It’s raining outside as I look to my computer to write this blog post. What to discuss today? I just got the calling to type and so here goes.
My mind is like fertile soil full of new ideas wondering, which one will blossom first? Have you ever felt this way? How would the earth itself deal with this problem? It would rest and know that in time with enough water and sunshine new life will form.
I apply this analogy to my own predicament and see that in time the answers will come and I will know as the days unfold which idea to action and which to leave in the depths of my mind, maybe to arise later in the year.
Nature can teach us so much about our own inner world. Looking out at the rain falling from the clouds as they release the moisture built up inside, which then feeds the plants below. Everything in nature has a function and a divine relationship with one another. It is truly beautiful to witness because we often see ourselves as separate from this vast wonder we call nature. When you observe its wonders you see the wonder in us too. The plants and trees bring oxygen to our lungs, the earth provides food for us to eat and all the animals and creatures keep this universe in balance and flow.
Where the picture changes is how we relate to nature. We try to control it and dominate it. We want to take what we think is rightfully ours. The universe was made for man, right? That is what we have been taught our whole lives. What if that was not the case?
I am reading the book, ‘Ishmael’ by Daniel Quinn, who provides a perspective of the world from the eyes of a Gorilla named Ishmael. It is beautifully written and has really made me switch the ‘mother culture’ narrative that Quinn describes as the humming sound in the background of our lives that has become unconscious to us all. Mother culture tells us that man is the dominant species of this planet and so we automatically put ourselves at the centre of the universe, when really it is the other way around. We never question these cultural narratives as they engulf our lives in the mass formation of media, schooling, and parenting and on and on the narratives go.
Not all humans think this way, as Quinn explains some of us are living in relationship with the planet and not just taking from it, he calls these people ‘the leavers’. They could teach us so much and yet our focus on the advancement of man is wiping out land, indigenous cultures and species at a rapid pace. We are headed for a collision of catastrophic implosion, advancing to the point of our own demise.
So, as I look out of my rainy window once more, I ask myself, ‘How can I flow like the rain and nourish the earth as it supports me? The answer can’t be found in one unique explanation, it takes daily observation and care, to monitor your own movements as you walk upon this sacred earth.