721st Week: Grammar Shapes Our Worldview

ByNancy Napier July 28, 2018July 28, 2018

We know that different languages generate different world views, different ways of experiencing the world around us, and different expectations of what we can expect from our world. Several times now, I’ve run across the writings of Robin Wall Kimmerer and each time I experience her worldview I am deeply moved. She is a botanist who is also has a Potawatomi heritage and a perspective that is much more inclusive and honoring of our planet and our global family of relations with whom we share this home.

I’ve written before about Robin’s very wise and powerful sharing of the need for pronouns that are inclusive of all the life on this beautiful home we share with so many other beings. The Anishinaabe language has a word for other beings—be they trees, rocks, animals, plants, water, etc.—that replaces our use of “it”. By having a pronoun that honors the life of other beings, we understand that they are not “resources” but are, instead, companions who share life on this planet.

The Anishinaabe word is “ki”. An example of using ki as a pronoun, drawn from an article written by Robin, would be something like, “Oh, that maple tree is beautiful! Ki is giving us so much sap to make syrup.” The plural of “ki” would be “kin” and both of these become pronouns we use instead of “it”. Here’s a link to an article where Robin wrote about this: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/together-with-earth/alternative-grammar-a-new-language-of-ki

For this week’s practice, I invite you to explore your experience as you bring “ki” and “kin” into your vocabulary as pronouns to describe life forms you generally refer to as “it”. It’s important to recognize how powerfully grammar affects and shapes our experience of the world around us, so notice what may shift in your sense of relationship to your world as you begin to honor the many life forms you encounter in any given day. Notice the quality of your experience when you remember that water is “ki”, that the plants, crystals, insects, animals you encounter along the way are “ki”.

Also play with where you use the word “it” and ask yourself if that’s the proper pronoun for that particular encounter. Notice the difference in your experience when you catch yourself and shift from “it” to “ki”. If you’re someone who hasn’t tended to experience other life forms as kin, it may take some time to adapt to this shift, as it asks for a reconfiguration of how you see and engage what have previously been presented as “natural resources” or objects. Even if you’re quite experienced with concepts such as “plant people”, “stone people”, etc., pay attention to the sensations in your body and the way you feel when you remember to use “ki” and “kin” in place of “it”.

As with all these practices, there’s no right way to do this. It’s yet another opportunity to notice how you move through your world and to expand your moment-to-moment choices to enhance the quality of your inner life.

Weekly Practice in Conscious Living

857th Week: Noticing What’s Going Right

ByNancy Napier December 11, 2021December 11, 2021

Continuing with a recent theme, I’ve been thinking about what practices can offer support during a time when so many sources of distress, uncertainty, suffering, and fear are in our personal and collective atmosphere just about all the time. As I pondered our current collective situation, solution-focused therapy practices came to mind. In solution-focused therapy, clients are invited to place an emphasis on noticing things that go right in their environment, relationships, and everyday lives.

With this in mind, I’d like to offer a practice around noticing what’s going right. When we are able to do that, we perceive the world through a filter more focused on wholeness, where there is room for everything—for what causes discomfort and distress and what offers support, optimism, hope, inspiration, and enjoyment. All too often, it seems to me, we can become caught in a focus on what’s negative or destructive and forget that there are also positive and constructive things going on in our world.

A mundane example related to the situation with my feline housemates that I described last week is not only a recognition of the pain and distress caused by surgery but also a recognition of the blessings offered by medication that reduces pain and the slow “bouncing back” of all concerned.

And so, for this week, here’s a practice to play with. As you do, please track where you find yourself not wanting to shift from problems to what’s going right. It can be very illuminating to discover how loyal we can be to what causes us distress and our culture tends to discount, if not negate outright, positive actions and events happening locally and around the world.

Weekly Practice in Conscious Living

750th Week: Generating Flexibility

ByNancy Napier April 20, 2019April 20, 2019

Walking to work one morning, I was in an area of Central Park where dogs gather for their morning playtime. As often as possible, I walk off the pathways, so I was in the middle of the doggie play area when a dog went by whom I hadn’t seen before. Both hind legs had been amputated and he had one artificial leg in the back to accompany his two front legs. What struck me was how agile he was and how he enjoyed sniffing the ground, moving around with relative ease. His situation looked so different from the many three-legged dogs I see in the park, and I enjoyed watching him move around, nose to the ground, doing regular “dog things”.

As I watched him, I thought about the power inherent in being adaptive and flexible in the presence of life’s challenges, changing circumstances, and unexpected developments. For many of us, the immediate response to change or an unexpected challenge is to pull in and constrict. When we do this, our brain’s natural ability to generate and notice options often goes off-line, leaving us with little to no flexibility.

Weekly Practice in Conscious Living

706th Week: Living With “Wide Open Eyes

ByNancy Napier March 12, 2018March 12, 2018

As a general practice, I spend time each morning looking at videos, interviews, and professional talks that support a positive sense of connection and wholeness. Beginning each day orients me to a perspective and sense of being that colors my day with a quality that nourishes my body and soul. During one of these forays into cyberspace, I ran across an article, which touched me with its emphasis on a more mystical sense of our world.

The author, Michael Edwards, says the following: “…spirituality can give us an actual experience of the unity of all things. This experience, when nurtured as a constant practice, roots quality-consciousness, non-discrimination, non-violence and reverence for all people and the earth deep into our core.” Read More “706th Week: Living With “Wide Open Eyes”