One Blind Belief Is Killing the Earth
Blind beliefs are carried in our psyche beneath our conscious awareness. So, they influence our behaviors without us even noticing. Presumably, that lack of awareness would be okay if a blind belief was rooted in solid truth. But a false blind belief can let all hell break loose — until and unless we wake up to our own blindness! So far as I can see, there is only one blind belief that is killing the Earth.
Human beings are separate from God, each other, and nature.
Because of that belief, we long ago concluded that Planet Earth and all her non-human life forms exist for our benefit; in fact, that we have been given dominion over everything else on Earth! When the writer of Genesis wrote those permissive words about dominion several thousand years ago, there was no way to know that humanity would interpret dominion to mean we were free to treat everything on Earth like a Black Friday sale. I believe the word dominion means we are responsible to take care of Mother Earth, not treat her like our unbounded storehouse. Actually, for millennia human experience seemed to confirm the belief that it was okay to take the Earth for granted. When there were relatively few of us around, our blind belief seemed to be confirmed; we got away with it for millennia. Increased prosperity and convenience that accompanied the industrial / technology revolution over the past few centuries greatly strengthened our belief in that separation. Thus, our blindness deepened to the point where we have given ourselves permission to use and abuse each other and pillage the earth’s life forms and treasure. The passage in Genesis became our excuse to misbehave. Over time, all this has become perceived as normal.
Thus, we Homo sapiens have become the poster species for egocentric beings — to the point where our collective behaviors are indeed killing the Earth’s ability to support life as we know it, perhaps including ourselves! Even when we recognize our errors and choose to love nature and our fellow beings, the world’s economic system, and our life habits combine to reinforce our detrimental behaviors.
Just to inform our thinking and bring a bit of humility to our perspective, consider an American Indian traditional perspective [my emphasis]:
“We shall not sever ourselves from the earth. We must chant our being,
and we must dance in time with the rhythms of the earth.” — N. Scott Momaday
Many detailed books have been written about the world’s problems and possible solutions, so we don’t need to go there. Instead, let’s consider how each of us can personally respond to the mess we Homo sapiens have collectively created. A couple of thoughts follow (please personalize and/or add your own):
- Center yourself in love and consider how your household can contribute less to global degradation, (e.g., lower your carbon footprint or support healthier race relations). Use your favorite search engine for ideas. Seek divine guidance and inspiration and choose the ones that resonate with you. List specific actions and follow through. If it feels like your impact would be too small to bother with, ask yourself if millions of families did it, would it then matter? Be an example to inspire your family, neighbors, and friends. Please allow your chosen focus to be love in action, not just another item on your to-do list!
- The big one: Refresh and recommit to your inner work. Expand your focus to include caring for Mother Earth and all her creatures. Carry the Great Mother in your heart. Welcome your own spiritual growth.
David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. suggests that a life of service to the world need not be complicated:
“Make a gift of your life and lift all mankind by being kind, considerate, forgiving, and compassionate
at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give."
— David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., Power vs. Force
Things to remember:
- Consider Dr. Hawkins’ beautiful wisdom to include all life and Mother Earth.
- Seek divine guidance and inspiration, then walk your pathway with intention.
- As you walk your journey with reverence for all life and Mother Earth, the Divine One will gift you with the grace to act in harmony with that intention. Trust that gift.
- As your vibration rises, it lifts up the world around you and everyone you encounter.
- Relax! Perfection is not required, just our best.
And So It Is.
Do Our Choices Align with the Highest Good?
Every soul incarnated on Earth has made the choice to be here. Each soul came with the purpose of engaging in its own spiritual growth. That growth process is not left to chance. Every soul chose a tailored curriculum of life experiences before it arrived here with the intention to live those experiences. That’s why Earthly life is called a school of experiential learning.
We humans are by nature creatures of choice. Many more ideas arrive in our awareness than we can possibly pursue, so we do our best to discern which are in harmony with the life curriculum our soul carries. That’s how we make choices on what to pursue and what to set aside.
Each human is, also by nature, both a time-limited Homo sapiens body and an eternal soul. That soul is a true clone of Divinity Itself, whether or not a particular human being realizes it. Body and soul are combined by an alchemy that was ancient long before humans arrived on Earth. Each Homo sapiens body is uniquely equipped with a powerful ego that is deeply motivated toward self-protection. I have found my ego to be remarkably adept at drawing my attention to its agenda – keeping me safe and feeling important, significant, etc. It has proven quite gifted at convincing me that its ego-driven ideas are Divine in origin.
