My busy weekend started with an urgent request on Friday
night to write an earth-centered “Healing the Earth” meditation for my UU church
on Sunday; followed by a company picnic Saturday afternoon, helping to lead the
aforementioned service Sunday morning; and Sunday afternoon, administrative
work for my Druid Grove and finishing edits requested by a client. So, as you might imagine, by the end of
Sunday, I was ready for some serious “Me Time,” which usually means reading,
writing, or being outdoors, communing with nature.
Saturday night I watched an excerpt from Starhawk’s (2009)
video titled “How Real is the Earth to You” – shortly after reading “Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future” - and so thoughts of Earth had
been percolating through my mind for most of the weekend. As is my habit in all but deep winter, when
the day began to fade and the sun started sinking into the west, I found myself
sitting on the deck; feeling the trees breathe, listening to the birds bedding
down as the crickets and cicadas began their nightly chorus, and watching bats
begin their evening mosquito hunt. I sat
out there pondering for a long time while the sun set and the moon rose full
and yellow in the evening sky. Just taking it all in. Just listening, watching, breathing, and
feeling.
How real is the earth to you? Interesting question. For me, it’s very real. For me, that deep feeling of being connected
to the earth; to the flowing water; to the warm sun and to the wheeling stars
is the essence of my being. The strength
and power of the land and all of the things that live on and in it is
imperative to my life. For me, the
voices in the wind, the trees, the water and the land; the daily antics and
struggles of the animals to live their lives are very real. Those things are connected to the truest part
of who I am. They are wild joy, they are
deep sorrow, they are balance and unbalance, they are danger and safety; they
are strength and understanding and knowledge of things both known and
unknown. I would not live without them; and
without them I wouldn’t be me.
But so many people don’t have that deep
connection; who don’t know that they don’t
have it; and who don't know that they need it because
it never occurs to them.
Who go through life eyes-down, tethered to the cell phone;
texting their hearts out on social media to a vast and faceless audience? Who work indoors all day (and half the night) and spend the weekend
running kids from place to place, catching up on work, or doing chores. Who are so concerned with schedules and bills
and the busy-ness of everyday life that they never stop to think. Who never even stop to think ABOUT thinking
about anything but what they’re doing in the immediate moment - or have to do
later? Who are so busy that they never
notice that the same mockingbird sings at the same time in the same tree every
morning on their walk to the office. That
the moon rises and sets in a predictable pattern. That the world is full of insects, and of
tiny seeds that become flowers and fruit.
Or that trees breathe.
We are a culture of busy-ness. Somehow being “too busy” has
become some kind of badge of honor. We
rush from activity to activity, doing tasks - and rarely if ever really stop to
consider whether those tasks are really important or why we’re doing them. In all that busyness we don’t have time to
think about the Earth, to experience it, to pay attention to what’s
happening. Certainly, many who consider
themselves “environmentally aware” or “environmentally concerned,” might take a
few minutes to sign a petition to stop fracking or save the wolves on Facebook;
or possibly to pick up the trash someone has carelessly left on their front
lawn. Gardeners stop to spray their
tomatoes because bugs are eating holes in the leaves (not realizing that the
birds, frogs, and lizards that eat those bugs, and the butterflies and bees
that make their tomatoes grow are being poisoned too). For many, walking the dog, or noticing a cardinal
at the bird feeder, or planting marigolds is the closest to “Nature” that we
ever get. And some of us don’t even get
that close because we live in worlds of concrete, metal and glass, where the
only “Nature” we come in contact with is the occasional pigeon or housefly. We
watch the world through windows and doors and through gadgets, never seeing it
as it really is – only as it is second-hand.
Is it any wonder that we “civilized” humans see Earth as
distant, disconnected, irrelevant? Is it
any wonder that we scarcely even notice Nature unless some sort of Nature-made
inconvenience or disaster jumps up and wakes us up for a few minutes? Is it any
wonder that we believe those who say climate change isn’t real, animals aren’t
going extinct, tropical rainforests and old-growth forests are disappearing at
an alarming rate?
We are part of the Earth.
We are part of Nature. We are
part of the interconnected web of all existence. We are asleep, and we need to wake up!
Today, take some time to just go outside and breathe.
Blessings.
