Month: September 2022

The Web of Life – A work that Reconnects meditation

Do you walk through life with deep appreciation and awareness of everything that sustains your life? The Earth that carries you, the air that fills you with life energy, the soil that nourishes you, the sun that warms you, the trees that offer cool, fresh air, timeless beauty and wisdom, your numberless ancestors laying the foundations on which you rest, billions of years of evolution weaved into your body, brain, nervous system. Who we are and what we do today as a species will determine the foundations on which future generations lay on for better or worse.

Imagine if we actually evolved daily with awareness of and reverence for this interconnectedness, the world today would look pretty different… it is time to integrate this knowledge and let it be our compass as we move forward in these chaotic times.

Here’s a meditation to integrate awareness of this interconnectedness inspired by Joanna Macy’s amazing work.

Live with the world inside of you, appreciating the rich heritage you inherited simply by being Human now and create conditions nurturing the well-being of future generations.

Marjorie Lumet on Instagram: “The Web of Life meditation Inspired by Joanna Macy – The Work that Reconnects This meditation invites us to sense deeply our…”

#interconnectedness #protectingLife

Acting in Service of Life

How are you acting in service to Life as this beautiful butterfly is?

Business as Usual, the industrial growth society so many of us are evolving in today is clearly no longer sustainable. With the latest IPCC report there’s no denying this fundamental truth and the challenging present and consequently large scale life-threatening future we’ve created for ourselves and all living beings. As human beings we need to live in a radically different way for complex life forms to continue. We need to stop doing anything that is harmful to the greater web of life which we belong to, change radically our belief systems and engage in life-sustaining behaviours. This is certainly no easy task. It requires great awakening, inner and outer transformation, freeing ourselves of past conditioning and dysfunctional belief systems, creating new ones, and tremendous bravery and supportive communities as we step into not knowing and creating a new way.

At my micro, humble level, with determination and at times hope, joy, confusion, insecurity, fear and plenty of not knowing, learning and exploring I’ve committed to walk along this path of transformation. I am opening up my antennas to those that are agents of change that I can learn from. I am open to discover how I can contribute and engage in this Great Turning that is asked from us all. I don’t have the answers but my purpose drives me: “being the nurturing arms that invite the magic of life to flow”

I am blessed that so, so many are further along this path than me, that there’s so much collective wisdom I can draw in, so much ancestral knowledge, many open minds and hearts, goodness and inspiration. I feel so much gratitude, it is so empowering to realise that we never walk alone but with a collective of light warriors who care about acting in service to Life.

Citing some of my recent inspiration below, certainly not exhaustive. Please feel free to share yours so we can harvest more collective wisdom here?

#mindfulness #spiritualecology #activehope #extinctionrebellion #workthatreconnects #transalquilmia #treesisters #demeditatietuin #pachamamaalliance #roseauxdansants #plukcsa #getdowngetdirty #ecofeminism #offgridliving #kaskantine #resurgencetrust #icanchangetheworldwithmytwohands #nayanature

Autumn Equinox Gathering – Tend to the Fire Within – 22 September from 18h to 22h

Let’s gather together to welcome and celebrate the Autumn Equinox.

After buzzing, bountiful, blissful, bustling summer adventures, we are landing back into our daily routines. The sun and warmth are still lingering to the delight of many (and the despair of other living beings yearning for rain). As the daily amount of light continues to decrease, we are slowly but surely invited to move inwards, to begin to slow down as we move into autumn. Energetically speaking we are already in autumn. The energy of the trees and plants is retrieving inwards and downwards, animals are harvesting and preparing for winter.

We can sometimes forget we are part of this natural world unfolding, but deep inside we know how intrinsically interconnected we are to it and how wise it is to follow its rhythms that support our own existence in every way. Becoming totally out of sync with these rhythms (as modern, fast-paced life often is) harms our environment and threatens our own health and wellbeing.

Let’s gather and remember this wisdom that we once lived by, that we still hold deep within for our own well-being and the vitality of our community and natural surroundings.

