From Dust and Breath: A Meditation on Elemental Belonging

If you've read Kindred to Creation: An Ecotheology Rooted in Dust and Divinity and wondered how you can go beyond the philosophy and into an experience, check out the guided meditation linked at the end of this article.

Roots, Las Mosas, El Valle de Anton, by Nicholas Fournie

In our modern world, it’s easy to feel separate from each other, from the Earth, even from ourselves. We talk about nature as though it's something outside of us, something we visit or protect. But what if nature is not other? What if nature is what we are?

This question lies at the heart of From Dust and Breath, a meditation on sacred kinship with the Earth. Inspired by Judeo-Christian teachings, Taoist-Ch’an perspectives, and the ecological crisis of our time, this practice asks us to remember what we are made of: soil, breath, water, fire. We are not separate from the ground we walk on. We are the ground, animated for a time by spirit.

"For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:19)

These words are not a threat. They are an invitation to belonging.

This meditation does not ask us to transcend the Earth, but to return to it. Through simple breathwork, embodied visualization, and quiet stillness, From Dust and Breath guides us into an awareness of our elemental being. We breathe with the trees. We ache with the suffering of the land. We love this world because it is ourselves at the deepest level.

As the ecological crisis unfolds, it becomes clear that change cannot come from technology alone. It must come from a shift in perception. We must stop seeing nature as something to fix, and begin seeing it as someone we are. This meditation is a small step in that direction—a way to soften the boundary between self and world, humanity and Earth, dust and divine.

You are not separate. You are not above. You are not visiting.

You are the Earth, remembering itself.

Join the meditation on Insight Timer:

Live like dust lit by fire,

Nicho