Mitakuye Oyassin
Every day being EARTH DAY, here is a perfect read for our time, ''The Radiant Life of Animals,'' by the powerful Chippewa native American author, Linda Hogan.
Why is this little book so important at this moment? Because it has never been more urgent that humans find their place in Nature. In this time of impending climate collapse and potential extermination of life on Earth, our survival depends on an evolution in consciousness, an authentic compassion - not just respect - for all of life. As the Lakota proverb says, ‘’Mitakuye Oyassin...we are all related - two-legged, four-legged, furred, feathered, finned, those that crawl in the earth and those that grow from it.’’ Among the wisest guides on the path to a sustainable planet are Native Americans and their traditions. This incandescent book is charged, transformative, like soft explosions in our brains, smoothly merging our consciousness with the life of Hogan’s mountain home, with the wolf, cougar, elk, mustang, barn swallow, pack rat, aspen, and the passing seasons. Effortlessly, it dissolves the barriers within that we of the West have erected, unleashing our inherent connection to all of life.
Unless we come to realize ‘’we are all related’’ and begin to live in harmony with the Earth and all her creations, we will vanish like so many species that have gone before us. Caretakers, not masters, we ‘’conquer’’ nature at our mortal peril.
Lyrical, wildly beautiful, deeply affecting, ''The Radiant Lives of Animals'' belongs in our evolutionary toolbox, along with ‘’The Serviceberry’’’ and ‘’Braiding Sweetgrass’’ by Potowatami naturalist Robin Wall Kimmerer.
richflandersmusic.com
‘’UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck & Wonder''
Why is this little book so important at this moment? Because it has never been more urgent that humans find their place in Nature. In this time of impending climate collapse and potential extermination of life on Earth, our survival depends on an evolution in consciousness, an authentic compassion - not just respect - for all of life. As the Lakota proverb says, ‘’Mitakuye Oyassin...we are all related - two-legged, four-legged, furred, feathered, finned, those that crawl in the earth and those that grow from it.’’ Among the wisest guides on the path to a sustainable planet are Native Americans and their traditions. This incandescent book is charged, transformative, like soft explosions in our brains, smoothly merging our consciousness with the life of Hogan’s mountain home, with the wolf, cougar, elk, mustang, barn swallow, pack rat, aspen, and the passing seasons. Effortlessly, it dissolves the barriers within that we of the West have erected, unleashing our inherent connection to all of life.
Unless we come to realize ‘’we are all related’’ and begin to live in harmony with the Earth and all her creations, we will vanish like so many species that have gone before us. Caretakers, not masters, we ‘’conquer’’ nature at our mortal peril.
Lyrical, wildly beautiful, deeply affecting, ''The Radiant Lives of Animals'' belongs in our evolutionary toolbox, along with ‘’The Serviceberry’’’ and ‘’Braiding Sweetgrass’’ by Potowatami naturalist Robin Wall Kimmerer.
richflandersmusic.com
‘’UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck & Wonder''
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