Besides that, in the world of New Thought, we are often assured that we can have whatever we want via our power of choice, coupled with commitment and follow-up. This notion can bring bountiful blessings or be powerful ego food that leads us wildly astray. Thus, I sometimes feel confused about whether an apparent calling is spirit or ego inspired. To stay on track with our life purpose, it is vital to be certain that our power of choice and the voice of our soul (Divine guidance) are in alignment. Before we discuss that alignment process, let’s briefly discuss the soul’s curriculum.
Karma is commonly understood as our cumulative past experiences that define our fate for what comes next. It’s very true that our past life experiences, accumulated over multiple lifetimes, are shaping the life experience we’re having right now. That’s how cause and effect facilitate experiential learning; normal and expected. I want to be clear that no soul is ever forced to carry an assignment into an incarnation because of failed or incomplete life lessons. Karma is not a crime and punishment system! God is love; not judge and jury over our guilt or innocence! There is never a need to blame karma for bringing a challenging life experience. After all, you chose your life experiences knowing that the greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity! So, I prefer to think of karma as the soul’s choice to continue a particular life lesson in greater depth. It’s like an unlimited supply of mulligans, we can always try again! A soul’s desire to address additional nuances of a particular life lesson can sometimes involve several lifetimes.
Thus, karma is closely linked with how an individual soul’s curriculum is formulated. A soul is also free to choose life lessons that are completely new. Most incoming souls have experienced many prior lives here, so their curriculum is usually a mixture of karma and new things.
Another factor: As beings enrolled in Earth School, we will eventually reach a point in our soul evolution where we have transcended past life errors and completed our earthly life lessons. That means we will one day graduate beyond the grip of karma that drives repeated physical incarnations. Transcending karma (past life errors) can be really hard! My present life has included painful experiences that lasted for decades associated with one particular life lesson. I’m certain my soul has carried that lesson through several lifetimes. Thanks be to God; I have also experienced transcending its accumulated karmic pain. It feels like being reborn! That being said, I’m not done with Earth School, there are other life lessons yet to come. I have some thoughts about future lessons and roles, but it’s better for me to trust the future to Divinity and allow it to unfold.
Finally, let’s consider how we can assure that our choices are in alignment with our soul’s curriculum*. When one feels the need to seek guidance about a choice or pray for a person, or a painful situation (personal or worldwide), the very best we can do is surrender that choice, person, or situation to God. You don’t need to dictate to God; “please do this, bless that, solve this”, etc. Just include your concerns in your prayer, state the problem, and open up about what you need help with. It is best to pray for the highest good to flow into your concern, rather than a specific outcome. In truth, we don’t know the highest good! Pray from your heart and then surrender your needs and wishes to God. Just release it all, let it go. Trust God. Also, don’t ever feel like your concern is too small to bother God about.
Love and blessings to all.
*The teachings of David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D. profoundly influenced the final paragraph. I gratefully acknowledge his love and wisdom.
Her Name is Daisy
This blog post is a heart story, adapted from The Great University of Life. It is a favorite example of blessings received via international travel to a culture very different from our own. Marilyn and I have eight grandchildren, each of whom we love like our own breath. When we interact with them, discuss them, or even think of them, a Honduran girl named Daisy often comes to mind. She feels like a ninth grandchild off in the distance beyond the edge of daily life. Even after two decades, my heart simply refuses to let her go.
Our last visit to Honduras was almost exactly nineteen years ago in early 2004. Our small group visited an isolated village called La Rinconada to work alongside the villagers in building an addition to their health clinic. We were hosted in the nicest home in the village, recently vacated by a schoolteacher who had tired of life in the isolated community. Four local women volunteered to do our cooking, dishes, and laundry. After dinner that first evening, we and they introduced ourselves with the help of two Spanish-fluent people in our group. The women were accompanied by several of their children. The eldest, an eleven-year-old, was watching over the younger ones. Her name was Daisy. It’s only in recent years that Honduran children have been given other than Biblical names. For example, Daisy’s mother was one of several Maria’s in La Rinconada. I never learned their last name.
