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We were bred of earth before we were bred of our mothers. Once born, we can live without mother or father, or any other kin, or any friend, or any human love. We cannot live without the earth or apart from it
~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Roadside Splendor – photo by Jeff Burcher Photography, used with permission
If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive
~ Eleonara Duse
Hawaii Sunrise, Puna Coast, Big Island, Hawaii – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
Theres something in us that knows we came here to give. The notion is the opposite of a consumer society. The consumer society says we came here to get, and were going to consume everything there is. But the old idea is that we came into the world gifted, and culture is our way of giving. Thats our way of being natural and participating in the natural world.
~ Michael Meade
Rattlesnake Lake, North Bend, WA – Aurora – photo by Chris Williams Exploration Photogrpahy, used with permission
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
~ Albert Einstein
Photo by Zastrozzi Dh Photography, used with permission
The whole of planet Earth
Is a sacred site.
All people are the chosen people,
And the purpose of our lives is a spiritual one
May we care for each other,
And for the earth, for everything
Relates to everything else.
Feeling this oneness,
May we radiate the light of love
And kindness that all may live in unity and peace.
~ Teach Only Love, Facebook
Light Shaft, Main Room, Upper Antelope Canyon – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
Be still for just a moment and listen
to the symphony of breath that fills
every moment with the exquisite
pleasure of being Alive Now.
~ Gaye Abbott
North Fork Skokomish River – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
May the energy emanating
from every step I take
re-sanctify the Earth.
May the energy emanating
from every breath I take
re-sanctify the Earth.
May the energy emanating
from every action I take
re-sanctify the Earth.
May the energy emanating
from every thought, action,
word and deed of all humanity
re-sanctify the Earth.
And so, by this exchange
of blessings may grow,
in symbiosis,
the consciousness of Oneness.
~ Ann Palmer
Gifford Pinchot National Forest – photo by Sandy’s NW Hiking Photos, used with permission
True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self elements. There’s no separation between self and other, and everything is interconnected. Once you are aware of that you are no longer caught in the idea that you are a separate entity.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Stars Over Grand Canyon, photo by Don Smith Photography – used with permission
WORDS OF REVERENCE FOR WATER
All over the world there are human beings who have not separated themselves from the land, the water and all of nature. Indigenous cultures have an unbroken chain that extends back to the time when our ancestors first settled the continent. For thousands of years we have lived here and it remained much as it was in the beginning under our care, we have utilized the knowledge passed down from our ancestors.
Edna Yumtheska, my mother of the Havasupai the People of the Bluewater told me:
Whenever you come upon Water in its natural state, you approach it with respect; you introduce yourself to it. Take time to pay respect to it. For Water gives life, we live inside Water for nine months in our mothers womb. Then we follow the Water into this world. It is sacred, we depend on Water for the rest of our life. Water is Life.
Water is also a great teacher of humility. There was a time while walking in the desert, that I came upon a small natural basin filled with fresh rain Water. I was told that if I was to take any of this sacred Water I must make a prayer of thanksgiving and offer a sprinkle in the direction of Hopi land, so that there would be a good rainfall for the gardens.
When I knelt at the Water, I was overwhelmed by the realization that there was a Hopi farmers corn crop waiting for the rain in order to grow, there is a child in the desert lands of Africa searching for Water mile after mile, who may not even find a drop; there is a little Tibetan boy sucking the Water dripping from a utility pipe to quench his thirst; there are the First Nations people who cannot get their fish to dry or can for winter food because the hydroelectric dams are holding back 80% of the river Waters; so the fish do not come, because 20% of the river Water that is now allowed to flow cannot accommodate the fish. Yes, Water is sacred.
Allow for a moment of gratitude the next time you take a drink of Water. Then, hope will flicker within hope that allows us to envision a way, a path towards a more compassionate and caring society that heeds the consciousness that Water is Life.
Mona Polacca
Havasupai/Hopi/Tewa Nations, Arizona
International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace
Co-Secretariat
Opal Creek Wilderness, photo by Sandy’s NW Hiking Photos, used with permission
The human venture depends absolutely on this quality of awe and reverence and joy in the Earth and all that lives and grows upon the Earth. As soon as we isolate ourselves from these currents of life and from the profound mood that these engender within us, then our basic life-satisfactions are diminished. None of our machine-made products, none of our computer-based achievements can evoke that total commitment to life.
~ Thomas Berry
This morning’s photo is also from KR Backwoods Photography. We include it so that you can have some sense of the size of the trees in the Hoh Rainforest. Look for Kevin, the photographer, standing on the path.
A Walk Among Giants, Hoh Rainforest, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness…
Indeed, the attempt to live according to the notion that the fragments are really separate is, in essence, what has led to the growing series of extremely urgent crises that is confronting us today.
~David Bohm
Staircase Rapids, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them.
~ Nikola Tesla
Moonlight, Upper Yosemite Fall and Cassiopeia, Yosemite – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
Everything is connected. The wing of the corn beetle affects the direction of the wind, the way the sand drifts, the way the light reflects into the eye of man beholding his reality. All is part of totality, and in this totality man finds his hozro, his way of walking in harmony, with beauty all around him.
~ Tony Hillerman, “The Ghostway”
Hell’s Gate, Death Valley – photo by Don Smith Photograpy, used with permission
In reality, there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members whether human or other than human. In this community every being has its own role to fulfill, its own dignity, its own inner spontaneity. Every being has its own voice. Every being declares itself to the entire universe. Every being enters into communion with other beings.
~ Thomas Berry
Bald Eagle at Tongue Point – photo by TAO Photography, used with permission
We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon, that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields, and we ask that they teach us and show us the way.
~ Chinook Blessing Litany
Angel Falls, Venezuela – photo by Poco a poco
