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Gratefulness
"It was a meditative experience placing the first acorn, and the next, and letting the patterns emerge. My nervous system settled. My heart opened. I felt so grateful for the simple act of co-creating art with the natural world."
Early in 2020, feeling burned out from decades of social change work and grieving multiple crises in our environment and society, I stepped away from an organization I’d been directing and began what I called a six-month healing sabbatical. My goal was to regain a sense of resilience and wellbeing, as well as to address some health challenges. I was feeling that all my efforts to “save” the world had failed, and I needed to rebalance by taking some time to “savor” the world in new ways. In other words, I sought to deepen my sense of presence and to practice living gratefully.
Photo: Laura Loescher/Earthaltars.com
The first month of my sabbatical was busy — visiting aging parents, catching up with friends, launching into all the big projects around the house, looking at workshops to sign up for, and beginning to make travel plans for the spring and summer. I was not slowing down. I was not tending to my body and heart. I was not feeling more resilient. I was simply shifting the pressures of professional work to the pressures of a long list of other tasks and goals. I remember thinking “I wish the world would slow down so I can get some rest.”
A short time later, Covid-19 arrived on the scene and all the travel, workshops, and social plans vanished overnight. While many people around the world were suffering painful disruptions and difficulties, others were discovering new hobbies and learning to be with themselves in new ways.
Never before had I listened so deeply to the wisdom of the natural world. I felt incredibly nourished by the beauty and diversity blooming all around me.
I began spending a lot more time outdoors, in the solace of nature. Delighting in each new type of wildflower poking through the moist spring soil, I started learning the names of the trees, grasses, and flowers growing in my neighborhood. Never before had I listened so deeply to the wisdom of the natural world. I felt incredibly nourished by the beauty and diversity blooming all around me. I made little bouquets that opened my heart.
One day in early May, a friend sent me a link to morningaltars.com. Seeing Day Shildkret’s website sharing his nature art took my breath away. Something lit up inside of me and sparked my curiosity — what kinds of mandalas and earth altars might I create myself with mother nature’s bounty?
I assembled my palette — some acorns and lichen, along with a few wild iris flowers — and sat down to create. It was a meditative experience placing the first acorn, and the next, and letting the patterns emerge. My nervous system settled. My heart opened. I felt so grateful for the simple act of co-creating art with the natural world. I snapped a picture and then walked away — such a good practice for someone like me who sometimes has a hard time letting go of things.
I cleared a new patch of earth, gathered a different palette, and created another earth altar. Each of the following days, through the entire summer, I created at least one new altar — in a park, in the woods, in the weedy parking strip on my street. I began texting images I snapped to friends and family, and everyone seemed to love them. Buoyed by feedback about how healing and nourishing the images were for others, I began sharing them on social media. This was just before George Floyd’s murder. I wondered whether it was appropriate to continue to share pictures of flowers when my social media feeds were filled with both heart-wrenching and inspiring images of social uprisings around the world. But the messages I received from multiple activists was that yes — sharing beauty is so needed right now. So I persisted through the summer.
It was a magical experience and is continuing to spiral through our community via an Earth Altars art exhibition…which raises money for fire relief and rebuilding efforts.
When my community was recovering from a devastating fire, which displaced thousands of people in September 2020, some friends and I organized a community resilience event bringing together about 30 people to create a large (20’x20’) earth altar in a charred field near where the fires began in Ashland, Oregon. It was a magical experience and is continuing to spiral through our community via an Earth Altars art exhibition called Resilience & Refuge which raises money for fire relief and rebuilding efforts.
I am so in love with this planet, more than ever before, as I get to know the names of what’s growing all around me. I walk through the world seeing color and shape and possibility everywhere.
What started as a “hobby” for my own healing and resiliency turned into something that could soothe and inspire others. It has connected me so much more deeply with the natural world and with my sense of place. I am so in love with this planet, more than ever before, as I get to know the names of what’s growing all around me. I walk through the world seeing color and shape and possibility everywhere.
Now, in the winter, I am grateful every day for this new way of seeing my environment. Instead of fixating on the bare tree branches and lamenting the lack of colorful leaves and flowers, I am delighted as I pick up fallen pine cones, pluck red berries off the holly bushes and arbutus trees, and carefully clip the prickly dead thistles from their stems. I am grateful for this season’s offerings and am looking forward to playing with snow as my canvas for creating!
Laura Loescher is an eco-artist who makes Earth Altars — impermanent art co-created with nature. A long-time artist in other mediums, she began a daily practice of creating Earth Altars in the early days of the pandemic. She offers cards and prints for sale, gratefully donating a portion of the profits to community resilience projects locally and globally. To learn more, visit: Earthaltars.com. You can follow Laura on Instagram/FB @lauraloescher.art
To view a beautiful 4-minute film by Katie Teague chronicling Laura’s story, see Earth Altars – Origin Story.
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Everything we need has been provided. So glad your journey has been good.
Laura, your earth altars have been an inspiration to me and my friends! Thank you! You IG posts are sparks of inspiration as I meander and ponder here in beautiful Vancouver. Collectively we have made big ones that hearten and connect us to our neighbours. The practice is simple and ever so grounding and gratifying.
I so appreciate your kind words and how wonderful to know that my offerings have inspired you and your friends. Just as I was inspired by someone else’s creations. I hope you’ll share some images in the Gratitude Lounge! I love learning that you’ve made large altars that created connection with neighbors. In the warmer months, I made a bunch on the parking strip in front of my house and they always sparked interesting conversations!
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