We belong to the rhythm of the earth
On cycles, seasons, flow, and remembering ourselves as a part of the earth's metabolism
Dear friends,
I have been thinking a lot lately (or perhaps always am) about rhythms, cycles, seasons.
What rhythms are you aligned with?
What are the rhythms you want to be attuned to?
Here in Costa Rica, the rains have returned. It was summer when we left for our trip to the US last week, and when we returned, rainy season had begun. The seasonal shift is palpable.
The air is thick with moisture.
The canyon fills with mist and clouds.
The river is roaring.
The monkeys are back to making their daily passes.
The plants are happy and everything is green, dripping again.
I love being attuned to this rhythm.
Costa Rica has very different rhythms from the north where I was born, but I love the rhythms here. Being close to the equator, we experience nearly equal daylight and darkness all year. The rhythms of the seasons are rain and dry, half and half. It feels very even, balanced.
Meanwhile in academia, a different rhythm drums on. Many of us spend much of our lives in the northern academic calendar cycle (September to June), so it is familiar one, though not a natural. Within that calendar, UPEACE has its own rhythm, and I am about to start another three-week intensive course, the last of the academic year. I am starting this cycle tired, still recovering from the conference and travels, which is not an optimal starting point. As I have written about before, a big part of my class prep is resting and resourcing myself, but current external demands, responsibilities, and circumstances have prevented that from happening to the degree I need it to.
At the end of the year, it is visceral how out of synch the academic calendar is with the natural one. There is not balance so much as a crash-and-burn, no matter how hard you try to fight this. We all come crashing down at the end of May/beginning of June, yearning to compost ourselves on the forest floor. It is hard not to reach the end of the year like you’re on the end of a tank of gas, sputtering the last few miles. But as a friend recently reminded me, at least we have breaks in academia, whereas in many professions, it is just a relentless onslaught of more to do.
Can we attune differently?
Can we return ourselves to the rhythm of the earth?
It is a simple thing, but a huge thing. It is very hard to honor your own rhythms or the earth’s rhythms when all of the systems and institutions we are stuck within go against this, and are operating at the rhythm of constant urgency, rushing, chaos. No rest, no reprieve, which is not how nature operates - and we are nature.
The heart of a regenerative peace education is returning ourselves to these wider cycles we are a part of. To remember that we are part of a living, breathing planet, the earth’s metabolism1, and one small speck within it - and to act accordingly. Aligning ourselves with the planetary rhythms is an essential task of feeling and living our way towards other worlds.
With each breath, we can return.
In, out.
Each heartbeat, a reminder that we belong.
I attune to the rhythm of the earth.
I belong to the rhythm of the earth.
With each heartbeat, each breath
I can feel in my body that I belong.
I remember
and I return to the rhythm of the earth.
Widening our gaze, we can realize it’s an even bigger rhythm we are a part of: the sun, the moon, the planetary shifts and cycles. The earth’s rhythm is a part of the much more vast rhythm of the cosmos. This is one of the things that astrology teaches me, and why it is a part of my daily practice. It is a reminder that I am a part of cycles and rhythms so much bigger than I can fathom - and yet, I can feel them in my life, in my body.
These are the intentions I am taking into my next class:
I choose to return to my own rhythm.
I release the rhythm of urgency.
I root in a rhythm that is mine.
I belong to the rhythm of the earth.
One of the ways I honor this in my life is through marking the solstices and equinoxes. I haven’t set the date for the June solstice zoom celebration, but please stay tuned and I hope you will join me!
I also try to honor this through my writing, both in what I write about and especially how I write - to stay in the cycle of flow, of input and output, which is why you haven’t been hearing from me as much here lately. I have been in an intense cycle of output, and I try to honor that by what I write (or do not write) here. And yet today, I needed to, to honor this cycle and rhythm of creative flow and offering.
What rhythms and cycles are you attuning to?
How might you honor the rhythm of the earth, the cosmos, today?
What can you do today that will help you remember you are part of the earth’s living metabolism?
Today I am tired, but I need to prepare for class. I will do as little as possible otherwise, knowing that will still be more than I want to as a parent and professor with responsibilities. Even while systems pull me, I try to pull myself back to honoring myself as a part of the rhythm of the earth.
With love and care and rainy season refreshment,
Stephanie
I draw the language of the earth’s metabolism from the work of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective.
I can't remember if I've told you about the summer I worked in Costa Rica--it was right after Mayo Clinic declined to do my surgery in 2017 because my wire situation was more complicated than I thought. That rainy season was so, so good for my nervous system. Especially being on the beach, too-- the pounding surf, the pounding rain, the dazzling flowers--it brought me back down out of utter panic. Thank you for the reminder.