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photo by Craig Smith
Awe Is The Beginning Of Wisdom
One of the first things each of us has to do in order to improve the health of our planet is to open our hearts up with love for it and all that inhabit it. Environmentally sound living comes from the heart. Us in balance means recognizing the healing power of Nature and experience everything as part of the web of life.
Even If You Can't See It, Doesn't Mean It's Not There
The Tsunami ~ two months later ~ the pain and suffering has not stopped. In that part of the world, rescue workers are still recovering and burying the bodies of the dead. Most of us cannot fathom over 100,000 people swept up from the face of the earth and drowned by water in less than 25 minutes. Not a thousand people, not three thousand people, not nine thousand people, nor ninety thousand, but more than 100,000...and this number will no doubt double by the final count. (According to ABC News Online, the statistics as of February 24, 2005 are: 123,487 confirmed dead; 113,961 missing and presumed dead.)
Many of the survivors have been so traumatized and devastated from the disaster that they may never get over it for the rest of their lives. We may not be there with them, but each of those deaths have affected every single one of us. Some of us may try to deny it but none can escape it...because it is part of what it means to be human. It's the mysterious presence in the boundaryless (borderless) exchange of energy and matter breathing in and breathing out everyday all over this earth, because we all share the same sky, the same earth.
We have wandered so far from that sacred connection to the earth our ancestors knew so well. Healing is a process that requires being present from moment to moment...as well as requiring patience and trust. Many of the survivors of the tsunami have been living from moment to moment...with very little choice but to remain patient and trusting. Something many of us know little about. Overwhelmed with shock and grief ~ the smallest familiar thing that can give a survivor a semblance of normalcy and stability is ever so important each day. There is much to learn from the survivors of the tsunami. They are new models for mankind. They are here to open us up to the return of ancient wisdom and knowledge. Opening us up to pay more attention to simply life itself and the rhythms and cycles of nature...the things we used to know but have forgotten...things we knew in the womb and in our natural moments of childhood. After that, life just got so "cluttered" that the clarity of our natural senses...our sense of tasting, and smelling, and seeing, and hearing and touching...got bombarded and increasingly dulled. And then, of course, the sixth sense, our intuition (our survival sense)as well. So many unnecessary things filled up our time and clouded our vision of what's really important. The keener our senses, the better we are able to tune into (pick up on) and understand the language of the animals, the trees, the air, the water, the earth ~ through which nature speaks to us.
We have seen in many National Geographic and Discovery Channel adventures that man's perception and higher understanding of nature leads to a greater chance of suvival against seemingly unsurmountable odds. If only we could relearn some of those things we once knew in order to be more attuned to our natural surroundings. The survivors of the tsunami can lead us to unclutter our own lives and realize the things that are really important.
For many of us, today, our pets are our closest connection to the natural world. Even in our modern societies, their natural instincts remain intact. Those of us who have cats or dogs know that they teach us many things. That's because our domestic pets are still a very real link to our roots. And, no matter how horrendous Mother Nature can sometimes be, she is still the most natural, comforting and stabilizing thing all of humankind has in common.
Peace
Patty Ann
Mankind's Most Important Relationship
If we don't first and foremost connect with each other in an underlying awareness that the Earth is our home
If we do not have a basic understanding of the rhythms and cycles of life
....the fundamental understanding of the interconnectedness of all things
Then no matter what country we're from,
no matter what religion we belong to,
or political party we support,
....unless we relate in unison to the Earth as our home,
unless we stop our extreme consumption and excessive waste,
the best of mankind's good works that are yet to come...will never be.
Patty Ann
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Music and Nature
"Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do."
from "The Essential Rumi" by Coleman Barks
Happy Valentines Day!
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"Slow Down...You Move Too Fast"
"You gotta make the morning last..." (Simon and Garfunkel)
"There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of head or hands. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my customary bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around. I grew in those seasons like corn in the light, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance." ~ Henry David Thoreau
"The Earth community as a whole is our starting place ~ our womb, our home." ~ Brian Swimme
From the beginning of time, the philosophies of people on this Earth focused on and related to the creation and order of the Universe. And, there was a sacred relationship between humans and the natural world. And, so they lived in harmony with animals, plants, and the elements around them. And, each peoples seasonal celebrations were an interpretation of where they were located on this Earth. People from different locations on the globe are not a threat to each other in the greater understanding of the Universe. They have simply told their stories about the cycles and rhythms of life from where they stand. There is so much to learn from each other and nature.
"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." ~ T. S. Eliot
Submitted by: www.spiritualearthcoalition.com
From the beginning of time, the philosophies of people on this Earth focused on and related to the creation and order of the Universe. And, there was a sacred relationship between humans and the natural world. And, so they lived in harmony with animals, plants, and the elements around them. And, each peoples seasonal celebrations were an interpretation of where they were located on this Earth. People from different locations on the globe are not a threat to each other in the greater understanding of the Universe. They have simply told their stories about the cycles and rhythms of life from where they stand. There is so much to learn from each other and nature.
"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." ~ T. S. Eliot
Submitted by: www.spiritualearthcoalition.com
"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." ~ Albert Einstein
Submitted by: www.spiritualearthcoalition.com
Submitted by: www.spiritualearthcoalition.com
The Gift of Our Lives
We have a choice to use
the gift of our lives
to make the world
a better place.
~ Jane Goodall
LOVE Everybody
Music artists John Rich and Big Kenny have written a song entitled "Holy Water" as..."a personal prayer of love and support for their sisters, and for the countless women who have suffered from and survived domestic violence." Big and Rich have a special website http://www.loveeverybody.org set up to direct anyone whose in need of further information to go to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence http://www.ncadv.org
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