Sunday, December 4, 2016

"I Am The Earth" - Original Meditation for Las Cruces Vigil for Standing Rock - December 4, 2016

I am the earth.
I have felt you tread upon me.
With whatever eyes I have in nature,
I have seen you struggle, survive, move, tear down, and build up.
I have felt you take from me, and I have sensed ways in which you have given back as well, although sometimes the taking seems more than the giving.
I have rejoiced in your moments of harmony and cooperation.
I have shuddered in times of war and conflict.
I have noted and appreciated peoples who have sought to respect and protect me.
I have felt inside me the passageways created by human tools and human hands to take the gifts of the earth from their original locations to distant places.  
Some of what I know you call resources remain within me in abundant supply.  
Others feel, to me, to be diminished, making me wonder when there will be no more to take.
I do understand your language, and I hear in your voices, as you stand upon me and plan and construct, whether or not a sincere desire to preserve me is there in how you speak, in the tone of your speech and the flow of your words.
My waters in the streams and rivers have told me that they do not feel as pure as they once felt.  
They are afraid that what you have made may not protect them from the disasters that have befallen the salty waters of seas and oceans.  
And that is why people who truly love me might even think of taking a stand for me, and for you as well, because they want to be sure that we will be together for a long, long time.
And so, I say to you, humanity,
Be careful.   Be wise.   Be humble.  
Don’t believe that the structures which you believe will not cause harm now
Will never cause harm. 
And believe in yourselves as partners with me
And with all that we share. 
You are precious humanity, and entrusted to you and all other creatures is the care of….me.

And I….I am…and will always be…the earth. 

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