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I worry a lot about the natural world. Truth told, probably more than I should, more than I aim that worry at all things material, the human creations and interactions that most tend to, for certain. I worry about the well-being of the hundreds of creatures that visit my house daily, the birds for the seed I provide, the squirrels for the bits of my prayer flags they use for nesting, the bears that wander down, the mountain lions that prowl, the many, many deer, the tens of thousands of thousands of trees.
In light of the new administration that’s found its way into power once more, it seems so much of this worry is not misguided, not unjustified, not even remotely as pointed as it should be.
We are a planet of such rare, rare wonder. We have birds that fly, snakes that slither and sidewind their way across sand dunes tall as buildings. We have deer, eagles, we have dolphins that know to play, we have moss, fungus, lichen, we have grass that grows out of the ash once a fire has gone out. We have trees. My goodness, we have trees that grow tall and wide and find a way to touch light in so many conditions they should not be able to survive. We have the Rannoch Rowan, above, that grew from a split in a stone and that makes you tremble when you touch it. What do we do with this place? How do we honor it, how do we treasure it, how do we protect it?
We do not. We drill, we rape, we steal, we sell, trade, barter, argue over, and destroy. We desecrate.
I have been, with a ferocity of purpose that surprises even myself, putting my damn phone away over the last few months. Somehow, a switch flipped in my soul and I just couldn’t do it anymore, and my 2 hours and 50 minutes a day average screen time plummeted to under 30 minutes a day, the vast majority of those being phone calls, or text messages to those that do not call. In this shift, I started reading more, again.
I leave books now in places I once wasted time on my phone, and as such I’ve read dozens of books in only a few months. One that I revisited, having read it probably 20 years ago, was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and I really resonated with a particular passage that reminded me so succinctly about all of this, about the power of nature and how badly we’re disrespecting it. He said:
Every instrument, tool and utensil is satisfactory if it fulfills the task for which it was fashioned, though he who fashioned it is an outside agent. But in the case of things organically held together by nature, the power which fashioned them is within. You must therefore reverence it more, and believe that if your disposition and conduct through life are in accordance with its purpose, all is satisfactory to your intelligence. And so with the Whole, the things within it satisfy its intelligence.
Sometimes he can get a bit fancy pants with his language, and coupled with the fact that he wrote it over 1900 years ago, but the bottom line is this: We should be revering nature above all things, because it created what it created on its own, with its own, with no “outside agent” and using only its own inherent power within. Not only should we revere it more, we should live in accordance with nature’s purpose.
In short, we should be honoring nature, and living our lives in harmony with its laws, with its creations, and with its lessons.
We aren’t, unfortunately, and as such we are suffering such dire and intense consequences.
From fire to flood, hurricane to landslide, from extinctions to pandemics, we are suffering because we’ve spent so many years living so far outside the accordance to nature’s purpose, so far outside anything that resembles reverence for all that was built before we came and enforced our will.
Nature creates what we cannot, and as Aurelius says, it creates it of itself, within itself, using no “outside agent.” There are, at minimum, 8.7 million reasons to revere nature, 8.7 million different species that we share this place with. We are one, only, though we’ve changed the face of things more than any other. There is no reverence in this, no honor aimed at the wild that has existed long before we did, that will exist long after we have gone. We recklessly change all within our grasp, within even our gaze, and we then wonder and puzzle over the maladies that afflict us.
I worry, so much I worry, that things will only get worse over the next four years. I worry that so many of those 8.7 million species are facing dangers far greater now than at any other point in history, save the hours that led to the asteroid that came and ended the time of dinosaur. We are the asteroid, and every moment we’re getting closer and closer to that extinction level event.
Gone is the reverence of so many, gone is the feeling of sacredness when the overwhelming majority of us look at the forests, the seas, the dwindling wilderness that we’ll never be able to get back. We honored this planet once, called her Mother and bowed to all her creatures. We handled her with such care, the tenderness of a guardian, a steward to the lands we were being graced with.
