Physically Distanced but Spiritually Connected
Make Way

a recent scene at North Pond Nature Sanctuary

Dear Mayfield,
I can remember few weeks as breathless as this last one at any point in my adult life. Over a few days I have had a number of conversations with my spiritual directees and one of my writing groups that has moved online. There have been stunning Supreme Court decisions on a long arc bending toward justice for the LGBTQ+ community and DACA recipients. COVID-19 is very much with us and requires our ongoing attention and respect as we care for ourselves and for one another. BLM marches and public action since Memorial Day and a much broader awareness of the long history of Juneteenth today and this weekend keep our critical and unfinished work around racism and injustice across the nation and world in sharp focus.

Unless I have a phone meeting scheduled early in the day, I tend to take my daily long walk when I first get up. A couple of days ago,I pulled myself out of bed with little interest in a walk or anything else.  I felt a vague heaviness that I couldn’t pin on anything in particular. I walked quite a few blocks before the back and forth rhythm of right, left, right and my natural surroundings started to chip away at my mood. The North Pond Nature Sanctuary is about a mile from my front door.  It is a remnant piece of Lake Michigan from when the lake was a good deal larger than it is today. Located adjacent to it is the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. This small chunk of Lincoln Park is an ecological treasure. There are various gardens and tons of birds. Right now North Pond is teeming with new life.  When I came upon Mama Duck and her seven ducklings, she wasn’t able to coax them into the water for a swimming lesson, but they did follow her in loose formation down a dirt pathway on the west side of the pond.  For a moment I felt like I had stepped right into Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings (1941). Pausing to be with them, I also became aware how much the amazing grace of this natural area had helped my insides to settle into some helpful order. In programs I lead I tell people all the time to get out into the natural world, to allow its rhythms and wisdom to be a healing balm, to offer them balance, and to provide them a sanctuary. What I frequently suggest to others was such a gift to me that day.

It may be in your backyard or garden, or on your porch or deck.  Perhaps you relish time in a park or forest preserve.  Maybe you find joy visiting the Monarch Waystation at Mayfield.  Watching crops rise or the sun set, stretching out under a tree or splashing somewhere in the winding Kiswaukee may bring you peace.  We are facing an unprecedented amount of turmoil, uncertainty, and change right now.  To be effective, loving allies for justice in the larger world, to be hopeful and faithful, we have to nourish, strengthen, and attend to the internal well of who we are.  Turn to the web of creation, a deep place of belonging for us, and seek what you need there.
Peace, Martha