Rebirthing Ourselves: A Women's Writing Circle
Week 2: Spirit
Contemplative Prompt:
Iyáaní (Spirit, Breath, Life)
by Sara Marie Ortiz
At Haak’u
Within the community,
on the land, in it, and of it,
there is a way in all things
that Acoma (Haak’u) children are taught.
Shadruukaʾàatuunísṿ
It is a way of saying.
It is a way of saying our life and the way
things grow and grow. It is a way of saying
the children are growing so quickly. It is a way
of saying the plants, which we so lovingly care
for in the fields, are growing and growing.
It is a way of saying neither would grow and grow
without
our love.
Amuu’u haats’i. It is a way of saying our beloved life.
Our beloved land.
Our beloved children and community.
Sráamí. It is not always easy. And we, the People, the
Hánʾu are not always good and right. But the right and good
way is the way
that we go that we might live. Srâutsʾímʾv. Srâutsʾímʾv, say
the Ancestors, our old ones, speaking up from the land
from the rivers, in and through the rain, and all the cycles
of the earth we know. Srâutsʾímʾv, children. Do you know
just how much we love you and are praying for your lives?
https://poets.org/poem/iyaani-spirit-breath-lif
Additional poem – Miracle Fish by Ana Limon
❝ I used to pretend to believe in God. Mainly, I liked so much to talk to someone in the dark. Think of how far a voice must have to travel to go beyond the universe. How powerful that voice must be to get there. Once in a small chapel in Chimayo, New Mexico, I knelt in the dirt because I thought that’s what you were supposed to do. That was before I learned to harness that upward motion inside me, before I nested my head in the blood of my body. There was a sign and it said, This earth is blessed. Do not play in it. But I swear I will play on this blessed earth until I die. I relied on a Miracle Fish, once, in New York City, to tell me my fortune. That was before I knew it was my body’s water that moved it, that the massive ocean inside me was what made the fish swim. ❞
Discussion questions in circle:
How does spirit speak to you in your life at this moment in time?
Do you notice any differences in your relationship with spirit over time, compared to the past?
What factors in your life are helpers/or hindrances to your connection with spirit?
Parting question for contemplation:
What regular spiritual practice can you commit to keeping at this time – is this a daily practice, weekly, monthly?
Next Meeting — The Heart (Passions/Relating to my desires)
Future Sessions
The Mind (What I think about myself/world around me)
The Skin I'm In (Body)
The World (How do I view and operate within the context of 'community' -- locally and globally?) - A spell for another day on earth - adrienne maree brown
Little Me (Making peace with the past -- the environments that shaped us)
Me @ present (What does it mean to be a woman in this moment?)
Who I am becoming (How do I wish to define myself?)
Holisticism/Integration of my parts - Paulette