Remembering Our Place

 

Our small round planet of Earth,

a perfect distance from the nearest star,

slowly evolving through the ages,

with shifting land, volcanic eruptions,

drought and floods, as water moves

through lakes, rivers and oceans.

After millions of years, just recently,

tiny life emerged. First in water,

and hundreds of years later,

crawling out onto the land,

breathing the air,

basking in the sun.

Some were plants, pushing roots underground.

Some were animals, finding homes in the forest,

or alongside the flowing streams.

And life changed to suit the changing climates,

evolving with the evolving world,

wonderful new life developing.

In the measure of time,

only an eyeblink ago,

our own species appeared,

part of the whole, living in harmony

with the life surrounding them,

a new creature with new abilities.

And as we became more abundant,

our communities more gathered,

our communications broadened to words

and paintings on the walls of caves.

Our minds needed to have connection

and understanding of our place in the world.

And so it was that we taught our children.

Sitting in a circle at the feet of a wise old woman,

these human younglings of the earth

learned about the sacred living landscape

of which they were a part, not more or less important,

but part of the whole, relatives of their living neighbors.

They learned to respect the wind and rain,

the sun, moon and stars. They felt kinship

to the grass, the beetles, birds and trees.

They were part of a sacred beautiful whole,

and their lives depended upon respecting that whole.

As the wise elder talked, the children smiled.

We humans have come so far from this now.

Our ability to change the environment we live in

has made us decide that we are the rulers,

not relatives of all the planet’s life.

We need to imagine ourselves as little children

sitting around the wise woman, remembering our place.