Earth altars

If you’ve ever made a sandcastle then you can appreciate ephemeral art — something that is made for the moment with an appreciation that it will not last.

These days the fragility of our natural world makes it even more precious. It’s even more important to find ways to stop and pay attention, to be with creation and with each other, to express creativity and to offer gratitude. Earth altars are part of an age-old practice of creating land art and also a contemporary movement of creation-centred spirituality. I have been taken by the work of Day Schildkret who creates impermanent art in the practice he has developed called Morning Altars.

This year instead of creating a paper card in memory of my mom on the day that she died, I spent the day wandering in the park and created this earth altar with the offerings of the season that were around me–fall leaves and a lovely bit of hydrangea for the centre. I enjoyed the time creating and just the time spent pretending to be off the grid. These days my remembering of my mom is more about being intentional to spend some time connecting to her memory and to the gifts that she offered me. So having a bit of time away to create this offering was just what I needed.