This morning I offered three sacred herbs to the water in a ceremony of gratitude. My gratitude today was for my spiritual path and the teachings of giving back. As I made the offering I spoke my gratitude for my teachers, to my teachers, and for the lineages they have carried and shared.

In my mind I saw teachers I have met and others whose names I know, stretching back in time. Behind them were the shadows of others whose names I will not know in this life. The images became less distinct as they stood farther away until I could no longer see individuals, only their energy and the light of the truth that they carried.

In this ceremony my offering was a mixture of cedar, sage, and tobacco. I thought also of those who offer different plants, knowing that those plants willingly carry their gratitude. Other lineages came into the picture, peoples who throughout the ages have given back to the earth in this same way. The scene filled with people of different colors and different genders, wearing different coverings; some were tall, some short, some blonde, some dark-haired. All of them in their way, with their understanding, were offering sacred herbs back to the land, back to the soil, back to the water, back to the rocks. Some of them stood, some bent down, some were on one or both knees, some were prostrate on the ground.

Those people and their energy filled my consciousness as I stood alone on the rocks, watching the herbs I had given to the water disperse and move away, carrying my prayers to the earth and to all that is.

Renewed and strengthened by their kinship, I turned in peace to my day.