Lisa María Madera
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5/29/2018 0 Comments

Here I Am

I am facing the most extraordinary of times--a moment of extremes--marked by both extreme limitations and scarcity AND extraordinary open doors and abundance.  This morning I was thinking about how this moment challenges me; how it requires me to push myself and walk forward in confidence and faith in the face of difficulty.  This is the very nature of life.

I thought of the work I do with students and how, in the first phase of my counseling  where through a series of workshops and reflective exercises, I help students address the question "Who am I?" 
This is our primary question that compels us every day of our lives and it leads to the question that Mary Oliver eloquently asks, "What are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?"  

Who. Am. I. ?

Which led me to the story of Samuel, where G-d calls his name in the middle of the night and he thinks it is Eli and runs to Eli to help him.  This happens several times in the night until finally, Eli tells him, "Samuel, G-d is calling your name."  And Samuel asks, "What shall I say to him?" And Eli tells him, the next time G-d calls your name, say "Here I am."

And I thought about those words--HERE. I. AM.--how that is all we can say to our Creator who has made us, AS WE ARE, and placed us into a specific place on this planet at this time (HERE). And we must respond and live accordingly, creatively, respectfully, productively, joyfully, fruitfully--living into the act of the AM.
That is all we can do.  All we are meant to do. 

Which then made me think about what G-d says to Moses--I AM the GREAT I AM. The Being that exponentially full fills his/her/their being--who fully expresses the I AM in part through the creation of the universe.

All to say that I want to fully live into "HERE I AM"

I want to help others fully live into "HERE I AM."

I want to open the garden gate.

Especially in the face of limitations, fear, scarcity, and locked doors.

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    About the Author

    Lisa Maria Madera is an Ecuadorian American writer and educator whose work explores how cultural narratives shape our individual and communal relation to the Earth and her creatures.

    Madera's work has appeared in Ecopsychology, Hypertext, JSRNC, Minding Nature and in Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations forthcoming from the Center for Humans and Nature. Her short story Luz Maria has been nominated for consideration in Best American Short Stories 2021.

    ​Dedicated to fostering compassionate and resilient communities connected to Nature, Madera also designs and hosts trips to Ecuador providing opportunities for observation and reflection on how our relationship to the world is shaped by the cultural narratives that define us.


    ​Madera offers her work in a vision of hope and blessing that these reflections might empower all of us to realign our relationship in kinship to the Earth, to her many creatures, and to each other, ultimately realigning ourselves in right relation to the world around us so that we might live sustainably and in community.

    Madera is currently working on a memoir entitled The Covid Chronicles: Lessons from Pacha Mama in the Face of Despair.     

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