On October 20, 2012, I attended the 3rd Annual Earth Medicine Alliance Conference, Celebrating Ancestral Wisdom.

This year’s conference was just as powerful for me as last year’s. Being surrounded by a room full of spiritual leaders can be a very humbling experience. For me it brings into clear focus my humanity, the importance of honoring my history and clarifying my purpose, and how every action has a ripple effect on all other life forms and the world.

There were various earth-honoring and spiritual leaders and thinkers at the conference, each having something wonderful and powerful to offer the conference attendees. One of the break out sessions I attended was an Interfaith Ancestor Reverence Panel Discussion with Orisha/Ifa priest Baba Ifagbemi Faseye Obafunso, Metis Elder Hua Anwa, Spiritual Leader of Sharanya Chandra Alexandre, and Mystic T. Thorn Coyle. I loved hearing how each different belief system pointed in the same direction. It was a resounding message of love, compassion, and respect for each other, mother earth, and our interconnected web of life.

There is still much to integrate from the conference teachings, but I have already shifted how I’m engaging with others in a more open and honest way with more love, compassion and respect.

How appropriate that the conference is held at the Unitarian Universalist Center of San Francisco. I look forward to this conference every year as it helps me to ground and center myself in my life and my work.

Thank you Earth Medicine Alliance for all that you do to support earth-honoring religious teachings and spiritual practices. You have my deepest respect.