Building relationships within the more-than-human world takes time and discipline. For many, this will also require slowing down, changing habits, and listening to our own bodies and those others around us, in different ways.
This touchstone requires work and discipline, much the same as developing a meditative practice. Building and maintaining meaningful relationships, especially with those denizens who live near us, requires significant amounts of time immersed in particular places, listening to the world. It also takes work to develop one’s own pedagogical practices—the how of one’s teaching and the assumptions and habits that motivate that work.
With this discussion as background, consider the question:
How did my practice today leave space for meaningful engagement with nearby places and the beings living there? And what further steps might I take to do so?