Earth Hospice

The Earth is in grave danger. Climate change is already here and advancing. Our planet has remade itself countless times over its 4½ billion-year lifespan and will do so again. But something very dear to us is dying, and that is our relationship with the seasons, plants, animals, and waters we know and love. In this session, we call upon our resources of beauty, grief, and compassion to develop practices of attention and ceremony for the Earth in crisis. We begin with a discussion of how the philosophy and practice of Earth Hospice help us stay grounded, build community, strengthen our bond with place, and empower us to make change. Participants voice their grief for the places and beings whose loss they mourn and share Joanna Macy’s Elm Dance in honor of what is hurting in us. We then process outside the convention center where we make a mandala with found objects, a reminder that we can always create beauty—no matter what is happening inside us or out.