EarthLove

Sharing Songs of Earth and Sky

Our Foundation

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We think of ourselves as ‘in’ landscape, but sometimes we forget that landscape is also in us. We are formed by the ground we walk on: that which lies beneath our feet, that which holds us, supports us, feeds us. Ground is where we stand, the foundation for our lives. Whether it is hard and cold or warm and soft, ground is the foundation of our being in this world.

Ground is the safe place at the heart of us; we ‘go to ground’ when we are trying to hide or escape from something which is hunting us. We ‘hold our ground’ when we stand firm against something which challenges or threatens us. We ‘have an ear to the ground’ when we are properly paying attention to what is going on around us. To ‘keep our feet on the ground’ is to be realistic, not to get too big for our boots. Without ground, we are nothing.

Sharon Blackie

Love of Country

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“As I grew to understand the gifts of the earth, I couldn’t understand how ‘love of country’ could omit recognition of the actual country itself.

The only promise it requires is to a flag. What of the promises to each other and to the land?

What would it be like to be raised on gratitude, to speak to the natural world as a member of the democracy of the species, to raise a pledge of interdependence?

No declarations of political loyalty are required, just a response to a repeated question:

Can we agree to be grateful for all that is given?

… What happens to nationalism, to political boundaries, when allegiance lies with winds and waters that know no boundaries, that cannot be bought or sold?”

~Robin Wall Kimmerer,
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
🌍 ❤️

You Know Her

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We are the Earth the Earth are We

You don’t have to connect with Mother Earth.
You have never been disconnected from Her.
Before you even knew what it meant to know, you have known Her.
You know Her in you, as you, as your very own breath. 

Before She turned into “other”, an abstract concept, something you would have to evaluate, deserve, miss, awaken to, or even “return to”,
She has birthed you, nursed you, fed you; She has held you close;

She has never—even for a moment—let you go. 

~Chameli Ardagh

Formed in Nature

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“Our bodies remember that we lived in trees and forests. We need to crawl and climb and run if we are to develop our intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacities. We did not emerge from an austere iceberg of a distant planet, but in the particularities of this Earth and its forests. When we wander through the mountains climbing and running, our bodies remember these deep patterns of behavior intrinsically tied to all we are.”

~Brian Swimme,
The Universe is a Green Dragon

Message from Mama Gaia

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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