Now we hear the screams of DRILL BABY DRILL in a rotunda and watch the words echo around and around until they come back to his ears and twist his small mouth into a smirk. We watch as we are removed from international climate agreements, we sigh as they argue pointlessly about stripping mountains of their native names. We hear promises to burn more coal, to focus less on sustainable energy, we watch as we are led by one we cannot see as anything other than a scared and selfish boy with a magnifying glass, burning ants with the sun.
There is another path. There is another way.
I will do as Aurelius said, as Buddha before him.
I will honor life, all life. I will tiptoe around the ants that crawl, I will rescue the spiders that fall into the water bowls or the bees that slow at the close of Summer. I will, with soft hands, hold those that find their way into window panes, I will cradle with care every creature that calls upon me to do so, all those that cannot ask but find their way close. I will stand beneath the trees, put hand to bark, and offer my most sincere words of apology, of appreciation, for all they give without ever asking for a shred of reciprocation. I will smell the moss and leaves, I will call the weeds flowers for how they dare to grow. I will spin beneath the rainfall that the clouds gift so freely, I will stand soaking and breathless and feel my lungs fill with awe and wonder and I will taste the magicness of the fog that rises off a stormy sea. I will sing the oldest notes back to the planet that heaves and shifts and is torn asunder beneath me. I will sit, I will stare, and I will close my eyes to the shadows of birds that cross over the soft sunlight that stains my eyelids.
I will revere. All of it, until my tired bones ache and my heart swells and I become one thing with 8.7 million other things.
One thing, staring into the stars, singing.
After the 2016 election, I joined and then started a local chapter of an organization called Citizens Climate Lobby. It’s a non-partisan group focused on climate solutions. I found it rewarding. I also just started reading The Hidden Life of Trees based on my niece’s recommendation which I think I’m going to enjoy. Keep fighting for all you do and all you believe in. You’re not alone.
Chris is fantastic. And I too have read that, and I too loved it. I'll keep fighting knowing people like you are beside me.
Thank you. Like a mountain meadow after spring thaw; ducklings on a pond; or a glorious desert sunset, this line is wonderful… “I will honor life, all life.” It is like finding our kind of “heaven on earth”. Such as being among a random stand of trees and connecting with their energy and strength. Being at a distance, but connected to what is going on. Everyone has a uniquely personal resonance and connection in this world. Some are lucky to recognize it early, and others don’t until the much of life leaves them alone for a while. The world around us resonates in many ways for us to pause, connect, and absorb. Perhaps there is some merit in using our hands and minds to modify it, but never duplicated. The existential part of “being” is just recognizing and enjoying other things as they were meant to “be”. And it doesn’t require an Amazon account to be able to do that. Just time, interest, awareness, and acceptance. And the title of your piece (“Nature Creates What Humanity Cannot”) speaks to that so well.
You're so very welcome friend. Your line really stuck with me "everyone has a uniquely personal resonance and connection in this world." Oof. I am so saddened by those that are ignoring theirs, in order to make more money. Thank YOU again.
I too worry about this a lot. I think most of the asinine things being done at a federal level right now can be repaired in 4 years. The things we are doing to nature, probably not.
I hope so on the first half of your statement, and I sadly agree with the second. What a disaster.
I believe and have always gravitated to what they call the "thin places." those landscapes that are magical, heavenly, spiritual to the point of not understanding why they consume me so . It's then that I know and am reminded that I am so small in this natural world. Still, small or not, we are all—every rock, plant, and animal—part of a bigger sphere and we need to help each other through the chaos.
Your two meditations on "thin places" were read aloud to my wife yesterday. We both agree, share some of yours actually (Glendalough, absolutely a yes) and were so captivated by it. Thank you, as per usual.
