The Gift of Nature
Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize
his values... God made life simple.
It is man who complicates it.
– Charles A. Lindberg
Camping at Sacred Lake 9,600 feet above Tuolumne Meadows after two grueling days of climbing up the mountain with 65 lbs on my back my head begins to clear in the fresh, still alpine air. Up here there is such peace, such clarity, such radiant simplicity… The wild flowers are certainly not working all that hard. They’re just soaking up the sun and being beauty. Unable to stay in the preciousness of the moment, my mind wanders to the dichotomy between my experience in the natural world and my life in today’s chaotic world.
When I look at the state of the world it reminds me of Charles Dickens words 150 years ago, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That is certainly true today! Never before has there been such a savage assault on the natural world. We have the “perfect storm” brewing with climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, species extinction, and over population – every life support system is in danger. With our destruction of the air, water and soil we are rapidly heading towards what scientists call 6X, the sixth mass extinction on our beautiful blue planet!
And yet there is so much to be grateful for… We have information at our fingertips that Kings and Queens didn’t even have a few hundred years ago. We have a profusion of examples of spiritual and cultural enlightenment. We have the ability to communicate with people worldwide. We are waking up to the life threatening impact on our own habitat and yet we continue to do the things that will destroy it. Why?
The deepest cause of the present devastation is found in a mode
of consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity
between the human and other modes of being and the bestowal of
all rights on the humans.
– Thomas Berry
Eco-theologian and cultural historian Thomas Berry speaks about the technological entrancement of the industrial age, a mental fixation that is ruining our air, water, soil and damaging our ecosystem. He says that it is our species isolation that has led to the escalating destruction of the planet. The Pachamama Alliance, in their Awakening the Dreamer program, asks us to examine the core assumptions and beliefs that have led us to this separation from nature and each other. Beliefs don’t show up as beliefs, rather they are things we take for granted and consider to be true. Things like, “there is not enough”, “we must have continuous growth”, or “more will make me happy”.
The most devastating belief of all is that we are separate from each other and the world.
Of course it looks like you are there and I am here and the world is out there. But,
we have all come from the same source and continue to evolve as a part of the world
around us. We all live within the grace of the greater Earth community. But we act as
though there was this world and we were just dropped into it like a candy store. And the
trees, water, air, land were all just waiting as “resources” to do with as we want. This
anthropomorphic perspective that puts us apart from the natural world is at the heart of
our suffering and the devastation of our life support systems.
Our difficulty is that we have become autistic. We no longer listen to what
the Earth, its landscape, its atmospheric phenomena and all its living
forms, its mountains and valleys, the rain, the wind, and all the flora
and fauna of the planet are telling us.
– Thomas Brerry
Up here at the top of the world, lying on the mossy growth at the lake’s edge I can feel Mother Earth breathing beneath me, her pulse is my pulse, her air is spirit entering my body, her breeze like gentle kisses on my bare skin. The Milky Way, our galaxy, is stretched across the evening sky as the Big Dipper pours itself onto these massive granite peaks that cradle me. The constellations are whispering wake up, wake up, it is time to wake up! The vastness of the beauty is overwhelming – a hundred billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of million stars, some like Andromeda, have trillions, Abell 2029 contains hundreds of trillions of stars. How can a language bound mind contain or explain such spacious beauty – and yet we are here, at the center of this awesome wonder.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
– William Shakespeare
Science tells us that fourteen billion years ago our universe burst forth from a single point smaller than the head of a pin and has been expanding in perpetual creative motion ever since. Our Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago from a common pool of matter, stardust from that primal bursting forth. How could we ever get the idea that we were separate, we are but dancing stardust ourselves, moving as a cosmic miracle of evolutionary unfolding. Here in the natural world away from the concrete, the technology and the chronic busyness there is no question that we are part of something much bigger than our little skin encapsulated egos.
Nature thrives on diversity and flexibility, gaining strength from heterogeneity… She is non-linear and adapts to change by providing a multiplicity of possibilities that maximize adaptability by utilizing all aspects of ever changing life cycles. In nature there is zero waste! In the emerging field of biomimicry people are studying nature to solve human problems by emulating natural systems and structures. What if we took any problem we had right now, and asked the question, how would nature do it? Take a personal economic, social, environmental or health issue that might be bothering you right now and ask yourself “how would nature deal with this issue”. You will find that it is waste free, honors diversity, utilizes all available resources, never rushes and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Can we let nature guide our path into the future – our future depends on it!
By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily
vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and
guiding
path toward a spiritual life.
– Thomas Moore
As I experience the mysteries of the universe here in this thin mountain air I wonder
about my own path and what I will do with “this one wild and precious life” that Mary
Oliver speaks about. Three things come to mind as essential components of my path.
The first is finding Stillness. How can I quiet my mind in this busy frenetic life? I
know the importance of finding silence and spending time in nature, but get lost in
my own doingness. Stillness has to be a priority and is the cornerstone of my path,
perhaps our collective path. As Lao Tzu said, “nature does not hurry, yet everything is
accomplished.”
The second cornerstone of my path is curiosity. Can I keep an open mind and not kill off the alternatives with dualistic thinking and believing that I know something. Every moment is a new opportunity to enter the diverse aspects of the great mystery with a sense of awe and wonder. With curiosity comes gratitude. It is a natural outcome of embracing the miracle of life. What am I grateful for today?
The third aspect and the heart of my path is opening up to love! When the light of my soul merges with the light of another soul I imagine the stars clapping in celebration. By cultivating Other-Centeredness we learn the purity of selfless love that wants and needs nothing from the other. And finally to love Spirit, God, this mystery is to embrace all life and leads to a path of service...
I hope that sharing my own journey in some small way helps you reflect on your own path, because ultimately it is only one path that we are all on.
With Love and Blessings,
michael
There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of
themselves,
that heartfelt knowledge that
we are caretakers of this planet.
– Brooke Medicine Eagle
