Early in 2020, feeling burned out from decades of social change work and grieving multiple crises in our environment and society, I stepped away from an organization I’d been directing and began what I called a six-month healing sabbatical. My goal was to regain a sense of resilience and wellbeing, as well as to address some health challenges. I was feeling that all my efforts to “save” the world had failed, and I needed to rebalance by taking some time to “savor” the world in new ways. In other words, I sought to deepen my sense of presence and to practice living gratefully.
Photo: Laura Loescher/Earthaltars.com
The first month of my sabbatical was busy — visiting aging parents, catching up with friends, launching into all the big projects around the house, looking at workshops to sign up for, and beginning to make travel plans for the spring and summer. I was not slowing down. I was not tending to my body and heart. I was not feeling more resilient. I was simply shifting the pressures of professional work to the pressures of a long list of other tasks and goals. I remember thinking “I wish the world would slow down so I can get some rest.”
A short time later, Covid-19 arrived on the scene and all the travel, workshops, and social plans vanished overnight. While many people around the world were suffering painful disruptions and difficulties, others were discovering new hobbies and learning to be with themselves in new ways.
Never before had I listened so deeply to the wisdom of the natural world. I felt incredibly nourished by the beauty and diversity blooming all around me.
I began spending a lot more time outdoors, in the solace of nature. Delighting in each new type of wildflower poking through the moist spring soil, I started learning the names of the trees, grasses, and flowers growing in my neighborhood. Never before had I listened so deeply to the wisdom of the natural world. I felt incredibly nourished by the beauty and diversity blooming all around me. I made little bouquets that opened my heart.
One day in early May, a friend sent me a link to morningaltars.com. Seeing Day Shildkret’s website sharing his nature art took my breath away. Something lit up inside of me and sparked my curiosity — what kinds of mandalas and earth altars might I create myself with mother nature’s bounty?
Photo: Laura Loescher/Earthaltars.com
I assembled my palette — some acorns and lichen, along with a few wild iris flowers — and sat down to create. It was a meditative experience placing the first acorn, and the next, and letting the patterns emerge. My nervous system settled. My heart opened. I felt so grateful for the simple act of co-creating art with the natural world. I snapped a picture and then walked away — such a good practice for someone like me who sometimes has a hard time letting go of things.
My nervous system settled. My heart opened. I felt so grateful for the simple act of co-creating art with the natural world.
I cleared a new patch of earth, gathered a different palette, and created another earth altar. Each of the following days, through the entire summer, I created at least one new altar — in a park, in the woods, in the weedy parking strip on my street. I began texting images I snapped to friends and family, and everyone seemed to love them. Buoyed by feedback about how healing and nourishing the images were for others, I began sharing them on social media. This was just before George Floyd’s murder. I wondered whether it was appropriate to continue to share pictures of flowers when my social media feeds were filled with both heart-wrenching and inspiring images of social uprisings around the world. But the messages I received from multiple activists was that yes — sharing beauty is so needed right now. So I persisted through the summer.
When my community was recovering from a devastating fire, which displaced thousands of people in September 2020, some friends and I organized a community resilience event bringing together about 30 people to create a large (20’x20’) earth altar in a charred field near where the fires began in Ashland, Oregon. It was a magical experience which continued to spiral through our community via an Earth Altars art exhibition called Resilience & Refuge which raised money for fire relief and rebuilding efforts.
I am so in love with this planet, more than ever before, as I get to know the names of what’s growing all around me. I walk through the world seeing color and shape and possibility everywhere.
What started as a “hobby” for my own healing and resiliency turned into something that could soothe and inspire others. It has connected me so much more deeply with the natural world and with my sense of place. I am so in love with this planet, more than ever before, as I get to know the names of what’s growing all around me. I walk through the world seeing color and shape and possibility everywhere.
I am grateful every day for this new way of seeing my environment. Instead of fixating on the bare tree branches and lamenting the lack of colorful leaves and flowers, I am delighted as I pick up fallen pine cones, pluck red berries off the holly bushes and arbutus trees, and carefully clip the prickly dead thistles from their stems. I am grateful for each season’s offerings.
If you’d like to explore creating your own earth altar or nature mandala, here are a few suggestions:
- Wander and gather: Whether in a park, your own yard, or around your neighborhood, take your time to wander and look around you with new eyes. Take in the colors, textures, and patterns all around. Look up into branches and look down onto the ground. Pick up, gather, and clip things that speak to you. Gather them in a basket or bag.
