Hi, and thanks so much for being here with me,
Mary Morgaine Squire
aka Mary Plantwalker, author of Earth Devotions.
Writing is a necessary nutrient for me, like eating greens and feeling sun on my skin and drinking wild water, and so as long as I am able, I won’t go without it. I love to write about the trials and triumphs I am discovering by being alive on earth in this time, in this body, in hopes that it may help others find meaning and laughter and inspiration in their lives. The other thing I am deeply nourished by is gardening and stewarding a piece of land. This is how I best learn from the plant nation, by cultivating plants or observing them doing their thing naturally.
I incarnated as a white, privileged female and am living wide awake. I have always always heard voices while immersed in green-ness, and find that sharing about it through writing helps me make sense of all the going-ons inside my head and heart as well as form bonds with other humans. I am totally mercurial- an endless generator of ideas and visions and need a place to channel this, so documenting things with photographs, charts, collage, altars and the written word really helps. I am simultaneously very pragmatic and consider myself a producer of practical magic. I have kept a daily planner since 1996 with a note about every single day and how it felt, what was the highlight, what was the lowlight, phase of my moon cycle, and what else of significance happened that day. Now that I have lived over a half century on this planet, I am ready to bring that distillation to the world, through a weekly dose of Earth Devotions.
Earth Devotions
Don’t ask me what you are going to get from week to week because I can’t draw a straight line, hold a beat, make the same recipe twice or plant anything in a row. I just do what I am led to do in that moment and it definitely aligns with Thoreau’s saying about marching to the beat of a different drummer, but it doesn’t fit well with the algorithm or capitalistic model. I guess you can say I am a channel. We humans are creators at our core, and we look daily to find ways to channel that creativity. I have never met a child who wants to watch you play with modeling clay. They want to mold it themselves! And we want to form our daily lives no matter what our age, rightfully so.
But with this freedom comes the responsibility of consciousness because everything each of us is doing and being is what makes our world. And we are at a critical point in the earth’s story, so it matters extra- it matters lots- it matters BIG.
This is my creative pallet of loving adorations for life on earth. What I can promise you will find here is a weekly plant love letter along with some kind of down-home earth medicine piece as I think it’s so important to remember, ask questions and reflect upon what’s happening on and to our dear planet and the way we personally feel inside- to share our stories and find common ground. You will also find links here other’s inspiring work in the Community Weavings and sometimes within the essays/letters. I may share recipes and project instructions but not every week.
I offer up devotionals in prose, about our kinship with and on earth, in hopes to kindle the spark that is already cradled in your heart, of a loving, grateful, awake life. I give voice to the non-human world and hopefully get you thinking about how to be in service to the great web of creation. The photographs and charts and collages I share are always mine unless otherwise noted, so I offer up my art.
May this attention to wonder and devotion to a healthy planet have a domino effect into the larger world. Our steps matter. Every choice an individual makes plays some role in the bigger picture.
So live awake, and care, ok? And do love yourself, too. Bless your life.
In the spirit of the plants,
Mary Plantwalker
