June 2026 - Nature Gathering

Written By Ancient Hearts Collective .

6/28/2026

June Message: Longing and Belonging | The Soul’s Journey

GATHERING MESSAGE

✧ Happy Hollow Park was humming with the abundance of early summer as our community gathered to carry the theme of Longing and Belonging out of the indoor circle and into the land itself. Where our June 14 gathering explored belonging through wisdom and word, today we let the body learn it directly, through bare feet on grass, the sound of moving water, and the quiet company of trees that have stood far longer than any of us.

We opened by remembering that longing is not evidence of our disconnection. It is proof of our belonging to ourselves, to the land, to each other, and to our lineage. We talked about the indigenous understanding that the self is not a singular being moving alone through the world, but the living tip of an unbroken root system extending back through ancestry, into our communities, and into the land beneath us.

We sat with the Celtic word dúchas, the belonging that happens not through thought but through simple proximity to land, season after season. Before we ventured out to explore the park, we closed our eyes together and let summer arrive through our senses rather than our minds, the sound of the wind, the warmth of the air, the particular quality of light even behind closed eyelids. Going around the circle, each person offered just a few words for what they noticed.

Then, Sarah, our Nature Advisor, guided us into a different kind of noticing, one that doesn't happen through the ears alone. We set out to explore in pairs along the trails, along the river, and into the open field. For thirty minutes, the invitation was to notice the interdependence of the natural world, how the wind, the plant life, the sun, the animal and bug life rely on one another. How one is connected to the whole.

When the community returned, we shared what landed in our hearts. Scattered across the grass, we had found birch seed pods, each one carrying hundreds of seeds. We sat with what that meant: hundreds of seeds in a single pod, each one waiting to be received by the ground, each one carrying its creation code within until the right conditions arrive. And then, not far from where we gathered, we found a new birch tree already sprouting in the grass. One of those hundreds of seeds had found its moment. It had been received. It was becoming what it was always meant to be. The land had handed us the teaching we came to receive, without a single word.

We closed with the same three-part embodied practice from our last gathering, now grounded in the actual land beneath us rather than imagined. In the first round, we returned to the landscape of our earliest belonging, letting it meet the ground we were sitting on right now. In the second, we let our awareness travel backward through the unbroken river of ancestors who had to live, love, and endure for each of us to be there. And in the third, we rested in the Soul Presence Practice, drawing in the light John O'Donohue describes in Anam Cara, the light that surrounds and holds us whether we notice it or not.

We closed with a blessing for the longing each of us carries, that it is not a wound, but the way our soul has stayed honest with us through every season of our lives. That our ancestors travel with us as companionship, not weight. And that the courage to follow our longing leads us not away from our life, but deeper into it, into the belonging that was always already ours.

Closing Blessing:

May you know, in your bones, that your longing is not a wound. It is the way your soul has stayed connected through every season of your life.

May you carry your ancestors with you, not as weight, but as companionship. May you feel the love they could not always show.

May you find, today and in the days ahead, the quiet courage to follow your longing where it leads. Not away from your life, but deeper into it.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

✧ To bring this wisdom from our minds down into our bodies, we engaged in a three-round embodied practice. We began by visualizing our land of origin, breathing in the sights and scents of our childhood native ground to ground ourselves in that permanent inner landscape. In the second round, we traced our awareness backward through time, feeling the vast, unbroken river of historic human lives that endured and loved imperfectly just so we could be here today. For the final round, we focused on soul presence, drawing inward the luminous soul light that John O'Donohue says surrounds and holds our physical bodies. We closed our practice with a collective blessing, reminding one another that our longing is a compass, our ancestors are our companions, and we are never as alone as we might believe.

✧ Revisit and listen to this guided practice beginning at minute 36:43, from the June Indoor gathering recording.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

✧ On Longing: Where do you feel longing right now, and how can you treat it as a compass rather than a problem to solve?

✧ On Land of Origin: How did your own land of origin shape you, and how do you carry it with you?

✧ On the Ancestral Thread: What personal quality is a gift from those who came before you?

✧ On Soul Presence: What does it feel like to remember your body is held within your soul, and can you return to that awareness any time?

✧ On Summer: What do you notice when you let summer arrive through your senses instead of your mind?

PERENNIAL WISDOM SOURCES

✧ INDIGENOUS

NEXT GATHERING:

  • JULY INDOOR GATHERING - July Message: Returning to Each Other

    • Sunday, July 12th, 10am-Noon

    • Location: Atria Hall | 14 W Fulton Street, Edgerton

    • Heart Leaders: Erin Helmuth and Jen Carew

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • We are currently seeking a Music Director and Heart Leaders to help co-lead gatherings. A Heart Leader is someone who contributes their talents and wisdom to the community. We are seeking…

    🌿 Musicians and singers to help lead the musical portions of our gatherings and to collaborate on composing anchoring music for the community. 

    🌿 Teachers of the world’s traditions to infuse our gatherings with wisdom as we dwell in the deep questions that arise in our lives.

    🌿 Trained leaders of universal spiritual practices like spiritual inquiry, meditation, forest bathing, sound bathing, and more.

  • If you are trained, certified, ordained, or a scholar (have a Major/Minor) in one of the above traditions or practices, we invite you to join us in sharing your tradition. *Note: No formal training is necessary for musicians and singers. Send an email to contact@ancienthearts.org to inquire.

  • Our Community Support Request form is LIVE on the website, under the Giving Back tab here. This is a gentle way to let the Ancient Hearts community know that you’re navigating a difficult time or could use some extra support right now.

  • Founding Members: If this is the community you’ve been seeking and you want to help sustain us, we invite you to consider becoming a Founding Member in 2026. We hope to welcome 30 Founding Members into our Founding Circlethis year. Learn more and reach out to contact@ancienthearts.org with any questions you have.

Ancient Hearts Collective . https://ancienthearts.org
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June 2026 - Indoor Gathering