We hear the phrase "the earth is your mother" all the time and that's really beautiful,
but sometimes I wonder what would happen if we saw the earth as our lover instead. What
if the earth was our beloved, how would we treat the earth then? As we come into this
Valentine's Day month I think it's worth a reframing and a shift of our mindset to think
about this earth as our ultimate Valentine. I'm Asia Suler of One Willow Apothecaries,
and this is my ultimate reframing of the earth as your Valentine.
There's so many different ways that we can connect to the Earth— Earth as caretaker,
Earth as source, Earth as companion, and of course Earth as lover. A lot of times people roll their
eyes at this month of February and Valentine's Day, but there's really so many different ways
we can work with this invitation to give and share love. And one of those ways is to invite the Earth
to be your Valentine. There's a whole movement called ecosexuality that is looking at reframing
this idea of "Earth as Mother" as "Earth as lover" specifically because of the ways in which we often
mistreat our mother and are mistreating our mother the Earth. What would happen if this was our
lover? How would we treat the Earth differently? This movement was really started by performance
artists and activists Annie sprinkle and Elizabeth Stevens. I encourage you to check out their work
if you're interested in learning more. One of the things that they suggest that I want to suggest to
you as a practice on this Valentine's Day is to make love to the Earth. And there's so many ways
to do that. One of the ways to do that is just to go outside and tell the Earth "I love you."
In fact how much more sense does it make to say to the Earth "I love you and I can't live without
you" than it does to any person. This is the truth—we can't live without the Earth. So express
this. You might even want to write a love poem to the Earth and speak it out loud. You could hug a
tree or immerse yourself in a pile of leaves. This kind of intimacy, touch, and engagement is another
way of loving this Earth. I also think there's something about learning how to love the Earth,
it helps us to learn how to love our bodies. Because truly our bodies are the Earth. We
are nature. And when we feel a disconnect from our bodies, this naturally can translate into
a disconnection from the Earth. Learning how to love the earth, love the body of the earth,
helps us to love our bodies—this earth that we inhabit. So as an act of self compassion and
self-love this Valentine's Day, one of the things that you can do in honor of the earth is to honor
your body. Maybe you would even want to create an earth temple out of your body, anointing yourself
with infused oils or using diffused essential oils in certain parts of your body. How can
you love up on the different parts of yourself as a way to metaphorically and holographically
love up on the Earth itself? So how can you dote on yourself? Can you take some time on your feet
and meditate on the roots of this world? Can you spend a luxurious amount of time washing your hair
and really send out love for our atmosphere? Love up on your body and this is one way to love up on
the Earth. One of my favorite practices to do every single Valentine's Day is to give flowers
to the Earth. So where I live they're normally aren't flowers blooming on Valentine's Day and
yet there are so many flowers being given. So if I receive flowers for Valentine's Day, I will often
keep them around in my house and once they start to fade instead of throwing them out or putting
them in the compost I bring them outside and I arrange them in a beautiful way for the earth.
you can also take whole flower heads and separate the petals and spread them out at the roots of a
tree. Another thing you can do is actually go to your local supermarket and ask them if they have
any flowers that they're throwing away. This day, Valentine's Day, is such a big flower holiday that
often the supermarkets are overstocking with these flowers and so many of them get thrown
out. So you can actually go a few days after Valentine's Day or in the week after and ask them,
"do you have any flowers that you are throwing out because they're past their peak?" And you
can take those flowers home and create something truly beautiful for the Earth around your home.
The last suggestion is to go on an Earth date this Valentine's Day. Now it might be cold
where you are so this might not be a whole day outside, but instead of planning a fancy dinner,
what if you plan to go have a picnic outside? Or instead of planning to go to the movies,
what if you took a long walk? If you were gonna go on a date with your beloved the Earth,
what would you like to do? How do you like to spend time together? Just initiating intimacy
on this day of love with the Earth can help reprogram your brain to see the Earth as your
beloved—as someone that you cherish and as someone that cherishes and takes care of you day-in,
day-out. So much of being able to reframe this way of seeing the Earth and ourselves is all
about opening our hearts. And a lot of people don't realize that our hearts are actual gates,
that when we learn how to work with the energy of our heart space not only do we invite in
more love and possibility into our lives but we actually change our perception and our ability
to commune with meaning. So if you're interested in this idea of opening the heartgate, you can
check out my online class Herbs for the Heartgate, where we talk about specific plants that can help
you connect into this space of perception, magic, and possibility. If you like this video, give it
a thumbs up and let me know in the comments below what your Earth date for Valentine's Day will look
like. And if you want even more, you can head over to my website, OneWillowApothecaries.com.
There you can plug in your email address and I'll send you these videos plus meditations
and material that will help you connect into the patterns and seasons of growth happening around
you all the time. So with that lovers I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day, enjoy.