of life—holding everything in a communal embrace with acceptance, inclusion, and wholeness. Her feminine energy is mysterious, spontaneous, and eternally creative. 
Nature is also our lover. She longs for an intimate relationship with all of life. In the depths of our soul, we too long for a love affair with the natural world. Our heart takes flights when we open to the profound connection with a beloved. Nature is a beloved for us. Union with her is ecstatic and saturates us to our very core. Every part of us is caressed by her love. She endlessly flexes, flows, and flourishes within and around us. When we reciprocate this love, she absorbs us, and we taste bliss.   

I am self. I am also other. I am an autonomous being with my own feelings, ideas, and history. I have my own journey with its unique twists and turns. And you have yours. And yet, I am also connected to everything and everyone around me. This is one of the many paradoxes woven into the human experience. Ultimately, otherness is an illusion. I am one with the wind, the blade of grass, and the stranger. The Hoh has shown me that self and other blend into each other, illuminating the flow of Spirit that spirals in, around, and through everything.  

How has nature expressed herself to you? How do you relate to her many faces? How do you see yourself as other and other as you? What new meaning or fresh insights has nature offered you? I invite your heart to explore these questions and see where they take you. My exploration often takes me back into the Hoh where I found myself as other and nature as my mother and my lover. 

From my heart to yours,
Christopher T. Franza
Board of Directors, OMEC  

​Sensual Blackberries that happily soak in the sun seem to say: “What’s the hurry? Slow down! Allow things the proper time they need to grow.” 

Blackberry Plant gently evolves its fruit from flower to juicy berry, demonstrating how to appreciate nature’s pace—whether we are raising a child, writing a book, building an organization, or restoring lands, waters, and forests whose growth cycle extends hundreds and thousands of years beyond our own. 

In the temperate rain forest where I live, it’s easy to see that cut forests know how to replenish if left on their own. Some forest rhythms appear rapid to me, such as ferns, yellow dock, oxalis, nettles, wild Blackberries, salmonberries, and countless other ground covers that seem to sprout up overnight. Alder trees, which also restore clear-cut land, grow much faster than the spruces that develop through decades and even over centuries. 

Each nature being has its cadence. Life thrives in the fertile mystery of rhythm. 

Blackberry Plant tells us much about fruition as it does about growing. Ripe Blackberries practically drop off the vine. On the other hand, berries that cling too long turn sour. Similarly, neither is it healthy for us to try to hold back when we need to change. Just as color and plumpness lure us to sweet berries, life signals to us when we’re ready for a new phase. 

This message of release is poignant, as the signs are everywhere that “life as we know it” is changing. Humans have birthed wonderful creations, but at a cost of separation from the Earth and Spirit. The challenges we face now, personally and collectively, invite us to bridge these gaps and live in more whole ways. 

So many of us feel and confront this push to change. Opening to the wisdom of Blackberry Plant helps us to see that: “The time is ripe. We can trust and let go to a new way of being.”

As we embark on personal and collective change, I invite you to explore the programs offered through the Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC). Each of these programs support us in building a sacred and responsible relationship with the Earth, opening us to natural rhythms and transformative growth. 

From my heart to yours, 
Llyn Cedar Roberts, MA 
Founder and President 

Just last week the landscape was cloaked in grey, still sleeping in winter’s blanket. And now, life unfurls in all directions—slowly opening a little more each day with brighter bursts of color. Winter was the great inhale—the inward journey into the darkness, into hibernation. And today, on the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, the great exhale has arrived. Birds sing. Flowers pop. Rabbits run. This seasonal turning point beckons the perfect balance of night and day, each expressed at equal length, calling us to join in a harmonious dance with all of life.  

I sink my hands into the rich, dark soil of the garden my husband, Matt, and I started one year ago. With great care and attention, we’ve tended this soil—adding layer by layer of compost and woodchips. I smile as I uncover earthworms, overflowing with gratitude for the soil’s vibrancy and creative potential. The green onions, kale, arugula, brussel sprouts, and broccoli that we planted in the fall are going to seed—completing their lifecycle. These seeds are shaped by the previous year, providing a strength that can only be known from the carving of past experience. In the coming weeks, following the last frost, we will bury our spring vegetable seeds and begin the cycle again, this time with a bit more wisdom and humility than when we started this journey. 

We bought our home and half-acre lot with the dream of building an urban homestead. Although we had no experience, a deep calling to live more harmoniously with nature gave us the courage and commitment to embark on this path. After experiencing years of frustration with the construction industry’s destructive practices, Matt quit his career as a structural engineer to lead the project. I continued working my job to bring in financial support, along with providing research assistance and an extra pair of hands. Little by little, we’ve come to live our dream more each day. Just as the turn into a new season reminds us of change, the transformation of our land reminds me of the renewal we’ve also experienced within—a profound internal renovation cultivated by our relationship with nature. As we started to live more harmoniously with our land, we also experienced more harmony within ourselves. 

