Get Cultured Ktchn
The other day I was reading a book by Tom Robbins called Skinny Legs and All. Albeit biased in some ways, it’s a really great book with a lot of lessons to teach about spirituality, femininity, sexuality and the blindness in which we can go about our lives. At the climax of the book Tom stated something that really resonated with me about our relationship with Earth. “Humanity was a function of nature. It could not, therefore, live separately from nature except in a self-deceiving masquerade. It could not live in opposition to nature except in schizophrenic crime. And it could not blind itself to the wonders of nature without mutating into something too monstrous to love.”
So often we refer to nature as a place to go to, separate from our world. We do not consider that the chair we sit on, the air we breathe, the fabric woven into our clothing is nature. Where do we think these things come from? Even objects synthesized by man are some combination of the Elements that make up all things living or not. And yet, I still find myself stuck in a mindset that I am separate from nature. That I am a foreign invader and that all I do is take from Mother Earth and harm her. I squish her with my foot prints, I eat her, I pollute her with my waste, but there is no way she benefits from my existence. Right?
Symbiosis:
I’d like to think that’s wrong. I am in a symbiotic relationship with Mother Earth. She takes as much from me as I do from her, spiritually and in a very physical sense. I breathe in and kill many microbes swept into my lungs, Mother Earth breathes in and a tornado devastates humanity. I nurture her plants with love to someday nourish my body, which in turn feeds the bacteria and microscopic fungi that live within me and make up my body. The magnitude of my size to those microflora is analogous to Mother Earth’s size to me or her size compared to our galaxy and so forth. And just like how I am not really a single entity, but rather an ecosystem of microorganisms, Mother Earth is not a single entity, but rather made up of all of her inhabitants.
So in that sense, I am Mother Earth, and just like my body has a remarkable ability to take care of itself and stay in natural balance, so does Mother Earth. Long after humans have managed to go extinct, Mother Earth will most likely live on and the matter that makes up our bodies will recycle back into new life. I think one of the coolest theories we prescribe to as humans is the conservation of mass law. That mass cannot be destroyed or created; it is simply recycled. We are always in harmony and always in balance.
Taking Action:
So what is the take away of all this? Firstly, that I should not feel guilty for being a consumer. Like all other things, I must consume to survive. Such is life. Secondly, if I care about my own well being even a little (which I encourage you to do!) I surely must care for Mother Earth and her inhabitants, because we are all brothers and sisters under the large nurturing globe that provides us with the sustenance of life. It’s hard not to feel full of love and belonging when your family is as big as ours! Caring for Mother Earth is caring for yourself. For example: reducing your consumption of factory farmed meat reduces green house gases, which reduces global warming, which reduces droughts and other catastrophes. Buy things that are not a product of illegal deforestation.
Check out the Resource pages or Ethical Consumer Map! Even educating yourself about where the items you consume come from and truly giving thanks is a beautiful place to start!
Out of a little self love grows compassion. <3
Thank you,
Kelsey
