How we
can help the Earth and Ourselves
For many of us brought
up in a Judeo-Christian world, understanding the difference between
working with nature and using the earth, is the first step. If we
feel or think, that if we own some land that we own all the trees,
animals and plants and they are ours to do with as we will, this
shows no honoring and the relationship is wrong. The relationship
is adversarial and there is no harmony. If we, however, see ourselves
as stewards and are responsible for protecting the life around us
that life will gladly give us what we need to live, we are in harmony.
That nature wishes to
involve us in a dialogue may seem to some to be very far-fetched
but its true. If you doubt it try for a month to greet all of nature,
the fly, the ant, the mouse, the plant, tree and bird with a greeting,
try to look each time you meet one of brothers or sisters from their
eyes and treat them as you would wish to be treated. Ah, the Golden
Rule, many of us try and live the golden rule but we need to include
all of nature. Nature will respond more quickly than your friends
and neighbors, nature does not display the selfishness that man
does.
We have all read or
heard, how plants react strongly to loving words and thoughts, but
few realize that it is not only plants but all of nature, plants
because of their short life span and their lack of mobility are
easy subjects to study.
This is not something I discovered last
week but something we, my family and myself, have been practicing
for over a dozen years in our little valley here in Vermont. About
12 years ago the first family of ravens came into our valley and nested
in a huge pine tree, in a small woods between two hayfields. Every
time I saw them I greeted them and expressed to them how happy I was
to share this beautiful place with them. Every year since, there have
been a few more ravens and now at dusk when they fly back from the
river, there are 40-50 ravens. We now call the ridge behind the house
Raven Ridge. They are wonderful neighbors. We share this land with
a bear, I saw this bear his first year as a tiny cub with his mother
and then for the next two years I saw him once each year. The third
year by late August I hadn't seen him and began to worry about my
friend. I think it was about three days later I was riding with my
daughter and nephew when we saw what we at first thought was a dog
way in the back of a field. The dog stood up on two legs and I could
feel my friend saying hello and telling me not to worry about him.
He looked right at me for about a minute and then turned and ran into
the woods. I've included a photo below of another friend, same kind
of story. This doesn't only work in Vermont but works everywhere,
it maybe a robin instead of a raven and it may be a rabbit instead
of a bear. Its not what the life form is its the opening of yourself
to nature, the right relationships, the love and concern. If enough
of us begin to develop this, think it, feel it and practice it. It
will spread and our love will overcome the apathy and even better
the selfishness, first around our houses and then as our friends catch
on its such a joy that after you've practiced it for a few months
you'll be another of the crazies talking to the animals. the plants,
stones, the birds and insects and finally the earth herself. She'll
talk back but not in the quiet voice of the frog or butterfly but
in the wind, in the morning fog, in the vista from a mountain top
or the colors of a sunset. She will speak to you in beauty, in power
and in majesty.
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