Reflections & Practices: Offered by Shelley Ostroff

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These daily reflections and practices invite you to commune with the essence and vibrations of the theme of the day. As you engage with these essences you are invited to deepen the dialogue with the essence through spontaneous journalling, visual art, sound and movement inspired by the communion. The creative journey with these essences over the week offers a profound portal into the mystery and medicine of "Return to Essence".

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kinship : An invitation to commune in a quiet space with the Essence of Kinship and Kinship with Essence.

• Invite into your field the essence of Kinship. What comes alive in you as you commune with the essence of kinship?

• What does it feel like to look at the world through the eyes of kinship with all? What beauty and possibilities come into visibility as we greet – as if for the first time – our relatives of all forms, and on all dimensions?

• Imagine extending your sense of kinship to parts of yourself that you have exiled from your sense of self, from your pictures and stories of who you are. Imagine welcoming these parts back into your being as long lost family that you had an argument with at one time, but are now ready for healing. What healing process would be required for this to happen in a good way? What arises for you in this reflection?

• Imagine extending your sense of kinship to other humans - individuals and communities that you have distanced yourself from in your mind - those that you may have judged or situated as "other". Who comes up in your field? What does considering these people as kin feel like? What resistances surface? What healing potential emerges?

• How do you feel your ideas about and experience of kinship have been limited by your culture?  How is this transforming for you at this time?

• Sense into your ancestry, going back to the beginning of Creation. Sense into the stardust that we all share as Kin in Creation. Sense into our shared Source. Consider how we share the same DNA with so many other forms of life - how we are all birthed from and nourished by the same Waters, sustained by the same Earth, breathing the same air, informed by the same sunlight - made of the same primary building blocks of creation - part of the same consciousness. How does this reflection inspire your sense of kinship?  

• What can we learn from indigenous wisdom that honors and communes with "All our Relatives" - human and other than human relatives on all dimensions?

• With the evolution of consciousness, more and more people are relearning to communicate with other species, with Nature in all her manifestations, and with beings and consciousnesses that exist in the subtle realms. What is your experience with this? How can you be inspired by the different offerings in this 7 Days of Rest & Return to Essence event to deepen your sense of kinship and communication with all of Creation? 

• What does "Mother Earth" mean for you? What does She feel like for you? How do you experience the reality that we share Mother Earth with all of Life - that we are of Mother Earth, and that she nurtures and sustains all her children - without privilege or prejudice? What do you sense is our role in relationship to Mother Earth and the home we share with the entire family of Life? What can we learn from other species about living with all our kin in ways that protect and nurture our home, our mother, so that all may thrive?  

• How do you think about and experience the subtle senses and vibrational language that is involved in communicating with our other-than-human kin? What practices and opportunities  are you aware of that can support you in cultivating these skills?

• Consider how in exploring our kinship with other beings, we naturally attend to that which is essential in the other - that which is of essence.

• As we evolve into this deeper understanding, of interconnectedness with and kinship of all Life - notice what that looks like and feels like to you at this time. How might we acknowledge it and embody it in how we organize ourselves, as one human family with and on behalf of the larger family across time and space, honoring our ancestors and future generations in all their diverse forms? 

• How is expanding our sense of kinship with all of Creation an essential part of the journey of return to essence, and nourished by this journey?