how do I learn to pray?

2023. I have always loved springtime, and over the last decade of my healing journey, I have become flooded with more gratitude each year. This year was particularly special as I had never felt so complete. Pachamandala is a term I coined, combining two words, Pachamama (Earth) and mandala (Sanskrit geometric symbols used to create a sacred space or prayer). The first morning I heard birds chirping, the first blades of grass to protrude from the Earth, and smells of the first rain; all the feels and smells involved in the process of creating this Pachamandala were pure magic, and I felt so incredibly honored to have such a nourishing and beautiful place to call home.
A Pachamandala is a prayer, and the flowers/food/offerings carry our prayer into the world. I create these with different prayers every time, but all are used to help us to find balance with nature and laws of sacred reciprocity. I first learned about sacred reciprocity in Peru, studying with Q'eros shamans high up in the Andes. The primary spiritual principle of the Q'eros is "ayni," which translates to "sacred reciprocity." They believe we must give and receive equally and cannot take more from nature than we give back. If we are greedy and take more than we give back, they believe we will suffer and, perhaps, get sick. The disease is believed to result from interrupting this harmonious relationship with nature. Therefore, restoring this balance is the first step in treating any illness or adversity. We are designed to cooperate harmoniously with nature. Just as we breathe the oxygen that is so lovingly made for us by plants and trees and we breathe back the carbon dioxide that the plant kingdom needs, we are intended to live as if we are in love with nature, as if the Earth loves us back. Breathing in, breathing out. Such is the foundation of the worldview of the Q'eros.
Ayni isn't a transactional concept. It's not that I help you, and then you help me in a score-keeping way. It's more of a pay-it-forward principle that if we're always loving and caring and giving—to each other and to nature—and if we're able to really drink in and receive the blessings bestowed upon us, it's only natural that we will all get our needs met harmoniously and this will fill us with a sense of abundance and gratitude. Ayni is about giving and taking, about finding the balance point at the center of giving and receiving. While we might think of giving and receiving as two ends of a vastly different spectrum, and is more like a circular flow, just like inhaling and exhaling the breath. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. If you're only breathing out, as so many helping professionals do, you'll die very quickly if you resist breathing in. Likewise, if you're only living in raping nature and taking what you feel entitled to from Pachamama (the female deity of the Q'eros or Mother Earth) without giving back to Pachamama, the flow of life force will be interrupted. Life force must move, flow, give, and receive equally. Such is the foundation of the spirituality and healing arts of the Q'eros.
Pachamandalas also teach us about the Law of Impermanence, the first dharma seal (primary characteristic or principle) in Buddhist philosophy; the Law of Impermanence is the teaching that everything in material or relative existence is impermanent. Everything has a beginning, a middle, and, most definitively, an ending. This can be a very confronting experience staring our impermanence directly in the face as we see the beauty of our Pachamandala carried away in the wind or burned in the fire.
While picking flowers and creating the Pachamandala, I ask permission, sing, and dance to the plants in gratitude for their sacrifice for my prayer. It's an entertaining and enjoyable way to bring blessings into our lives. Prayer has such a terrible stigma that it can often feel disempowering, giving up our power to something outside ourselves. A pachamandala will help empower you, getting to know your life's true power and purpose as a prayer, and all you do is be seen and heard even when no one is physically there to listen.
This Pachamandala was created as a prayer for the collective to truly feel the beauty and nourishment within and around us.