Western culture has tended to dismiss the idea that humans are part of an earth community, a community filled with intelligence as acute as, but different from, our human intelligence. Because of this, a sense of disconnection from our earth community has become a standard way of experiencing ourselves in industrial societies…when we take in a Western, materialistic interpretation of our place within the earth community, we lose access to an experience of being a participant in a complex earth family, which includes all our more-than-human earth-kin. It doesn’t have to be this way. Humans across all time have lived with a sense of active, reciprocal relationship to the world around them. This perspective is available to us, as well. All we need to do is be willing to wake up to it…

~ Nancy J. Napier

Red Deer, Jasper National Park – photo by 118205273, bigstockphoto.com