- Choose your ‘canvas’: Find a patch of dirt, or a stump, or any other background you wish to use for your altar. You can even work indoors if you prefer – using some soil you bring in from outside, or sand, or even a beautiful piece of fabric as your canvas. Even a plate or platter can work beautifully.
- Settle and begin: I often begin by placing something in the center and then working outward from there. You can also start with framing the outer edges of your altar and working inward. See what patterns emerge. You can create a mandala by placing items in concentric rings from the center to the outer edges. You can play with diamonds, squares, circles, hexagrams, stars, or any other shapes you wish. You can go for symmetry or not.
- Complete: As you continue to place items, building your earth altar, pay attention to when it feels done. Take a break. Sit with it. Ask whether it wants anything else. Sometimes I don’t notice when enough is enough, and end up taking some things away until it feels “just right.” Enough, but not too much.
- Take a picture: If you wish, take a photo. While the art is impermanent, the image you snap can be enjoyed in the future or shared with others. I would love to see your creations! Please feel free to describe your experience below and/or post photos in the Gratitude Lounge.
To view a beautiful 4-minute film by Katie Teague chronicling Laura’s story, see Earth Altars – Origin Story.
Send an Earth Altars eCard
Share a message of gratefulness with a friend or loved one by sending a free eCard! Laura recently partnered with us to design five gorgeous eCards featuring some of her earth altars. Laura’s designs are featured in the Thank You, Love & Friendship, Inspiration, and Get Well categories. You can find all of our eCards here.
Savor the earth vs saving ….. Savoring means really loving it doesn’t it?! Thank you for that! patterning with natural materials is meditative and lovely. You can even do this without taking photos of it… that is really letting go! It is fun to revisit those and see the progression of change, a critter takes off with some of it, or melting snow drips and carries something to another place… fun stuff!
I do this on the beach with shells, rocks, bits of coral. What I love about creating them is the feeling of being connected to the sea and the earth. Adding beauty that might spark joy in someone’s day when they walk by. And then knowing the tide will take it away – a precious practice of letting go.
Thank you Laura for sharing your beautiful and inspiring creations!
In 2020 I created my first Earth mandala and really enjoyed it. You have inspired me to embrace this wonderful practice once again.
I’m so glad – May it bring you much delight!
Thank you Laura for the beautiful idea. I feel the love and peace through this idea. It’s an inspiration. Love you!
Thank you for the kind words. I hope this practice will bring joy to your life!
Dear Laura
Thank you for this gift of Earth Altars. I wanted to share with you the blessing it became for me at a time when I needed it.
My sister died in February, during the pandemic, and far away from me so I could not be with her during her last days in hospice and when she eventually passed on. In the midst of this, my husband and I were driving 2,000 miles across the country, pulling a cargo trailer, during a bizarre frigid polar vortex. My grief was therefore weirdly mixed with crippling fear and anxiety. By God’s grace, we arrived safely, settled into our rental home, and began the process of searching for a permanent home…more stress and anxiety! Still no time or space to grieve for my sister.
I recalled seeing your video and reading about your Earth Altars and so I set as my intention that, once the snow had melted and spring had arrived, I would create an Earth Altar in my sister’s memory.
On my sister’s birthday, May 20th, I spent the morning gathering and creating. When I was done, I sat by the altar and prayed, sang, and chatted with my sister….with cleansing tears and a heart filled with gratitude that I was finally able to fully grieve. It was a healing time for me.
I can’t thank you enough for this beautiful gift. I posted a picture on the gratitude lounge if you would like to see it….St. Francis is watching over my altar and that is a giant mushroom in the center that I found in the yard! 😊
~With my grateful love….Om Shanti Laura ♥
This is an incredible story, thank. you so much for sharing it with me Diane. I am only just now reading your post nearly a year later, and it touches my heart. Perhaps next month, on your sister’s birthday, you’ll continue the practice of honoring her with an early altar. How beautiful. Many blessings, Laura
Everything we need has been provided. So glad your journey has been good.
Laura, your earth altars have been an inspiration to me and my friends! Thank you! You IG posts are sparks of inspiration as I meander and ponder here in beautiful Vancouver. Collectively we have made big ones that hearten and connect us to our neighbours. The practice is simple and ever so grounding and gratifying.
I so appreciate your kind words and how wonderful to know that my offerings have inspired you and your friends. Just as I was inspired by someone else’s creations. I hope you’ll share some images in the Gratitude Lounge! I love learning that you’ve made large altars that created connection with neighbors. In the warmer months, I made a bunch on the parking strip in front of my house and they always sparked interesting conversations!