As we close the year, I am feeling so grateful for our growing community and the PRATI board, faculty, staff, and volunteers that are helping our network grow and flourish and for the possibilities that abound. Consistent with our ecological model, I’m excited to share that in early 2023 we will prototype and then launch a Group KAP Training Program and End of Life (EOL) KAP Programming. And there are more projects in the pipeline. As a young not-for-profit organization, I am thankful for our small but growing donor base and invite you to invest a financial contribution, which like sunshine and nutrients, help manifest our vision: a world in which people flourish and thrive in right relationship with the natural world.
As I write, the snow is gently falling outside. Paradoxically, the snow brings a sense of warmth and comfort. I’m reminded of our recent November KAP training and an early morning foray up to the Moon Rocks overlook with new friends, and now freshly minted alumni, Sean, Jason, and Gloria. During the training, there had been a fresh dusting of snow and the dawn air was crisp. The sky was orangey-red and together we welcomed the sun, that peeped above the nearby hills, with some chanting. It was magical, feeling fully alive on a mountain breathing beneath our feet. It was as though we were in resonance, in coherence with the flow of life. Overwhelming. Each instant both infinite and finite holding the beginning of time, the far-distant future, and that moment, as one.
My belief is that these moments are the times when flecks of rust fall from little-used internal sensory cells, that are somehow stirred into aliveness, quivering with the awareness that together we are all participating in the process of emergence; a never-ceasing unfolding of life. How beautiful it is to behold and be held in this flow. What a gift.
My guess is that at some time we have all felt these emergence cells, come alive. I’ve experienced it at work at our trainings during group shares, where invariably something bigger seems to take hold and a quiet collective reverence manifests. It can feel ecstatic — outside of oneself, non-static, dynamic. As ecological beings, part of the community of life, this feeling only makes sense if we can remember that our physical selves are fully woven into the ongoing dynamic spiral of life: birth, growth, death, and decay. We can imagine this feeling as the joy of coming home to connection, rather than separation. If they exist, perhaps our emergence cells are akin to the imaginal cells of a butterfly, that when fully vibrating, allow us to reconnect and transform.
As the climate crisis, war and shootings, and “othering” continue to fill headlines we are called to explore what conditions, internal or external, hinder or help support reconnection and transformation. To strengthen our sensitivity, empathy, and compassion for one another. And to sense into, awaken, and trust the joyful vibration and aliveness of our emergence cells.
I am grateful to be in this dance of life with you, the PRATI community, and grateful for the sacred work we are all part of. I hope you find moments to pause and welcome the sun.
