Lands Hurt by Drought
Map
Map
Story & Experience
About 25 people, from children to elders, gathered at the Laguna de Santa Rosa, between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, California for a Ceremony for Lands Wounded by Drought, as response to California’s epic drought. People brought small jars of water from their wells, their faucets, from the last time it rained. Each person spoke their feelings about the lands and waters they love, and about the drought. As they spoke, they poured the water they brought into a large bowl, so that the bowl held all the water each person brought, all the words each person spoke, and all the feelings each person expressed. Some people offered their own poetry or sang songs they had personally composed. Then each person took some of the water from the bowl and we all spent some time wandering the beautiful Laguna, offering the water each of us carried (which held all of our words and feelings) as nourishment to some special place in the Laguna. The ceremony ended with the water that was left in the bowl being offered to a tree that had held and anchored the ceremony site. This ceremony was one of 4 Earth Exchanges offered for the drought in California (the others were in the Lake Tahoe area, East Oakland and Santa Barbara. As the ceremony closed, one person noted that the power and intention of the words and the people gathered there seemed to create an enchanted space, and that even the birds and trees seemed to be noticing and honoring our offerings.
About 25 people, from children to elders, gathered at the Laguna de Santa Rosa, between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, California for a Ceremony for Lands Wounded by Drought, as response to California’s epic drought. People brought small jars of water from their wells, their faucets, from the last time it rained. Each person spoke their feelings about the lands and waters they love, and about the drought. As they spoke, they poured the water they brought into a large bowl, so that the bowl held all the water each person brought, all the words each person spoke, and all the feelings each person expressed. Some people offered their own poetry or sang songs they had personally composed. Then each person took some of the water from the bowl and we all spent some time wandering the beautiful Laguna, offering the water each of us carried (which held all of our words and feelings) as nourishment to some special place in the Laguna. The ceremony ended with the water that was left in the bowl being offered to a tree that had held and anchored the ceremony site. This ceremony was one of 4 Earth Exchanges offered for the drought in California (the others were in the Lake Tahoe area, East Oakland and Santa Barbara. As the ceremony closed, one person noted that the power and intention of the words and the people gathered there seemed to create an enchanted space, and that even the birds and trees seemed to be noticing and honoring our offerings.
RECENT STORIES
Regeneration at the Buffalo River
For our second year, our Global Earth Exchange brought together members of Lynda’s longstanding Active Hope group and family and friends inspired by Radical Joy’s ethos and practice, to observe the Summer Solstice with new[...]
Listening to the Sawkill
Solstice Saturday, June 21, in Woodstock, NY, eight of us gathered in the woods along the banks of the stream where we were headed a shortways upstream to the site of an ancient handbuilt dam[...]
Earth is sacred, whatever its state
The "Earth Matters" ministry of Irvine United Congregational Church hosted this event early on Sunday morning. It was new and we were pleased that four of us showed up. We had originally planned to have[...]