OUR MINISTRIES:
Ecology
Sisters of Saint Francis
Rochester, Minnesota
Annual women’s wilderness camping retreat in the Pecos Wilderness.
Living in the Essence:
Earth Hearth Homestead
About ten years ago, I cocooned myself into a hermitage for a two-month
solitude retreat in the oak forests outside
Tulsa, Oklahoma. My only question the
entire time was: “What is my essence?”
After hours, days and weeks of meditation, prayer, reflection and walking
the woods, I found the word HEARTH
emerged after meditation one day. At
first, I was stunned. In modern Western
culture hearth is an almost extinct
concept. As I burrowed into the spirit
of hearth, I realized that it truly was the
essence out of which I was to live in this
historical moment.
Hearth is a home. Hearth enfolds heart,
earth, ear and art. Each of these words
encapsulates a particular wisdom for
living in integrity and wholeness as
part of the Sacred Earth Community
with our home, Earth. For seven years
now, Marlene Perrotte, a Mercy Sister,
and I have pursued living around the
Hearth. We have been gifted with others
by Sister Joan Brown
around the fire of life including Dennis,
(a layman living in another house on our
land) chickens, ducks, bees, roadrunners,
hawks, plants, trees and a wonderful
extended community of people. In addition to our daily work—Marlene teaches
at the community college and I am
the Executive Director of New Mexico
Interfaith Power and Light working on
climate change—living sustainably and
exploring the meaning of Earth Hearth
Homestead in the North Valley of
Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a passion.
We rent an acre of land on the Griegos
lateral acequia (a communal system of
irrigation developed by ancient Pueblos
and early Spanish settlers). Our shelter is
an old adobe home which was originally
a milking barn for a dairy.
Over the past years, we have created
a nurturing space with numerous
fruit trees and bushes, a cold frame
year round vegetable garden, summer
gardens, healing medicinal ceremonial
herb garden, straw bale hermitage, a
labyrinth, and bee hives. Our home and
land is a gathering place for educational
seminars, retreats, prayer, healing rituals
and celebrations with lots of local and
homemade food. This work invites others in through the Partnership for Earth
Spirituality (PES).
The Sacred Earth Community that
gathers and works in this urban setting
and beyond honors this place as Home
resting upon the many people, creatures
and ancestors who have lived here. A
home is made by those present and
all who have been here in the past. On
many occasions, we felt guided by the
inspiration of many holy ones who have
gone before. In addition, home opens
windows into the future.
An unexpected chapter in our lives
began for us October 31, 2010, the eve of
Dia del Muerto (Day of the Dead). Our
Written by: Sister Joan Brown. Reprinted from interchange, Vol. 16, Issue 2, Spring 2011
FOCUS: Our Home. Published by the Sisters of Saint Francis, Rochester, MN. All rights reserved.
landlord called to say he was selling
the property. Simultaneously, we felt
dismay and hope. Hope was engendered
by those who arrived at the door with
offerings for the Dia del Muerto altar—
an annual ritual remembering those who
have gone before us. During November
1 and 2, reflecting on all the goodness of
the past, we recalled with confidence the
words of Julian of Norwich, “All shall be
well, all manner of things shall be well.”
We began to put the word out to the
larger community of PES that we needed
to find someone to purchase the land
who wanted to extend the work here
into the future. Many connections, new
friends and collaborators, emerged and
there is now a wonderful couple with
young adult children who know permaculture, healing arts and many other
skills, who will purchase the property. In
an age when ecological devastation surrounds us, urban settings must become
hearth homes… caring for water by
conserving and creating water harvesting systems; caring for earth by planting
trees and gardens for food and animal
and bird habitat; caring for resources
by utilizing solar energy and efficiency
measures; caring for community and the
soul through the arts, meditation, prayer,
ritual and spiritual enrichment. Our new
landlords realize, at a deep level, that
spirituality and practice must meet in
creating a legacy for their children and
other children. Our gifted new partnership opens up greater collaboration, to
include solar panels, water harvesting
systems, gardening and networking with
others who are growing food to create
distribution markets in the North Valley,
and so much more than we can imagine.
Living in Albuquerque, we realize that
we are part of a bio-region. Our homework extends into the multicultural
desert and mountain bio-region we
share. Sister Water is of special concern
to PES, collaborating with our Anglo,
Native American and Hispanic brothers
and sisters to protect and restore water
from contamination by Los Alamos
National Laboratory to the North and
by uranium mining around sacred Mt.
Taylor to the West. We feel very privileged to be working with people from
a variety of communities including
Navajo, and people from the Pueblos
of Laguna, Acoma, Santa Clara and San
Ildefonso, along with Acequia Farmers
and grassroots organizations fighting for
clean water. Recently, we were part of a
group that won a 4 year-lawsuit against
Los Alamos National Labs for violation
of the U.S. Clean Water Act.
Traditionally, the fire of the hearth
was protected at night so a fire could
continue the next day for cooking, for
heat, for light, for work, art and for
a gathering place to share songs and
stories. Today, our Earth home invites an
evolutionary resurgence of the art and
spirituality of the hearth.
Friends with chickens and ducks.
Healing prayer pilgrimage for Mt. Taylor by Partnership for Earth Spirituality community members.
Community members creating healing medicinal herb garden at Earth Hearth Homestead.