Deer Feeding on Pine Needles and Branches from the Mitigation
… much as Martin Luther King did when he declared, "all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny," and King was right that it's all life, not just human life. Maybe in this day and age, love thy neighbor should also be love thy nature. After all we are all neighbors to nature; we live in a grand neighborhood called the biosphere, the realm of life on earth, and we depend on it. We are it and it is us, from our gut biome to what we eat, drink, and breathe. Love in this case should manifest as active care. Rebecca Solnit
This Tuesday before blog day, I’ve found myself moving very differently in my world today – more slowly and deliberately. Present to each step. Following a flow of guidance rather than my plan for the day. It started early waking from a disjointed dream and hearing a clear message to write The Pivot today.
As I moved slowly through the morning, attending to self-care, watching deer feeding on pine needles from the mitigation, checking in on planetary aspects and earthly events, I sense something shifting deep in me and in how we collectively are understanding and navigating the chaos of our world. I sense love is being called forth in new ways, just as I witnessed it while reading a political essay by American writer and activist, Rebecca Solnit.
The essay, Visions of Life / Agents of Death: On Love Thy Neighbor and Love Thy Nature, is stirring in me not as new perspective to consider, but rather as a clear articulation of how the worldview of separation is currently playing out on the world stage and, simultaneously, right here at home, wherever ‘home’ happens to be for you.
As Solnit shares, the separation worldview is not the only play being written and acted on stages around the globe. In contrast to the separation story, those who hold the worldview that we are all connected AND we are connected to Nature are rising in communities around the world with expanding casts of characters engaged in co-creating a new world grounded in our interconnectedness to one another and to All Life. The worldview that we are not separate but are part of a web of Life that knows not borders, boundaries, and other props of the separation worldview even as they work within and across those demarcations.
None of us are mere observers of these divergent views. Consciously or not, we are actors on the stage contributing to one worldview or the other with every choice we make. Our opportunity in this time is first to understand these divergent world views and how they are unfolding and to be aware of how our choices support one view or the other. And then, from this understanding to choose our parts wisely with clarity and intention. I think Visions of Life / Agents of Death: On Love Thy Neighbor and Love Thy Nature can help us to do just that. So, I invite (no I encourage!) you to make yourself a cup of tea and sit with Solnit for a bit.
A New Friend in The Woods Out Back