We Are Related...

Photo Credit: Ian McAllister

...early, on todays journey I found this article by Rose De Dan, I wanted to share as it is a
GREAT! reminder...
-our relation to this earth and all its life ...
We are a PART .


Unheard Voices
by Rose De Dan

We share this world, Pachamama (a Peruvian Quechua word meaning Mother Earth), with species seemingly vastly different than ourselves. Many of us feel a loss of connection, a distancing from the natural world that surrounds and maintains precarious toeholds within our cultivated, civilized areas. And so we bring the natural world into our homes—plants, fountains, other species (dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, fish)—to share our space with us. And we do this because it makes us feel good, perhaps not consciously realizing that what we seek is a return to balance, harmony, and connection with all our relations.

The phrase "all our relations" is Native American in origin, and means all living beings, but with a difference, for indigenous cultures recognize the force of spirit in places that Western civilization does not. Spirit can be found in the Standing Stone People (oldest beings, the bones of the Mother, Pachamama), the apus (mountains), Mamacocha (the oceans, water as blood of the Mother), the Tree People (the plant kingdom), the feathered, the finned, the furred, the scaled, the creepy crawlies (insects, spiders, etc.)—all our relations—all of whom participate in the dance and cycle of life upon the belly of Pachamama, our Mother Earth. Divided into separate land masses and nations our human populations increase, as does our awareness of our interdependence—where one nation’s actions can have a huge impact on global economy or upon the environment of neighboring nations—so to do our actions have impact upon the Other Nations—the different species that share this world, our neighborhoods, and our homes—other species who sometimes suffer greatly from a lack of our understanding or concern about their needs.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE