If you want to help the earth, you need to develop an earth consciousness.
The Gaia hypothesis holds the belief that the earth is a living, breathing creature. Designed to support a diverse population of other living creatures, including humans, the earth can cleanse itself, feed itself, nurture itself, and protect itself. It also provides those same life-giving attributes to all that live here. To develop an earth consciousness, you need only adopt the role of nurturer and understand that if you fail to provide, those who are dependent upon you will fail to survive.
And there is no back-up earth to help out.
You have to construct flawless systems that are self-regulating.
You have to adjust and recalibrate those systems based upon the demands of an ever-growing population of creatures.
You don’t get to sleep. Only parts of you get to go dormant for 3 to 4 months out of the year.
You depend upon the creatures to willingly give back what they no longer need so you can recycle and use those resources again.
You have to be ready for them to give you back materials that have been so distorted you barely recognize what they were in their original form.
And, when those who depend upon you take so much that you have an insufficient supply to use for your needs, there is not much you can do about it.
Except, perhaps, pop an earthquake or two.
Send around a few hurricanes, cyclones, and tornadoes.
Rain endlessly so that rivers burst from their boundaries.
Just to let the creatures know that you will eventually reclaim it all, including them.
That is the way of things.
I believe we (the universal consciousness that we all are) designed the earth to be just as it is to help us learn, become more, and transcend our fear of being so temporarily human. Nothing we do here lasts forever except that which we learn and become.
©2010 by Barbara L. Kass
Tags: consciousness, earth, Gaia, human
Eternal Presence 
March 31, 2010 at 7:37 am |
Barbara, I will say it again, I wish I had said that! This is a remarkably apt description of what I have been feeling for years and years. As one who lives in intimate contact with the soil and the tiny creatures within, I have a very protective attitude towards all the life that is generated there. In trying to create a healthier, more lively soil I have also regenerated myself. I give thanks every day to the Creator for such a beautiful world and for Gaia herself, otherwise know as Mother Nature.
March 31, 2010 at 6:24 pm |
I was thinking of you when I was writing this knowing how you love playing in the mud and dirt and growing stuff. More people should grow their own food and develop a true appreciation for what’s involved, the time, the care, and the absolute miracle that it happens at all.
March 31, 2010 at 8:13 am |
Barbara – I sincerely appreciate the GREEN and SUSTAINING observations in this blog. It definitely gives one pause to reflect. Thank you.
March 31, 2010 at 6:26 pm |
I know you do, Laurie. You are as green as any person I have ever met! When we realize and accept that we are just temporary inhabitants of this earth, we realize that we don’t need to cling to it and try to “own” it.
March 31, 2010 at 10:58 pm |
Thanks for your thoughts Barbara. Yes, I too think Laurie and Sandi are very true to the earth and its sustainability, I myself am green in another way. Just awakening to the issues that are so critical and I am as guilty as anyone for not appreciating the earth fully like I should. I am green in the sense I am new at this.
I am also green in the area of creative writing and developing thoughts and actions based on that writing,,Blogging is good for me as I like to journal, however never get to it. I am on the computer all day long so this is second nature to me!
Kim
April 1, 2010 at 6:53 am |
Hi, Kim — you write beautifully. And let go of your guilt. Most of us are not raised with earth consciousness. We are raised with “me” consciousness. And you have to want to wake up to earth awareness. Once we start on the path to awareness, it becomes obvious how connected and reliant we are on the earth. We need to become its servants, not the other way around.
April 2, 2010 at 6:38 am |
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April 2, 2010 at 11:36 pm |
That is my belief. That the Earth is as much creature as we are, just on a larger scale, the wind her breath, the molten rivers and core her heart and blood, the trees and plants her hair, the rock her bone – our combined consciousness part of her awareness. As we become more aware of her, she expands her own awareness to include, the ways we are aware of her.
I don’t believe, as a nurturer, the Earth ever “fails” to provide; but we can take more than our share from her, and deplete her resources, yes we can do that, and have, and continue to do that – some people do, her children, some are greedy, just as some “human” children are greedy and want more than their share of the treats.
There is no other planet more suited to sustaining human life. That is a significant understanding to arrive at. We can’t just “go” somewhere else. We are created of and by what the Earth is, no other place would be us; and therefore, no other place could ever be as perfectly suited to our needs. It is like a mother’s milk is perfect for the child that emerges from what her body is. We should care about all of this. We should understand, that it is important, to understand this.
I do believe that the Earth can reclaim it all. It is not whether the Earth can recover from us, it is whether we care about the continued ability of the Earth to be “perfect” for us. It is perfect; but we taint and contaminate and adulterate and deplete its perfection. Sadly, we do.
Will humanity be sustainable ? That is the question. Will humanity adjust, to be in harmony, with its Mother ? or will humanity continue to reject its own kinship with her ?
We are a part of the universal consciousness; but I believe, it is much more than we are, and the Earth is much more than we are. We are part but not all; but we act as though we are all that matters. Time to wake up before it’s too late.
April 3, 2010 at 9:03 am |
Debby, I fully endorse what you’ve written. I don’t think that we can, with out conscious intent, actually destroy the Earth. What we can do is make it impossible for Human life to exist as we know it. I’ve said it before, it wouldn’t take a lot for her to just shake us off, the way a dog shakes water from it’s coat. I would hate to discover that she considers us to be apestilential vermin to be eradicated but it is fully in her power to take a “flea bath”.
April 3, 2010 at 1:20 pm |
Hi, Debby – thanks so much for coming by and visiting my new blog. I know that you are well aware and conscious of how precious our existence is here on earth; earth has given us numerous warnings about what happens when we take too much too fast and dont’ take advantage of sustainable development. I remember how many years ago the Hudson River in New York was essentially declared dead; but all it took was a little human intervention (called “clean up”) and it recovered wonderfully.
Like Sandi says, I don’t think our intention is to destroy the earth. Out of ignorance, shortsightedness, and a little bit of arrogance, we are stripping the earth of her capability to support life. We humans make the mistake of thinking because we are at the top of the food chain, we are the most important. We just need to ask ourselves: who can survive without whom?
January 2, 2011 at 8:00 am |
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