In its oldest form, prayer consists simply in speaking to the world, rather than solely about the world. We should recognize that it is lousy etiquette to speak only about the other animals, only about the mountain forest and the black bears and the storms, since by doing so we treat such entities as totalizeable objects, able to be comprehended and represented by us, rather than as enigmatic powers with whom our lives are entwined and to whom we are beholden.

Can we not also speak to these powers, and listen for their replies? Can we not cry out to the winds, whisper to the river and the deer, offer our tears to a tree, challenge the mountain with our questions? Outrageous as it may seem, such animistic (or participatory) modes of discourse are simply necessary, I believe, if we wish to really enact a respectful relation to these other beings, to remember the wild alterity of the waters, the winds, and the breathing land itself. If, finally, we wish to ensure an ethic of restraint in our human engagements with the more-than-human earth.

~ David Abram, “Between the Body and the Breathing Earth”

Clearing Storm Reflection, photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission