WALKING IN AN EARTH WAY

When I was a child, my mother would teach my sisters and I to ‘walk in a sacred way’.

 

What did this mean?

 

The answer is not simple.

In fact, it’s one that each one of us must feel into as we move through life on Earth.

We must create our own way of life that is ‘sacred’ to us.

No one else.

 

For me this has always meant seeing ALL life as equal.

ALL life as sentient.

ALL life as deserving of respect and honour from me.

 

Whether that life is human, plant, animal, or elemental.

 

Since I was a child, I would talk to all beings as if they could answer me back.

I would ask permission before reaching out to pick a flower, touch a tree or stroke an animal.

 

Why – because that seemed respectful when coming into connection with another member of the Earth family.

 

To be honest, the human principle of superiority over all over life forms is to me both arrogant and entitled.

 

This story of separation and superiority has led to the drastic lack of balance and harmony that we are now experiencing in the world on multiple levels – social, environmental, and economic to name but a few.

 

As within, so without.

 

How we view the world is how we experience it.

 

If we feel like we are separate, then we will have experiences of separation.

 

It really is that simple.

 

To wake up in the morning and hear the birds singing and know that they are in some way speaking to you, takes a certain sense of interconnection to life around you.

 

To see a beloved house plant that you care for, and water, grow and flourish creates a relationship between you and the plant. A sense of relatedness between its health and your own. You are connected.

 

To walk in a sacred way for me, means that I recognise my interconnection and interrelatedness to all of life that shares this Earth ecosystem with me.

 

That I recognise the intelligence of ALL beings, not just those who can speak in words.

 

To walk in the Earth way means that everyone and everything that lives on Earth has an equal right to be here and live in harmony, balance, and respect.

 

Walking in this way means that I am never alone.

I never feel separate.

I have friends wherever I go.

 

That everywhere is sacred when I acknowledge it as such.

 

Am I using an anthropomorphic view of the world to do this?

Probably.

 

Does walking through life in this way create harmony, balance, and respect in my life?

Definitely.

 

Am I happy?

Absolutely.

 

So, for me walking in a sacred way creates a sense of living connection and communion with the world around me.

It balances my decisions and creates a deep sense of resilience.

 

For I am one inhabitant of Earth.

One among trillions of my family.

And I walk in an Earth way.