I feel very blessed that I get to live in a beautiful jungle and be in awe on a daily basis by the nature that surrounds me. I have always had Snow White like aspirations when it comes to the natural kingdom and have long given up the urban life for one of life on the outskirts. Whether on a boat on the North West pacific coast, a Caribbean Island, or the rainforests of Guatemala, I feel more at home in amounts the trees and on the water. And ya, I talk to all the animals every day. In cities, there is solace in the isolation of the crowds when someone with a dog passes. Because it's socially acceptable to talk to dogs. But never their owners! Unless it is about said dog(s). Such is the world we have created!
Here in the jungle, the most beautiful place I know is only 40 minutes up the road from where I live. It is an incredible hot water fall that cascades over cavernous, lime scaled boulders where it collides with a cool river that flows from further up the mountain range. I call it Nature's spa because the thrashing hot water soothes your back like a massage, there is natural clay you can cover your face and skin with that leaves you smooth and soft all over. You can dive under the waterfall to enter the steaming caves for a sauna and if you lay down and float in the crevices where there is just enough space for your head above water, it is like you're in a sensory deprivation tank. Oh and there are pesky little fish that bite at your dead skin, which people apparently pay big money for, but it makes me jump and shout profanities so it's not my favourite treatment on the list! It is my favourite place to visit and every time I go, I wonder why I don't visit more often.
The place is called Finca Paraiso and it is indeed a paradise. It is my church and I am so grateful that the owners of the land are so generous to share it with the public. For only $2.00, you can enter their property and enjoy the wonders of this spot for hours. There is a local man, Don Francisco who has been the care taker there for decades and he makes sure everyone's belongings are safe. Children from the local village swarm you upon your arrival to sell freshly opened coconuts, banana bread, or if you are lucky, fried breadfruit. The teenaged boys speak Q'eqchi on the rocks as they jump off their high perches while showing off for the foreign girls in bikinis. I can only imagine what would happen if a big corporation wanted to come in and privatize the place into a gentrified spa for high end tourists. Stealing this natural wonder from the people who have cared for it, and bathed in its sacred waters for centuries. Who perform their ceremonies in the caves above the falls, where they give thanks for the natural abundance we are so blessed with here.
Side Note: Does anyone remember that cartoon the Smoggies from the 80s? I feel like we are living in that show these days. Maybe it wasn't popular in the US, but we should all go back and watch it! I worry for our planet, but more so I think the planet will be fine and we are the ones that will be wiped out so that she can heal herself if we don't learn to prioritize the balance of nature and take care of this incredible gift we are the stewards of. An iguana just crawled up the tree in front of me as I write this and now I am going to walk 10 feet from my desk and jump into the river because it is 40ºC!
You are so very, very blessed, but also so very intentional with all the good you put out into this world. You deserve every blessing, I hope you know this. When we come visit, show me this place.
Such beautiful sorrow! If only we could make it so everyone saw the world for the miracle it is, saw nature through a lens of reverence and awe. The sad fact is that the people in power see dollar signs where we see trees, animals, life, magic. Magic.
Ahh I wish this every single day. You hit the nail on the head, all they see is dollar signs, all we do is weep.
Our new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, by virtue of taking over the leadership of the party currently in power, was the UN special envoy for climate change. We will have a federal election at the end of April/beginning of May to decide if he and his party stay in power. I can only hope so. Yes to paper straws!
Ahhh yes to all of this. I'm excited for the prospect of change for you all, change in a positive direction.
Mother Earth deserves our respect, kindness and love..... it is our home, our bain of existence, where will we go if we don't protect her.... wake up you idiots in Washington
Touche :)
"I will revere." This resounded in my bones. We are not as separate from nature as so many people would have us believe. We need nature. We are nature. Like you, I worry about the natural world a lot. I will keep fighting for it. And now I'm going to go for a walk and enjoy the wondrous trees and birds. Thank you for your words.
You're right on the money, as usual Rachel. We are so not separate, but we treat ourselves as though we are, as though we are above it. How heartbreaking to see what is happening. Enjoy your trees, enjoy your air, breathe it in and hold hope.
"...because that's the point of this place". Thank you for always sharing what reminds you to live joyfully, kindly, and fully. We all need that reminder.
:) You're the bees knees, you know?