All Inspirit

I stood below the mountain in a state of both wonder and awe, observing its contours, contrasts, colors. The presiding winds were blowing so powerfully, exhaling through the resilient, untamed hairs of the prairieland. I could barely keep my balance facing the gusts and felt compelled to kneel discreetly onto the frosty earth, and took refuge amidst the swaying grasses that rippled 'round like the sea. Behind me was a lake, in a state of some kind of metamorphosis, a story that wished to be told by many distinct characters. First I saw its smooth and seemingly frozen spheres, perfectly reasonable for mid-January in the Northern Plains. The closer I walked, the more enchanted I became, and I observed sparkling, jagged spines of ice poking out of the water, some of the crystalline fragments just floated there peacefully beneath the shining sun~ as if meditating. Behind there still was the gesture of the flowing water, thunderous waves galloping swiftly with the help of the howling, wayfaring winds. Mirroring the water below, the clouds drifted above with a similar movement, quick and acquiescent to the momentum. The sun illuminated and warmed me between the shadowy pulses of the clouds, light coming and going much like a heartbeat.

Feeling the breeze fanning the sun's flames, I sensed my spirit ignite again and I pondered the wisdom of the elements. I wondered if the water is betrothed to the Earth, the air, the fire. The ways they play and embrace, how greatly they resemble each other, and their illustrious kisses that create endless galleries of natural phenomena to observe, like ice volcanoes, double rainbows, steam eruptions, bioluminescent waves, nacreous clouds, and sailing stones. These are testaments to their reverence for each other. Intimately connected and affected by the actions and inactions of the other, they are eternally bound...yet so free.

Having recently relocated to western South Dakota, I am seeing much of this land for the first time. As I hike and explore, looking for familiar plant faces and meeting new ones, I am reminded of the importance of connection to place.

And, as I continue to encounter this terrain, I consider its original caretakers. I remember what I learned about the rays of the sun with a Kichwa/Shuar man in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He was teaching me about the different uses of Abuelo Tabaco, or Grandfather Tobacco, right before the sunrise and he then told me that his ancestors used to communicate with each other and to other passed on loved ones with the use of tobacco, gazing at the first or last rays of sun in the morning or evening.

"This was our telephone," he laughed.

We practiced the method he taught me, which his grandfather had taught him, and I did experience visions. I didn't understand everything I was seeing in the beginning, but after spending more time in the jungle and speaking with the same wisdom-keeper and his family, great clarity and comfort ensued.

Nature holds memory. Stones and rocks, seeds, water, soil, fire, light, wind. Memories that heal, fortify, teach, amuse, and inspire. I think that perhaps my first physical greeting from Bear Butte (mountain) was in fact a download of memories. Maybe the vigorous wind was the messenger, or the ambassador to my greatest longings. How many others have walked there with prayers, visions, and songs in their hearts, who have communed with tobacco and their ancestors in this medicinal mountain sanctuary, feeling the insightful winds and resplendent rays of the sun?

I only perceived wellness in this space, and immediately my senses braided into my elemental kin in this tapestry, interwoven into a fabric of pure vitality and versatility. I know it to be true that when we know a place, we favor caring for its well-being, as it feels like an extension of ourselves, or perhaps we, an extension of it.

The great naturalist and poet Thoreau once said, "A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."

Caretaking a place perhaps also means allowing it to care for us. Although sometimes we feel the need to be in control, often the most beneficial act is simply allowing. Allowing the "weeds" to be present in our yards or gardens and the rain to muddy bare toes, leaving a spider undisturbed to weave its web, and watching an insect crawl on our skin. I do confess, trees have helped me heal from heartbreak and flowers have reminded me of my true nature. In this cradle of being witnessed, I wonder the ways that new memories are somehow currently being recorded.

That's where things become quite interesting, realizing that there truly is no separation between humans and nature.

In her talk “Neither Extinction Nor Escape” in Spain at the end of 2020 Vandana Shiva states, “If you look into history, you find that a patriarchal science is not science – because a living earth can only be known through participatory processes.”

