Indivisible

 Connections

“The roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term non-duality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another.”

Joan Halifax

Could you exist without sun and rain, earth and air? Neither could I; neither could any of us. When we think of ourselves as being separate from others and from nature, as individuals unique in all the world, it is like saying that one cell in our body is separate and unique. Everything in the cosmos is connected in every way possible. As I am writing this morning, a flock of blackbirds is swooping around the trees outside. It's not as large a flock as it has been in past years, but just as synchronized in its flight and its landing. These birds—remnants of the dinosaurs—do not see themselves as separate; they move as one, they perch as one, they land on the ground as one. We are no different—simply more sophisticated.

One of the reasons we find solace in beautiful places in the natural world is that it's home for us. Our brothers and sisters, our mother and father, all our relations, all our ancestors, everyone we have ever known, have resided right here on planet earth. We are made of the same materials, have passed along the same genes, thought the same thoughts, shared the same hopes and dreams as all of them, all the way back. We have all wanted our children to have better lives than we have had, and we have done everything in our power to ensure that happens. But what we must realize is that they won't have those better lives if we and they don't begin to see these unbreakable connections. They cannot live their lives in front of screens and have a meaningful relationship with nature. And nature will have the last say—just as it did with the dinosaurs.

Teach your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews to love this beautiful world, and they will take care of it. Teach them the true meaning of stewardship—not dominion and exploitation—but tender, loving care of the only home we've ever had, or ever will have. We depend upon this small blue dot in the vastness of space for our very lives. It is us, and we are it—not separate, but indivisible.

                                                         In the Spirit,

                                                             Jane