To All the Living World

 To All the Living World


I’ve been thinking about you today,

all my relations. It is a day on our home planet,

where we are held in that caring web of life

that surrounds us, nourishes us, protects us.


Yet our home is in trouble and my own species has caused it.

I’m sitting out in Nature, deep in a green prairie,

wishing it were not so, wishing that we had done no harm,

and wishing it were not too late to fix it.


In the beginning of our species, like all of yours,

we were innocent, finding our way in this earthly garden.

It was only over time that our big brains

expanded the perimeters of our lives, inventing things.


If we had not forgotten our roots, our source,

we might have worked on our projects in

cooperation with the rest of the wide family of life.

But somehow we decided we were the rulers.


We were not really bad. But we were naive. 

We thought we knew everything 

and separated ourselves from our earth mother.

We thought all other lives were only there for our use.


It is too late to extend my heartfelt apology,

dear relations of this wide, deep world.

It would not help the tremendous damage we’ve done.

It would not bring back the balance we’ve upended.


The best thing I can do at this moment

is to honor you every day of my life,

honor your persistence, your creativity,

your beauty and deep-rooted survival.


I will breathe in your indigenous wisdom, your spirit,

your instinctual connection with everything,

your sustaining life force. You are my teacher,

and my gratitude goes out to you, all my relations.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 4, 2025 at 10:52 AM

    What a beautiful "prayer" to the earth, Nan! And what a selfish, naive people we have been that makes this prayer even necessary! I often - and I mean often - wonder what the U.S. would be today if Native Americans had been left alone to develop/create a society that resonated with their respect for all living and non-living things. (Gina)

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