Daisy had flashing dark-brown eyes, jet-black hair, clear brown skin, and a pretty face with a shy smile. She was gentle with the little children, although I saw her with a switch of weeds pretending to spank them as part of playing tag. Daisy was shy with us at first, but soon was comfortable enough to smile and respond to our simple greetings; “Hola, Daisy” or “Buenos Dias, Daisy.” We learned that she was no longer in school, having completed the usual three grades. Although the local school offered grades one through six, most children dropped out after third grade, as soon as they were able to help their family bring firewood down from the steep slopes, transport water, or tend to younger siblings. All children work in rural Honduras, as has always been the case in subsistence farm families around the world.
When some of our group read Spanish-language books to the children, Daisy was bright-eyed and intrigued, but it soon became evident that she couldn’t read. Someone handed her a book to look at and she adopted it as her own, carrying it everywhere with her. I often saw her quietly perusing it and wondered what she was thinking as she slowly turned its pages. Reading is second nature to most of us, but Daisy must have felt like a mystified scholar striving to decipher the ancient Mayan glyphs in the nearby ruins at Copan.
She wore two or three different dresses during the five days of our visit, and a well-worn pair of blue flip-flops. Because I was not feeling well, I was housebound for a couple of days. Daisy’s mother and a couple of other village women were busy in the kitchen, but a conversation with them was not feasible because we had no common language. So, the only thing to occupy my
time was watching Daisy play with the younger children. Their non-stop games and giggles were delightful entertainment. At the same time, she often glanced at me, probably curious about the light-skinned, oversized bald man hanging around the house. So, our eyes met quite often. A bond began to form with Daisy that felt more and more like spending time with a distant granddaughter.
On our last afternoon in La Rinconada, I called her over to my side. With my hand over my heart, I looked into her eyes, and told her in my limited Spanish, “Daisy en mi corazon” (Daisy in my heart). She smiled and nodded, so I believe she understood. When it was time to leave the next morning, the weather had finally dried out, so our group walked with our luggage down a steep three-mile trail to the river, the same trail used by village ponies to haul bags of river sand for mortar and concrete to the health clinic work site. There was a footbridge across the highway where our bus would pick us up. This saved time and many miles of driving, but the best part was that some of the villagers walked with us, including Daisy. When our eyes met a couple of times, I patted my heart and smiled. She smiled back, nodding her head. Then we boarded the bus and drove away. I don’t expect to ever see Daisy again in this lifetime, but I did not lie to her. Even though the girl in this story is now a woman of thirty, she remains a granddaughter of my heart forever. Daisy, it was a great blessing to meet you. May love and joy accompany you each day of your life!
How Can We Create a Better 2023?
“Your vision will become clear only when
you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside awakens.”
— Carl Jung
2022 seemed unusually chaotic and stressful, so lots of people are hopeful for 2023 to bring more peace and joy than the year just ended. As we step into that possibility, what is ours to do?
It’s marvelous that our friend David Goldberg posted the above quote on Facebook today! Serendipity happened as if he knew I needed help with this blog post! In the quote, Carl Jung offers deep wisdom to focus on our inner work. We are all blessed that many people across the world are already engaged in their inner work. Without such ongoing commitment by spiritual seekers, earthly conditions would be far worse. Spiritual growth is far more than an isolated personal endeavor!
When we look at history, the world seems always to have been a place of struggles and suffering. What is the reason Planet Earth is so challenging? I’m reminded of a quote from Walt Kelly’s Pogo cartoon strip years ago:
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Let’s take a closer look at human nature and how we got to be the way we are. We Homo sapiens are a very young species; our earliest ancestors emerged only ~200,000 years ago as hunter-gatherers in the wilderness savannahs of East Africa. [There was no such thing as a civilization in our early days, so the whole world was wilderness.] Their lives were dangerous beyond our present-day imagination. Caution and alertness were essential all day and all night – every day! Those who momentarily forgot to pay attention were more vulnerable to being killed and eaten by a more powerful predator. Thus, Homo sapiens learned to be suspicious of everything and everyone outside their family clan. Around every corner could be a life-threatening surprise, so they had to be ready to fight for their lives or flee for their lives every moment of their entire life. Talk about stress! Alertness for danger, fear of new experiences, and fight-or-flight instincts remain part of human nature to this day. So, it’s perfectly normal that we gather into groups of those we trust, leaving those untrusted ‘others’ outside our inner circle. Those of us with a few decades of life experience have all witnessed the gap between ‘us and them’ widening faster and faster over our lifetime. These societal gaps have become so wide that trust is missing, making communication virtually impossible. As a result, society’s stabilizing structures (politics, religion, business, education, and sometimes even our families, etc.) have become fractured, ineffective, and gridlocked.
