By Catherine Cunningham
Indeed, these are strange and interesting times. When the COVID-19 storm hit– many people became very angry with Nature. Many continue today, to argue with fiery rage that Nature is bad, causing us great sickness and distress. IT is dangerous and destructive. IT is causing season after season of record heat waves, extraordinary fires, immense floods. And, IT shall be overcome by our ingenuity and engineering.
I have a different angle on Mother Nature.
She is teacher, source, provider, nurturer, unifier, and great balancer. Her way is easy. It’s the path we have taken that’s hard. Tell me, what does a good mother do when she spies her children playing recklessly in the park—digging up the earth, uprooting plants, chasing after small critters to burn, squish, or stone them? She pulls them from their harmful play, scolds them, and gives them a “time out”, right? And, what if she catches her son bullying another human being, who for some reason strikes him as different? Same thing, “time out”— until he reconciles to the truth that his actions were not right and he proves that he is ready to re-emerge – a changed, little man. And in the spirit of gender equality, what if a mother catches her daughter forming an exclusive group, excluding some and speaking poorly about others? Time out (right?) until her daughter realizes that each one of us is an infinitely valuable being and essential worker in life’s master plan. There is no waste in Nature– in healthy, regenerative, circular ecosystems. All matter and every living being (who btw matters) is cycled back into Mother Nature’s infinite embrace. Every ant, seed, fern, flower, mushroom cap, grass blade, tadpole, fish fry, flying bird and bat, turtle and tree… including me; are keystone species.
Together, we hold the key to eternity. We are not islands unto our individual selves. Rather we live in solidarity as one family on our turtle island Earth. And once we realize this absolute truth and scientific fact– we will recover our human+nature lost, rescue our best selves from our worst enemies-ourselves, ensure the continuity of life on earth, and live happily ever after in our Garden of Eden, once again.
Clearly, we have come to that ‘great moment’ in our biological evolution and cultural history, where we as Homo sapiens (literally smart humanoids) have a vital choice to make.
I’m sorry, UN Secretary General Antonio Guiterrez, we are NOT in a war with nature. This is the wrong language, energy, tone, and tact. We are in the betwixt and between of a necessary period of personal introspection; where we might finally awaken to the reality that WE are OUR enemy, ourselves; in fact. And, it is high time for us to grow into our more mature, stewardship roles of nature, transform our societies in nature positive ways, and claim our natural intelligence back.
Of course, the real question is: Will we choose to emerge from the COVID-19 underworld as a healthier, united global family under Mother Nature’s care or will we choose to soon secure our fate as a fossil record in the geologic history of life on earth, locked away forever in the sands of time?
Finally, isn’t it true that everything we need to learn about life, about living well on spaceship earth, about how to elegantly transition out of this corona virus chaos—our Mother Nature playbook– we learned in kindergarten? Tread lightly on the land, be conscious of your impact on other toes (for Mother Nature always knows), give back more than you take, take only what you need, include everyone, celebrate the beauty and abundance of nature, share what you have with those who have less, value and respect everyone, drink lots of pure spring water, eat only energetically rich, healthy food, breathe deeply, smile often, laugh a lot, and remember always to say “thank you”.
Dr. Catherine Cunningham, PhD, Natural Intelligence Media is committed to awakening Natural Intelligence in the World. She produces multimedia content — books, films, interactive media, and podcasts with her creative companions that aim to inspire everyone, everywhere to live a happy, healthy, naturally intelligent life.
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