How Real is the Earth to You?

 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.