In the context of a similarly fractured world, Jesus taught that it is done unto you as you believe. That means each person holds responsibility for their own life experience, and humanity as a whole is responsible for our world’s tumultuous conditions. Indeed, world conditions are a perfect mirror of our collective inner turmoil!
Our minds would have us believe it’s the other way around, but it isn’t. The ancient fear still retained in our collective human nature results in all the divisiveness and problems on Earth! Despite the world’s bad news, each of our souls made the brave choice to be on Earth for this lifetime. We came here to grow toward being love and away from being stuck in fear. Love is a much higher energy than fear, so its power can indeed transcend our fears and change the world. Our souls know that the path to Heaven on Earth lies within us!
We are each called to ponder how we can move our inner being in the direction of love. We are each called to develop our faith so trusting God / Life unfolds with acceptance and grace. We need not be overly concerned about saving the world from its dangerous trajectory. Inner and outer work are not separate. Our actions in the world naturally flow out from our inner nature. Another way to say it: When we embrace spiritual growth toward love, our personal vibration grows stronger and lifts up the world around us.
Summary thoughts: Whatever appearances may be, my soul knows the shift toward love has already begun. It’s also clear that humanity has an enormous influence on the pathway and timing of this shift. Our inner work to move deeper into love radiates out to all humanity and is vital for healing us, Mother Earth, and all life. To share our inner light with each other and the world is the most precious and meaningful gift we can offer. Each of us really can move ourselves and the world toward more love and joy in 2023 and beyond. Let’s go for it!
Love, peace, and blessings to all!
Who Will Save Us?
“Much is waiting to unfold, but it must unfold in the right atmosphere,
the atmosphere of love, love, and more love.”
— Eileen Caddy, Opening Doors Within, p. 379, Findhorn Press
Our early Homo sapiens ancestors arose and evolved as hunter-gatherers in a remarkably dangerous world. Because they were smaller than many four-legged species who were also hunting for a living, their main hope was their larger brain. They had to outsmart and avoid their fellow predators. Fight or flight was a way of life for millennia. Only those who were wary and suspicious of everything in their surroundings were destined to reproduce and continue the gene pool. Fear of others and their surroundings, along with fight or flight, were thus hard-wired into human nature.
These facets of human nature have persisted ever since. So, almost every culture from the beginnings of recorded history until today, has featured patriarchal leadership based on power and dominance. Today’s litany of problems; war, societal violence and disfunction, climate change, and on and on make it obvious that male dominance and force no longer work for a global world with eight billion people. Because we are naturally fearful and contentious beings, battles and wars somewhere on Earth have been occurring since our early days, becoming ever more frequent as population growth increased the odds for encounters with strangers.
Today, our natural human tendency toward violence has been accepted as normal. It permeates the selection of news stories to broadcast, our movies, and computer games. In the US, mass shootings have numbed our senses, sometimes happening multiple times per week. Violence has even permeated our use of language; we declare war on or organize a battle against most any problem we identify; poverty, hunger, global warming, diseases like cancer, heart disease, Covid, and so on. In addition, our primal drive to be safe (later this shifted to include comfort and convenience) by dominating and controlling nature has been so overly successful, we are threatening the future of all life on Earth, including ourselves. Our technical capacities to pillage Mother Earth for everything we want far exceeds our discernment and wisdom. It’s as if Mother Earth has cancer and we are it! As we keep multiplying and wanting more and more, we are sucking the life out of her! Indeed, the root cause of almost every major problem on Earth today is our fearful and greedy Homo sapiens nature. Our key question has thus become,
“Who will save us from ourselves?”
It's clear that our efforts to fix our collective mess, including the damage we have caused to Mother Earth’s natural systems, cannot be effective and sustainable, so long as human nature remains the same. Somehow, we must heed the opening quote and collectively choose to love more and more. We must allow love to influence the way we think and how we behave toward each other and Mother Earth. Love can transform the fear that has shaped human nature and behavior since our species evolved on Earth.
