Partnering with Nature for a Vibrant Future: Community Vision
We heeded the occasion of ONE’s 10th anniversary as a call to action, and we envisioned a living blueprint for our vibrant future.
Together, we move to rededicate ourselves to Earth and all her beings and renew our commitments to a thriving co-creative partnership with all life. We come together in the present to tend to the future.
This document is a summary of highlights from each of the four questions posed to the panel and community. Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Thank you for contributing and participating in this vital conversation.
The Disbobedience of Feral Things
Snags are where owls hold secret meetings and woodpeckers expertly stalk insects and a zillion microscopic worlds turn round. I sensed their underworldly importance as a keystone species of sorts, something dead but upright and life giving. Always leave a snag standing.
Humanity, by Rachel Baird
Poem by Rachel Baird on the subject of evolving out of a duality consciousness, and the spreading of unity consciousness-our natural state.
The Joyous Garden of Healing
At Zen temples, in medieval monasteries, and in modern day retreat centers, gardens have played a key role in spiritual practice. Uplifting, calming, healing places where humans and natural forces work in harmony to create beauty--these sanctuaries invite meditation and prayer. Recently I attended a retreat at an "Eco-Sufi Village" and wandered into an herb garden that carried me right into that spirit of sanctuary.
Meeting the Whales Where We Are by Rachel Baird
I grew up just blocks from the Ocean in San Francisco where I walked the beach nearly every day and was lulled to sleep at night by the sound of fog horns. Sometimes, when in the water – I could feel these wave pulses of energy moving through my body and sometimes, at the shore, I could feel life forms moving far off inside the ocean. I knew they could feel me as well and were communicating.
Wild Inside by Laura Williams
By Laura Williams
We all have a longing for the wild but we are trained by our industrial consumer society to consider ourselves separate from Nature. We are taught from the beginning of our lives that we, humans, are both dominant over and in danger from the wild.
Giant by Timothy P. McLaughlin
By Timothy P. McLaughlin
As is usual, as is basic as bread, each week
I heed the call to abandon this whirring machinery,
to gather my essentials and head for the hills.
Like any of us who live from the unsullied energy
of hidden places, I follow the trim-cut paths
with a familiar pleasure, easing along their smooth,
sure way through the mountain’s innards.
Letter to my Wild Self
By April Thanhauser
Come home!
Where are you hiding?
Behind the ferns?
On some stony peak I didn’t climb?
Are you in the fish’s mouth, the night glint in my cat’s eye?
Prayer for My People by Beth Steinman
I come before you today humbly, to ask your forgiveness
You see, my people are lost
Stop the Pipeline
By Zoe Lemos Hi -This is Zoe( I am 12 years old). This is a song I wrote last year. I am in the process of recording it with my band Felixis Jinx and making a music video,
All Nature Prayer by Pam Montgomery
Hey great and many spirits it is I your daughter (son), [insert your name], who comes to you with much gratitude and appreciation for the many gifts and the vital life you have bestowed upon me.
Dirty Movies
To understand more deeply the intricacies of the human/soil relationships, we can immerse ourselves in the book Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan, and/or watch the magnificent documentary film inspired by this book: Dirt, the Movie. (www.dirtthemovie.org ) And to wholeheartedly enter the elegant and multifaceted realm of Dirt, we can go on to view The Symphony of the Soil (www.symphonyofthesoil.com) a film by Deborah Koons Garcia, which brings science, art and activism to bear on the long, long history of soil.
The Wonder of Soil by Jen Frey
I meditated on Soil. What does Soil contain, how is Soil made? Who lives in Soil? The more I followed this, the more amazed I was. I began to think of all the Plants, Animals, and Humans who were on this property for centuries and how they contributed to the Soil. I thought of the Rocks and Stones who were ground down over eons by the Waters. I started seeing the miracle of Soil.
Best Poison Ivy Cure by Jen Frey
I have found French Green Clay to be the best solution for a Poison Ivy Rash. It dries up the rash quickly, especially if applied as soon as the rash appears.
Gratitude for Soil
We give thanks to the rock that has been ground fine by ice and wind and flowing water. That has been permeated by tiny patient life forms who nibble it into the dance of life. We thank you for making this Earth blanket, this bed of possibility. We give thanks to the microbes and fungi and roots who work beneath the surface, conjuring soil out of bedrock, making space for air and water and warmth to mix with the mineral.
Seeds of Hope and Promise by Paula Kaiman
One long-ago September at age nine, I created a science project for school---a large and neatly labeled seed chart composed on poster board with scotch tape. How thrilling it was to discover each beautiful and highly varied specimen, as Earth bejeweled her autumn cloak with seeds of hope for the year to come!
Gratitude for Seeds
We give thanks for the brilliance of the tiny Beings who carry the code of new Life. We give thanks for the immense rich diversity and adaptability of seeds, for their responsiveness to weather and land