“The world is on fire: we know it in our bones and feel it in our hearts.” This is the first line of a call to action for those who teach, live, form and create soulful practices to participate in a virtual sharefest called Dear Earth next summer.
As I came away from a wonderful 24-hours of soulful sharing at Our Own Deep Wells (OODW) pilot retreat in April 2023, I decided to say yes! Immersion in the soulful practices we are curating through OODW summoned my energies to dig in, to commit my gifts as a spiritual leader to one corner of the mental health crisis we are experiencing around us.
I said yes to co-chairing a global interfaith summit that will surface spiritual resources to meet the crises of climate justice and climate grief with climate hope and earth love. Love lies at the heart of our vocation as religious and spiritual leaders; loving the earth opens pathways for soulful practices, drawn from humanity’s own deep wells, to meet us in the urgency of climate challenges.
That’s my one thing. What’s yours?
The young adults, student life professionals and campus ministers who participated in Our Own Deep Wells taught us that people are hungry to discover soulful practices already at work in their lives to create resilience. They also expressed a desire to learn from each other, to find companions as they gain confidence in leading soulful practices in their families, hangouts, workplaces, and communities.
So we are curating practices: practices such as earthing – which Anna taught us is as simple as walking barefoot while attending to breath, wind, energy, and lifeforce; practices such as moon-seeking, which Eleiza taught us is deeply rooted in the Hebrew people’s exodus from slavery and invitation to reclaim time as their own; practices such as ancestor honoring, lectio divina, hedge of protection, and rainbow basking. The list is long and ever growing, sourced from across religious traditions and tied to cultural contexts of origin by facilitators born of those contexts.
We are developing a guide book to these practices that will live on our website. We are also planning and conspiring, hoping to launch our young adult fellowship next year. Our fellows will attend Our Own Deep Wells retreats, hosted by our partners on college campuses, and end with a nine-month learning journey equipped to train trainers on future campuses.
As we continue to expand our collective energies, stay in touch. Which soulful practice would you like to blog or vlog about? We are on the cusp of releasing powerful tools for upstream healing, and we need your help. And here’s one last ask: Would you like to be part of an ongoing community of learning? We hope to regather the pilot group participants, as well as ongoing OODW alums, in quarterly zoom calls. Leadership and participation will rotate; but those who want to can drop in, experience a practice, and chat about the joys and challenges of being one among many in a movement that is upcycling ancient traditions to build resilience and well-being today.
Dori Baker, founder of Our Own Deep Wells, is the author of the new book Girl / Friend Theology: God-Talk with Young People. This classic on the spiritual formation of adolescent girls is updated to teach how story-based soulful practices can help adolescent girls and genderqueer teens find images of God that serve to free us all. You can order and learn more about it here.