
Shhh… Listen



Earth teach me caring
as mothers nurture their young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree that stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant that crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle that soars in the sky.
Earth teach me acceptance
as the leaves that die each fall.
Earth teach me renewal
as the seed that rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep with rain.
~Ute Prayer
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Image: Aspen Light
by Nancy L


“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
🌍 ❤️

“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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” Ever since we arrived on this planet as a species, we’ve cut them down, dug them up, burnt them and poisoned them. Today we’re doing so on a greater scale than ever.
We destroy trees at our peril. Neither we nor any other animal can survive without them. “
~Sir David Attenborough
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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