Unlike the master mindset that has precipitated and perpetuated startling levels of destruction, we see ourselves as stewards of the land. We plant native species to provide food for animals and insects—expressing gratitude for all they do while also kindly guiding them away from our garden. Through this, we’ve also started to treat ourselves more gently, no longer forcing our bodies to operate in a particular way or pushing for sparks of creative insight to emerge. Our need for control has started to loosen its grasp. With the same loving hands we use to tend to the land, we also lovingly tend to ourselves. 

As the sun breaks through the wisp of a cloud, I find another acorn burrowed in the soil taking root. My bucket is full of them. One after another, these acorns grip into the Earth, eager to grow. The weeds are also relentless. I pluck them and whisper loving blessings, honoring their life. I’m amazed by nature’s resiliency, its propensity to multiply, flourish, and recover. Even after devastating storms and manmade interference, life springs forth: a small flower busts through a crevice, a deer creeps over downed trees, a seed splits. As I reflect on my personal history and the scars that remain from thick pain, I still stand. In moments where I’m brought to my knees, writhing in darkness, stripped down to the bone, I know my reclamation day will come once again. Life isn’t fragile. We will carry on.  

I empty the bucket of weeds and acorns into the forest for them to decompose. After a long day’s work, my body yearns for rest. I lie on the cool ground, resting there, basking in the light. A dreamlike wave swallows me, and I hover in the liminal space of the conscious and unconscious. There’s nothing to do, no need to rush into the next moment. Time drops. I float in the expansive now. Before Matt and I started building this place, I would run everywhere. I was consistently behind. There was always something else to chase, another achievement to catch, one more check to make on the to-do list. Striving drained me. I fed the future. And when I did, I starved myself. My relationship with our land liberated me from the race. The urge to perform and prove faded away. And now, like the tree that doesn’t exist as anything but a tree, I also exist as I am, in this moment. Acceptance feels like freedom.  

If you seek a more harmonious relationship with the Earth and yourself, I recommend exploring the programs and books available through the Olympic Mountain EarthWisdom Circle (OMEC). The OMEC mission is to encourage a sacred and responsible relationship with the Earth and preserve the ancient wisdom ways of indigenous shamanic cultures. Harmony calls out within us and beyond us. I hope you answer. 
  
From my heart to yours, 
Crystal Hawks  
OMEC Board Member ​

A bald eagle majestically opens its wings, scanning the dark waters below for a fish to catch. Blue herons stand nearby on exposed, barnacle-covered rocks keeping watch. The tide recedes. The wind roars. Looming overhead in the distance evergreen trees reach for the sky, casting shadows on jagged rocks. The Coast Salish, S’Klallam, and other local people mindfully harvest shellfish. All of nature sings. This is Pillar Point—a beach on the Olympic Peninsula along the Strait of Juan de Fuca coastline. 

Pillar Point invites us to slow down, do less, and open to the splendor of its energy. With the frenzied pace and information overload of modern living, we need the gifts Pillar Point has to offer us. The demands of life can get stuck in our system, building up debris that impacts us physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, nature’s healing forces have the power to cleanse us. 

While there is much inspiration and healing to receive from the creatures, elements, and energies that inhabit Pillar Point, we also have much to give. Just as nature washes away our burdens, nature is renewed by us as well. 

In 2019, the Olympic Mountain Earthwisdom Circle (OMEC) adopted Pillar Point. To become an official steward of this land and its coastal waters, we worked closely with Clallam County and CoastSavers.org. Over the past three years, we have organized seven clean-up events. As we walk along the water’s edge gathering garbage that has washed up on shore, we breathe in the life around us. We receive its blessings. We are purified. After cleaning up debris, we gather together for a land and water blessing, expressing gratitude for all the Earth does for us—for its healing, nourishment, and inspiration.

This year, we have organized three clean-up events. We invite anyone who can attend in person to follow the current Washington State Covid-19 health and safety regulations and join us. If you do not live near Pillar Point, you can still participate virtually in the clean-up activities along with the land and water blessing. We will respectfully record the beauty and enchantment of nature all around us. The dates for this year’s clean-up events are: 

• April 22, 2021 (Honoring Earth Day Coastal Clean-up)
• July 10, 2021 (OMEC Coastal Clean-up)
• Sept 18, 2021 (OMEC & International Coastal Clean-up)

  
Contact me directly at omec.lorifery@gmail.com to receive a video link approximately three days prior to the event or to learn more about attending in-person. Please visit our website for more information about the Pillar Point Project. I hope you will join us in honoring the symbiotic relationship we share with this very special place.  

From my heart to yours, 
Lori Ferry 
Director of OMEC’s Pillar Point Project