Forest Bathing in Rip Van Winkle Open Space
Curious Little Seabird: “Hey! Where’d everybody go?!”
Wise Big Pelican: “I hear they’re in the oak forest doing something called Forest Bathing.”
Curious Little Seabird: “Sheesh! These humans are some cr-r-r-azy beings. Everyone knows that the ocean is the only place to bathe.”
Wise Big Pelican: “Well, as you know, that MBMS Community is pretty wild and likes to do different things differently.”
Ah-h-h! The beginning of Spring … What a perfect time for Forest Bathing! … and it’s even-better when engaged in Community!
“Community is a place where the connections felt in our hearts make themselves known in the bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts.” – Parker J. Palmer
Spending slow-moving, contemplative time in the forest feels, in many ways, like coming home to a peaceful place inside the heart. The practice of shinrin-yoku (“Forest Bathing”) is a form of guided walking meditation, an “immersion” into the space of trees, plants and inhabitants of the forest.
Now, more than ever before, we need to sense ourselves as Community, coming together to support, assist, and inspire each other as we, along with every living being on Earth, face and meet the change, uncertainty, loss, and growth of being alive. Holding paradox, not knowing, letting go, experiencing miracles, sensing deeper values, appreciating beauty, being with heartbreak … are all part of our daily lives. This is what it is to be living in a time of global transformation.
For those of us who live near-enough to Monterey, let’s get together.
For those who are geographically too far to come-over, just send your name and where-you-are to Marianne (marianne@montereybaymeditation.com), and we’ll take you with us in our walk in the woods.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come into the world to do this,
to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.
– Mary Oliver
Facilitator: Marianne Rowe
Sunday, March 23
1:00 - 3:00 PM Pacific
RIP VAN WINKLE OPEN SPACE
Donation
Registration closes 2 hours before the event begins, or when the class is full.
As a humane being, co-founding teacher of Monterey Bay Meditation Studio, and licensed marriage and family therapist, Marianne is dedicated to cultivating eco-systemic consciousness and living in-cahoots with Earth, Cosmos, and Life in all forms. Marianne’s insatiable love of learning has led her into certifications as a nature & forest therapy guide, eco-therapist, California naturalist, and Authentic Relating facilitator, along with certifications in eco-psychology, climate stewardship and climate psychology. She has been practicing meditation since the last century and teaching mindfulness meditation to children and adults since 2006.
Her sense of belonging and aliveness is sourced and deepened through walks, sits, and gazing with the Pacific Ocean, forest, night skies, along with evolutionary, envisioning conversations with beloved friends and colleagues. Read more.
This course is part of the Outdoors, Relationships, and Evolution of Consciousness Currents.
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