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Celebrate in untraditional ways with ceremonies crafted to meet your individual expression of life passages and transitions.


Earth Day Celebration at the LGBT Center of Raleigh

April 22, 2012

Exploring the energy & spirit of Native American practices

Come for a discussion of life and nature from a look at the Native American perspective. Leave with the rhythms of spring energizing your creativity and love for life.

GATHERING:

We gather to remember that earth is our home, a home that we share in real and practical relationship with all earthly matter.  

THANKSGIVING:

We enjoy the quiet beauty and moments of splendor while honoring the life connection maintained in our everyday living. Our existence dependent on a balance of life we can only begin to understand. Each breath a gift, each exhalation a giving back.

RECONCILIATION:

At times we have used elements of the earth with unconscious abandon, ignoring how the way I satisfied my need came at the unnecessary expense of another. These are life draining practices that exhaust energy and spirit. Let us remember that what we do does matter. We can consciously practice respectful living carefully using only what we need, whether the mantra we use is “reduce, reuse, and recycle,” or the careful attention we pay to our ‘footprint’ or the way that we care for creation while in essence caring for ourselves. We can recognize the need for balance in our individual ability to work in harmony with creation.

EXPOSITION/REFLECTION:

We often times get into a mindset that draws us away from the natural elements that bring life and breath to us every day. Today we are engaging in an event that will help us as participants to reconnect with the center of our wellbeing, Spirit of the Earth. I am not Native American; however, I have had the opportunity to experience the inspirational energy of practices such as drumming and storytelling. May our discussion in the celebration of the earth revitalize our mind/body/hearts in renewing the vital connection of the spirit of life.

OFFERING:

We have been given a gift in this day. What do we have to give in return? What can you do differently that will change you, that will make you more connected with the earth and inspire you to act in a new, more creative and balanced care of self and the earth? In the answer is the gift of mutual love with which you are blessed.

BENEDICTION:

We live in appreciation, willing to join our work with others in care of self, neighbor and our earth home.

Additionally: Drumming by Stony Creek & Drum made by Moka of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, Native American Rattle, Flute music, Two Spirited Spiritual Writings & Book of Earth Prayers