I’ve been doing a good deal of walking and watching in woodlands, taking in the plants and landscape, as you know if you read my newsletters. Today’s podcast listening suggested that I share much of my learning with you. As you know, I face the hard stuff head on because of historical behaviour and present commitment. One of the thoughts from from this podcast, ‘Finding hope at the end of the world”, has confirmed my predeliction to see the hard stuff. Timothy suggests that the Empire model currently in wide operation, is based on a human centric point of view where people see the earth, and all which is in it, only as resource, something over which we have dominion. That pattern, with humans in the middle like the spider in its web, is to devise an ideology, deny the reality of the consequences of imposing that ideology, then despair when it doesn’t work. Layer a shallow optimism on top and we keep going. A progressive theology from First Nations and many faith peoples around the planet is that we are intensly connected with earth (we are, indeed, made from its minerals and more; literally, from dust and to dust we’ll return). This indigenous model is that humans look into the reality, grieve if there is reason, then hope in the power of Divine/human/earth partnership to change the future direction (which we’ve caught sight of when staring into reality). I leave you to all the further reading you can find when you go to the podcast and look to its resources list.
Looking for an image, I was shocked to see the below drawing I did at a Minister’s conference 15 (!) years ago. I listened to various readings, reflections, conversations and this emerged at the end. I entitled it Word becomes Flesh. Back then, my deep self seems to have been connected to our relationship with creation, but my brain just wondered why all the land and sky was there. My title says nothing about physical and spiritual connection with the ground we’re sitting or walking or sleeping on to simply be and move in our lives. It delights me these fifteen years later that my body knew what my head and heart are only waking to.