I agree, as this wisdom is so forthright. How can we exist on a planet and not be part of it? The idea of separation is an illusion, because truthfully we are all so profoundly and fundamentally linked. For example, did you know that even our microbiome, the hundreds of kinds of bacteria and microorganisms in our gut, is connected to soil health and biodiversity? Considering that we coevolved with microbial symbionts for millennia, this correlation certainly makes sense to me.

In the article "Unearthing the Science Between Soil and Gut Health" by sustainable food systems researcher and consultant Mark Driscoll, he states, "A recent scientific study highlighted that the soil and the human gut contain approximately the same number of active microorganisms ( Approximately 100 trillion micro-organisms, most of them bacteria, but also viruses, fungi, and protozoa), with the microbiome diversity within the human gut having decreased dramatically with the modern lifestyles...

In addition, there is also a body of emerging evidence that suggests that the soil microbiome might have an even more direct effect on our health by communicating directly with our own cells and by boosting the nutrient content of our food. Scientists have found gut bacteria can emit neurotransmitters that regulate mood and in turn influence mental well-being with initial indications suggesting that vegetables, grains, and beans fed a positive gut environment and improved health outcomes. Dr. Zach Bush, a renowned US based physician argues that ‘the health of our soil microbiome is the single most potent factor determining how healthy, or unhealthy we are’ and has undertaken extensive research that highlights a positive correlation between soil health and human health."

Furthermore, in the article "Healthy Soil Microbes, Healthy People" from The Atlantic, Mike Amaranthus and Bruce Allyn write, "Just as we have unwittingly destroyed vital microbes in the human gut through overuse of antibiotics and highly processed foods, we have recklessly devastated soil microbiota essential to plant health through overuse of certain chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, failure to add sufficient organic matter (upon which they feed), and heavy tillage. These soil microorganisms -- particularly bacteria and fungi -- cycle nutrients and water to plants, to our crops, the source of our food, and ultimately our health. Soil bacteria and fungi serve as the "stomachs" of plants. They form symbiotic relationships with plant roots and "digest" nutrients, providing nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients in a form that plant cells can assimilate. Reintroducing the right bacteria and fungi to facilitate the dark fermentation process in depleted and sterile soils is analogous to eating yogurt (or taking those targeted probiotic "drugs of the future") to restore the right microbiota deep in your digestive tract."

We are what we eat, and we are what the land "eats". Doesn't it make sense that if the land is in a state of imbalance and depletion, then the life consuming from it would be as well?

Vandana Shiva further states in the aforementioned talk, “Ecofeminism realizes that we are connected to the earth through our life and our living systems, through our intelligence — because the earth is intelligent, and we are intelligent. It’s just that capitalist patriarchy’s mind was too narrow to understand these rich intelligences – of ecological intelligence, of cooperative intelligence, of living intelligence, of compassionate intelligence, of the intelligence of caring. Those are all intelligences because intelligence means to be able to make a choice. And we are making choices for life."

The choices that large corporations have made up until this point in the realm of Big Ag and Big Pharma only sustain a narrow worldview and economy, because shortsighted practices shall be short-lived, and because the health of the planet and our very bodies cannot be supported perennially with divisive behaviors.

Depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and author of Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, Bill Plotkin writes, "Oh what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and equinox! This is what is the matter with us. We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars, and love is a grinning mockery, because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table."

Harming the planet is the same as sabotaging ourselves. Although humanity has contaminated the land, water, and air I still remain very hopeful that more and more will allow their connection to places they visit, frequent, or dwell to inspire them to steward the elements, and perhaps one day perceive their collective memories once again. When I consider how much time people enjoy spending connected to the internet and technology, it seems obvious that a huge part of the reason why is to satisfy a deep need to connect with others. We have created amazing innovations in technology that benefit others by way of medicine, mapping, and remote communication for example, but as we all know it has also brought along with it a tremendous level of isolation. Adding to this, our recent quarantines and social distancing... and loneliness feels like yet another pandemic.

Interestingly, in the year 2020 people began planting home gardens in record numbers and spending much more quality time outdoors with their families. It's natural for all to feel this undeniable urge to connect, and now more than ever the revival of our deep connection to Mother Earth, Madre Tierra, Pachamama, is not only paramount for human survival and continued coevolution, but I believe it is our clearest window to true self-realization.