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Metta Practice for Earth and Her Children

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Interfaith groups are coming together at noon on Valentine’s Day for prayer for the healing of the earth. Deep in our tradition is the Metta Prayer, the heart-felt wish for well-being. Heather Lyn Mann, an ordained member of Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Order of Interbeing, has graciously offered this for the occasion.

It’s Valentine’s Season and time to express love to our beloveds. Let’s not forget about someone most special—Mother Earth—because she is the giver of life and sustainer of everything we know and hold dear. We can make a gift to her, in celebration of the holiday, and deliver it through mindful meditation. Let our expression of love transcend sentimentality and idiocy and come from a place of awareness of our deep union—an intimate and profound understanding of Interbeing. Only with this insight can we embrace Mother Earth’s suffering as a mirror to our individual and societal pain.


As you sit calmly in mindful contemplation, offer these words in silence to Mother Earth and her children.

May I wake to Earth’s energy as my heat.
May I wake to Earth’s ocean as my tears.
May I wake to Earth’s wind as my breath.
May I wake to Earth’s landscape as my body.

May my heat open prairie seeds.
May my tears fill rain clouds.
May my breath give flight to Frigate Birds.
May my body be an island of refuge.


May you wake to Earth’s energy as your heat.
May you wake to Earth’s ocean as your tears.
May you wake to Earth’s wind as your breath.
May you wake to Earth’s landscape as your body.

May your heat open prairie seeds.
May your tears fill rain clouds.
May your breath give flight to Frigate Birds.
May your body be an island of refuge.


May Mother Earth depend on our heat for her energy.
May Mother Earth depend on our tears for her ocean.
May Mother Earth depend on our breath for her wind.
May Mother Earth depend on our body for her landscape .

May Mother Earth open prairie seeds.
May Mother Earth fill rain clouds.
May Mother Earth give flight to Frigate Birds.
May Mother Earth have islands of refuge.


Beloved Mother, wake us—your children—to suffering we cause.
Beloved Mother, help us help all beings recover from carbon dioxide overdose.
Beloved Mother, continue nourishing life as it evolves and arrives each day.
Beloved Mother, be happy and free on your journey through space.

Picture of Heather Lyn Mann

Heather Lyn Mann

You can learn more about Heather Lyn Mann, her teachings and retreats here on her website.
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