Finding Connection All Around Us
Finding Connection All Around Us
Welcome the month of May with a blessing for relatedness
Dear Friend,
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel the turbulence and distress taking place in the human world right now reverberating inside of me. I feel like the Tower of Babel story has come to life—everyone speaking in a different language, no one able to listen to one another.
One thing that I try to do when I feel that anguish is to remember that there’s a whole world living and communicating here, besides the humans. It gives me a perspective that there’s a wisdom we can tap into, greater than the human mind.
This week, in southeast Pennsylvania, the azaleas are bursting with life. On my daily walks, I feel like I’m inside of an artist’s palette–each color I see, more magnificent than the next.
We can get so caught up in our individual as well as collective lives that we can forget to gaze into the sky, to notice the changing patterns of trees, plants, animals. To experience how our energy shifts when we get close to the water, whether it’s the little creek I walk by most days or a great big lake or a stream or the sea.
A new month is here–our new theme is connection. When I was thinking of you and what our creative prompts might be for May, it felt crucial to activate our imaginations around interrelatedness. Sometimes we have to dream what our conscious mind thinks is impossible.
Let’s welcome the month of May with a blessing, vision or affirmation for ways that we might feel connection.
And to everyone new here to Journey With the Seasons–welcome! You’ll find 70 creative prompts (and growing!) in the archive.
If you have a friend who might be yearning for some connection & creativity, bring them in!
Writing Practice: Set aside 5-7 minutes for this practice. Write in a journal or open a ‘Journey with The Season’ document where you can return each Sunday.
Prompt: Time to write our May intentions & prayers for how we might find connection with the landscape around us, with humans and animals, with our own dreams and yearnings, and also for hard shadow stuff we may be working through.
Begin with expressions of gratitude–notice and name anything that you feel connected to as you enter this new month.
Write out hopes for yourself, for your loved ones, for the earth, for people across the world you don’t actually know.
Some phrases to get you started:
I’m grateful for my bonds with…
I feel connected with…
I feel connected when I…
I offer blessings to…
My greatest dreams today are for…
Place your May prayer/intentions somewhere you’ll see it as you start your day. You could dress it up with drawings, doodles or pictures from magazines or photos.
I’d love to read your expressions. Leave a comment here or try the messaging app.
Deepening Practice: If you typed your monthly intentions, try writing them out again by hand. Take markers, pens, watercolors or pastels and add some color to them. Highlight words that feel most important to you. Collage images around them. Place your May intentions somewhere you’ll see them regularly. Add to them through the month.
Besides writing, coloring is one of the ways that I relax and activate my imagination. Thanks to my friend Hector at Elkins Nutrition for creating and sharing this beautiful new coloring sheet. (If you live in the Philly area, go visit him!)
Sending you blessings for a week full of creativity, connections & lots of beauty. With love, Gabrielle Ariella