None of us can change the character of another, so changing the nature of a human being is inner work. Thus it can only happen individually, one at a time. Somehow, each of us needs to allow our human flaws to heal so we flow into a more loving, less fearful way of being. I say allow because we cannot dominateour own character with willpower or good intentions. Human behavior is more than cultural habits, it’s hard-wired into our very nature.
Despite the difficulty of our challenge, two suggestions come to mind that offer support for the inner shift toward love:
1. Start a Gratitude Practice. As noted in Gratitude and Love (blogpost 15), one cannot be grateful and fearful or angry at the same time. Gratitude will raise your vibration and thus bless the world. Your ‘homework’ can be deciding what your gratitude practice might look like.
2. Practice Kindness. As with gratitude, it’s almost impossible to be kind and fearful, frustrated, or angry at the same time. David Hawkins, one of my key spiritual teachers, put it this way:
“Make a gift of your life and uplift all mankind by being kind, considerate, forgiving, and compassionate at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give.”
— David R. Hawkins, Ph.D., M.D., Power versus Force, Veritas Press
Hawkins’ quote points out that uplifting ourselves also uplifts all humankind. Think of your love rippling throughout humanity in ways that may never be known. Practicing gratitude and kindness are acts of faith. We must trust that as our vibration rises, it does indeed bless the world. Who we are often matters more than we realize.
Closing comment: I have been practicing gratitude and kindness for some time and know they have significantly shifted my character for the better. I’m also a lot more contented and happier than I used to be. Amazingly, it’s become so natural that it’s a way of life! What you practice does make a difference. Why not try it? Bless yourself and bless the world!
Gratitude — A Really Big Picture
I am grateful that even as Gratitude and Love (my last blog post) was being uploaded, inspiration was opening expanded vistas of gratitude. The result is this unplanned second gratitude blogpost.
This year in our backyard one of the largest chrysanthemum plants I’ve ever seen, displayed vibrant yellow flowers in glorious profusion. From early September through late October, my wife and I admired and thanked that remarkable plant every day. Ongoing gratitude felt delightful!
As a series of frosts gradually dimmed her light, gratitude shifted to include all the plants on Earth that produce beautiful flowers. In addition, when we toured Colorado’s mountains this autumn, that same yellow color bedazzled trillions of aspen leaves. Similar phenomena were playing out across the entire northern hemisphere. In another six months, it will repeat in the southern hemisphere. As the seasons rotate through the years, nature’s beauty is always present somewhere on Planet Earth. Amazing reasons for gratitude abound in the earthly life. So, look for aspects of your life that inspire gratitude when you’re feeling down and need a lift.
Since moving to Colorado, I have seen evergreen pollen blowing across entire mountainsides. It’s evidence that many of Earth’s vast array of plants evolved without the need for beautiful flowers to attract insects that pollinate them. In fact, many trees, weeds, and grasses rely upon the wind to distribute their pollen amongst flowers so tiny they are almost invisible. Unfortunately, people with allergies have another way to notice them; enough pollen to keep us sneezing for weeks. Despite lacking in-your-face beauty, such plants are as important to springtime’s rebirth as daffodils, lilies, and tulips. For example, grains are essential to feed the world’s people. No wonder harvest time is celebrated around the globe! In the USA, we celebrate Thanksgiving this week.
Since our last blog post, my experience of gratitude virtually exploded to encompass the entire universe and its Source. Even though my capacity for gratitude felt saturated at the edge of human knowledge, natural laws define patterns that control how creation operates. Starting with the subatomic realms, specific patterns control the orbits of electrons swirling around the nucleus of each atom. As we consider larger expressions of creation, an average human body is composed of about 7 x 1017 (700, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, or 700 quadrillions) atoms working together in beautifully organized patterns. Imagine the complex array of patterns and energies involved in expressing Planet Earth! Yet, similar patterns control billions of planets orbiting billions of host stars in each galaxy. Beyond that, the vastness of the universe consists of billions of galaxies moving in patterns that shape its ever-expanding boundary. While science can’t yet detect whether creation extends beyond the reach of our current techniques and theories, universal patterns are in place and by definition, the infinite energy of creation has no boundaries! While humanity may never witness whether a stunning array of universes are dancing in patterns within a multi-verse, or mega-groups of multiverses, we can still be grateful for the infinite possibilities held within creation’s Source. Einstein was right when he said about the ways of the universe, “We can only marvel and bow our heads.”
