Welcome to Nature & Nurture: Southern Maryland

We gather to reconnect with the sacred through sky, shoreline, forest, and one another — honoring wonder, reflection, and belonging in the natural world.

Nature mandala arranged with flowers, leaves, and natural materials

About Nature & Nurture: Southern Maryland

Nature & Nurture: Southern Maryland is a welcoming Spirituality in Nature Group . We share time and experiences in community connecting with each other and the natural place where we are gathered. We express our curiosity, creativity and reverence for the natural world and first peoples through shared conversation and practices/ceremonies.

Belonging together, as members of the Earth and the cosmos, we invite everyone regardless of belief.

Southern Maryland: Our Shared Place

Watershed & Geography

Our community sits where the Patuxent River meets the greater Chesapeake Bay watershed, near Lusby and the dramatic Calvert Cliffs. These Miocene-era formations hold millions of years of coastal history in layered sands, clays, and marine fossils.

Illustration of river channels flowing to the Chesapeake Bay near coastal cliffs

Ecology

Coastal oak-pine forests, mountain laurel, and marsh edges shape this landscape. Bald eagles soar above creeks and coves, while fish, crabs, and other marine life sustain the estuary’s living web.

Illustration of coastal forest and estuary wildlife habitat

Indigenous Heritage

Placeholder for honoring the original peoples of this land, including the Piscataway Conoy and related Chesapeake region lineages, while acknowledging and uplifting existing tribal communities today.

Symbolic landscape illustration honoring Indigenous presence and relationship with land

Gatherings & Calendar

Our Gatherings

Our gatherings begin with a warm welcome and a Seven Directions prayer. In a circle together we share and reflect on a theme, learn about and pay respect to the first peoples and ecology of the land. We share a centering practice and an inspirational reading, and then a combination of quiet solo time followed by a shared community activity or ceremony with the intention of cultivating our awareness of this wondrous life-giving planet and honoring our active, reciprocal place within this living community. We close by sharing reflections on the practices we have shared, followed by expressing gratitude for ourselves, each other, and our world.

Upcoming gatherings are listed below in agenda view.