Join me for an evening to honour the Autumn Equinox, this moment of transition that, as any moment of change, brings with it an opportunity for awakening and transformation.

Together we will engage in practices to honour the seasons, to tune in to what is present within and around us, to what wants to be known, to reflect in meditation and share together in community, in circle.

What you can expect?
– Gratitude practices for the abundance of what we have received and harvested, for the gifts and lessons learned
– Releasing ceremony to let go of what is no longer serving our growth and the world around us
– Nature connection practice to listen deeply, intuitively & gather wisdom from the Life around us
– Clarifying, setting intentions and voicing what we want to embody or create in the forthcoming period

We will engage in practices inside and outside, meditations & visualisations as well as group/pair inquiry practices & explorations, circle sharing, ritual and ceremony, including moments of song and/or dance. The flow of the day and many practices are sourced from or inspired by The Work that Reconnects * to which I weave into my own unique experiences, creativity and grounding in mindfulness.

Practical Details
Registrations: send an email to marjorie@experiencemindfulness.nl by 18th September to reserve your spot. An email will follow up with practical and payment details.

Date: 22 September 2022
Time: 18h – 22h (including some autumn delicacies, everyone is invited to bring something to share)
Location: Embodied Empowerment (in a cosy wooden cabin surrounded by trees on the Sloterplas lake)
Price : €60 euros
In the spirit of conscious contribution, as well as openness through hopefully accommodating diverse social groups, I am happy to accept student/low income fee /exchange of services so please do get in touch if you are interested but cannot pay total amount or if you have something specific to offer.

* The Work that Reconnects is sourced from the vision and teachings of Joanna Macy and supports us to develop our well-being & vitality, our inner resources and community in the face of uncertainty around social and ecological transition. The Work that Reconnects offers a rich variety of profound psychological and spiritual practices inspiring a shift in consciousness and transforming our denial or helplessness into empowered, creative and collaborative action. These practices are interwoven in a dynamic Spiral structure across the following 4 stages: Coming from Gratitude, Honouring Our Pain for the World, Seeing with New and Ancient Eyes, and Going Forth.

A few days living in an off-grid eco-community with my girls

Back in Amsterdam after a 7-week summer break filled with adventure, nature, wonder, community & blissful shared moments.

After enjoying the Mediterranean sea, we hiked and meandered through the breath-taking Pyrenees and we spent the last days of our holiday in a small, cosy ecovillage in SW France “La Ferme Légère”. They are living “off grid” on a beautiful farm totally renovated in an ecological way and completely autonomous in energy, water and vegetables. La Ferme Légère (https://fermelegere.greli.net/) facilitate many workshops on food, water, energy autonomy as well as retreats around “The Work that Reconnects”. This is how I ended up there through my friend Sylvie Chasselay who lives there and trained with me as a Work that Reconnects facilitator last autumn.

It was special to experience this lifestyle with my girls and the first time we had an immersive experience in an eco-community together : we slept in Sylvie’s beautiful yourte, made our own delicious sourdough bread, our cheese, took care of the many animals there, helped in the huge vegetable garden, mixed up different textures to create nourishing soil for seedlings we planted, we harvested and enjoyed delicious vegetables and fruit, helped prepare meals for large groups in the kitchen cooked on woodfire and with solar ovens. We could participate in and witness eco-construction as they were adding a ceiling to the bakery (with the plan to bake bread for the neighbourhood as an additional source of revenue). We learnt about the healing properties of many plants and flowers which we identified during a foraging walk and in a short time we learnt tons about macerating flowers, roots & leaves in oil or alcohol and made some of our own healing balms. We had many moments of sharing our feelings and thoughts about various topics in community with a large group of adults and children as young as 3 participating.

Here’s a little glimpse into some moments there as I was mainly without my phone (and one of the few there with a Smartphone…). See the video here Ferme Legere

I was grateful to have a taste of this experience with my girls. It certainly sparked some reflection in them and it inspires me to do my best to live in a more conscious and harmonious way … as challenging as it is in a city and a fast-paced society where living in harmony with the Earth isn’t the norm … yet:)