When we consider that each of us is an individual expression of God and an integral part of the Divine Whole, we can see that our personal gratitude is an exaltation of praise within the infinite mystery we call God. Each of us can be a part of God being grateful for Itself. Is that not the ultimate expression of self-love?! We are blessed beyond our capacity to grasp!
Closing thought: When one’s gratitude gets 'really big', it becomes an ongoing way of life. Lately, I seem to be feeling the effects of another natural law: Joy is reflected back to us in proportion to our gratitude. I have come to see joy, gratitude, and love as three synonyms seeking to grasp a singular, indescribable Essence. It’s easier for me to feel God’s essence than describe it. So, let’s feel love and gratitude for creation without concern for its boundaries, or lack thereof. God is love expressing itself as each of us, and everything else! Joy is our birthright, so we may as well accept the gift.
Blessings of love, joy, and gratitude to each of you.
Gratitude and Love
“Gratitude keeps the door wide open for more and more wonders to enter your life, so never,
never fail to give thanks.”
— Eileen Caddy, Opening Doors Within, Nov. 4, Findhorn Press
I recently noticed that the positive energy of gratitude is more than enough to dispel frustration, anger, or depression over world (or personal) events. It’s just not possible for me to be genuinely grateful and be frustrated, depressed, or angry at the same time. As I thought more about it, I realized that frustration, depression, and anger are reactions to fear. They happen when something scares or worries me or offends my ego. Gratitude and fear simply can’t be held within me at the same time. So, my best response when I get disturbed by world news, or some life event is to stop and remember something I’m grateful for. Inner turmoil settles down. What a powerful realization!
What is gratitude and why is it so powerful? I think gratitude is a natural response to love. When I feel grateful for the beauty of the flowers in our yard, I am reflecting the love I feel back to them. The same energy flow is at work when two people smile at each other. Gratitude seems to act like a mirror reflecting love back toward its source. Perhaps Love transcends fear is a universal law of life for all human beings. I wonder how this realization might shift today’s world culture, so filled with toxic reactions to our collective fears of events and each other. What would earthly life be like if we opened our hearts to be grateful for all creation?
The rest of this blog post points to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay, The Serviceberry, recently available in Emergence Magazine. The web address below will take you directly to her essay.
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/
I truly believe that Dr. Kimmerer is one of the most profound wisdom teachers on Planet Earth at this time. Her Native American background informs her understanding of life with perspectives not naturally present in most of us. You can find a short bio associated with the Emergence Magazine essay, or better yet, look at her website.
https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com
Believe me, her loving wisdom is worth your time to know her better. When I met her three years ago at a workshop, my view of how earthly life is naturally meant to work was forever shifted. This recent essay confirms my opinion that Dr. Kimmerer is truly a world treasure.
I will share two quotes from The Serviceberry essay. The first is more than a bit of sage advice from a wise woman; it is her description of how animals in the natural world respond when their preferred food is in short supply. It’s a basic rule of nature.
“Avoid competition for resources:
If there’s not enough of what you want, want something else.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry, Emergence Magazine
The second quote is the response of an indigenous Amazonian hunter who was mystified when a cultural anthropologist couldn’t understand why he shared his large animal kill with all his kin and friends rather than dry and store it for himself as security against a future time of hunger.
“My meat is stored in the belly of my friend.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry, Emergence Magazine
Kimmerer’s essay does a masterful job of comparing the economy of (often manipulated) scarcity that dominates today’s world with the gift economy still practiced by many indigenous people around the world. At this point, the gift economy has so faded from mainstream human awareness that it is essentially invisible. She hopefully positions that the two views might coexist for decades to come. I urge you to read her essay and consider how the gift economy might inspire you as she has inspired me. Perhaps we can collectively begin to move the world toward a more inclusive, benign, and sustainable way of life on Planet Earth.
PS: There is a spot in our backyard that eagerly awaits a “Saskatoon” (Amelanchier alnifolium) bush, aka western serviceberry. Thank you, Dr. Kimmerer!
Let’s be grateful for life’s possibilities. Amen!