prayers for the planetary waters with the grandmothers on may 18, 2010

We are Water Babies.

Do not to forget to say thank you every day for the water you drink,

the water you bathe in.

Without our Mother water we would not survive.

Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Takelma Siletz, Oregon

reconnecting with earth 6 bringing it down to earth

What are are next steps?  What are my next steps?  I will continue searching and implementing steps, even if small, each day.

From Genius of Nature by Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature:

On the spider web:
A spider makes silk (they make six kinds, and I'm talking about drag-line silk that frames the web) that is five times stronger, ounce for ounce, than steel.  It's resilient and tough -- a true miracle fiber.  Even more incredible, a spider uses flies and crickets as raw material and creates the fiber at body temperature (a life-friendly temperature), because the manufacturing plant is the spider's body.  Furthermore, the fiber is biodegradable, so the spider can eat the web to make more web."

About the prairie:

The original pre-Columbian prairie was composed of 99.9 per cent perennial plants, hundreds of species in four categories: cool season grasses, warm season grasses, legumes, and composites.  They held the soil, so not only didn't it bleed away, it was actually enriched over the years, and because the prairie was a mixture of species, it resisted pest attacks....Couldn't we redesign our agriculture in the prairie's image in this part of the world, and then look at other parts of the world and see what grows there naturally and follow that wisdom?

She cautions about our footfall.   She writes, We in the United States take up about thirty acres of bioproductive land and sea per capita right now, and there are only five acres per person available globally.

It is not that the earth cannot sustain the population, it is that greed and imbalanced production geared to a small minority steals from the remaining, both human and non-human.

 

The Earth Charter [see http://www.earthcharterus.org/] 

The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental ethical principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action. The Earth Charter is a product of a decade-long, worldwide, cross cultural dialogue on common goals and shared values.

The Earth Charter is centrally concerned with the transition to sustainable ways of living and sustainable human development. Ecological integrity is one major theme. However, the Earth Charter recognizes that the goals of ecological protection, the eradication of poverty, equitable economic development, respect for human rights, democracy, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. It provides, therefore, a new, inclusive, integrated ethical framework to guide the transition to a sustainable future.

  With appreciation to the Northwest Earth Institute for compiling the discussion course

See www.nwei.org for more information of call 503-227-2807

reconnecting with earth 5 ecopsychology

canopy above us ~ a world we seldom see

In attempting to understand human foolish misbehaviour in terms of the environment, John Seed (Australian director of the Rainforest Information Center and co-creator of the Council of All Beings) explores the philosophy of deep ecology. He writes:   

     The fundamental problem is anthropocentrism or human centredness.  We are obsessed with our self-importance...we blindly destroy the future for 10 million species so as to fill the world with humanity for a few generations more.

     In deep ecology, the world is seen not as a pyramid with humans on top, but as a web.  We humans are but one strand in that web and as we destroy other strands, we destroy ourselves.

Bill Plotkin (described as a wilderness guide, ecotherapist and depth psychologist) further emphasizes that children need nature, to explore freely in their own way the natural world: unsupervised play with peers in field and forest, with mud and stones and sticks, observing animals, birds, flowers, wind, snow, stars in order to grow into healthy, vibrant, creative human beings, fully belong to the world into which they were born and from which they were born. He emphasizes that this need, nature immersion, not only helps prevent modern maladies including depression, hyperactivity/attention deficit disorder, obesity, but that it is an essential dimension of human development to ensure creativity and rootedness in the earth community.

We can teach ourselves to be more aware
of our own mutual dependence.

As every living being wants happiness instead of pain,
we share a common basic feeling.

We can develop right action to help the earth and each other
based on a better motivation.

When we are motivated by wisdom and compassion,
the results of our actions benefit everyone,
not just our individual selves or some immediate convenience.

Words from the Dalai Lama

reconnecting with earth 4 the universe story

Brian Swimme, founder of the Center for the Story of the Universe (what a name, yes?!), and author of The Universe is a Green Dragon, speaks of compassion as being a genetic mutation, allowing humans with a compassionate bond to better survive.  First, the care or compassionate bond between mother and child evolved, then between siblings, then between kin groups.

He relates this compassion to gravitational attraction, which was essential to the beginning of the universe, the formation of the stars.  This comprehensive compassion that pervades the universe is now beginning to surface within the consciousness of humanity.  To extend this awareness, he recommends simply, to pay attention.  He likes to use the phrase "the power of gawking," and references Chief Seattle who said, "if the animals were not here, we would die of loneliness."

Upon seeing the first deaths from the current Gulf oil tragedy, the giant turtles being tenderly inserted into small black body bags, the size of the turtles, how I ache for us all with this great loss.

reconnecting with earth 3 nature & spirit

butter from cream