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We are the Ark

“Today I heard a new client ask me in a perplexed moment.. “ But what will I use the land for if I give it back to nature?”

That language.“ What will I use the land for?”….. It cut into my heart. 

Every life form matters.
Every conscious being has a role to play in the web of life. 
Except us. 

We have no role In the earths ecosystems…The only living beings that don’t. 

But now we must undertake a vital position in the web. 

We have got to become guardians. 
Not gardeners. 
Caretakers of the wildness. 
Inside and out. 

The time is up. 
The earth is crying out for our attention. 
We fight to live, so shall she. 

We are many and We Are the Ark.”

~Mary Reynolds
www.wearetheark.org

🌍 ❤️

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Message from Mama Gaia

We are the Earth, the Earth are We

You know me… I’m the one you never bothered to name.

earth with a small e
I, the first and most powerful of the Gods.
Even after you saw my loveliness from up there…
my comely blues, my wisps of clouds,
the generosity of my life-giving waters…
Even then you didn’t name me.

I had a name once.
In this culture’s genesis I was Gaia.

I am a cosmic body born out of cataclysm and catastrophe.
I was seeded and, alone among the Bodies, was willing
I nurtured the seed in my awesome womb…

I am the Matrix
You are in and of my body
I am the Mother
I am the Daughter
I am the Lover
But scorned, I am also Lilith, the Maid of Desolation.
And I dance in the ruins of cities.

I am sorry…
I am sorry for you, I am sorry for me.
But then it’s the same thing isn’t it?
…

Embrace me… I am you… You are Gaia now.

~Excerpt from performance art by Rachel Rosenthal

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Tree Wisdom

#BeFilledWithLightAndShine

Mary’s entire poem:

When I am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

~Mary Oliver

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A Blessing for the New Year

Let us bless the imagination of the Earth.

That knew early the patience to harness the mind of time,

Waited for the seas to warm, ready to welcome the emergence

Of things dreaming of voyaging among the stillness of land…

Let us thank the Earth that offers ground for home

And holds our feet firm to walk in space open to infinite galaxies.

Let us salute the silence and certainty of mountains:

Their sublime stillness, their dream-filled hearts.

The wonder of a garden trusting the first warmth of spring…

The humility of the Earth that transfigures all that has fallen of outlived growth.

The kindness of the Earth, opening to receive

our worn forms into the final stillness.

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth

For all our sins against her:

for our violence and poisonings of her beauty.

Let us remember within us the ancient clay, holding the memory of seasons,

The passion of the wind, the fluency of water, the warmth of fire,

The quiver-touch of the sun and shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken to live to the full the dream of the Earth

Who chose us to emerge and incarnate its hidden night in mind, spirit and light.

~John O’Donohue

♡

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We Are One

Green God of Soil, Root and Fern

Our ancestors said to their mother Earth: ‘We are yours’.

Modern Humanity said to Nature, ‘You are mine’.

The Green Man has returned as the living face of the whole earth so that through his mouth we may say to the universe: ‘We are one’.

~ Sharon Brubaker

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Stream of Life

Aspens in Fall by Henry Percy

The same stream of life 

that runs through my veins night and day 

runs through the world 

and dances in rhythmic measures. 

It is the same life that shoots in joy

through the dust of the earth 

in numberless blades of grass and breaks into 

tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. 

It is the same life that is rocked 

in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death 

in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious 

by the touch of this world of life 

and my joy is from the life-throb of ages 

dancing in my blood this moment.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

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Soul Food

‘It is imperative to maintain portions of the wilderness untouched
so that a tree will rot where it falls,

a waterfall will pour its curve without generating electricity,

a trumpeter swan may float on uncontaminated water

– and moderns may at least see what their ancestors knew
in their nerves and blood.’

~Bernand De Voto