The air feels tense and thick with the sounds and smells of life, as I shift my weight onto my right foot- gaze fixed on the 20 or so cattle huddled under an ancient bay tree- a remnant of a forest that once was, or a harbinger of a forest that is yet to be?
The past years my heart has been heavy with all of the crucial undoing that needs to be done in our human world. It’s overwhelming, despairing, to constantly be focused on how wrong we were to get here, how wrong we are to continue with business as usual; not only in the treatment of the earth but in the treatment of one another; the continued deep disrespect and insane abuse of indigenous peoples, people of color and women- the ones with ways of knowing that are crucial to our continued existence, to the liberation of all of us.
The dominant narrative continues to be what NOT to do. But people aren’t inspired by what not to do. When we take something away, we need to replace it with something better.
Rather than just undoing the systems that oppress life, how can we use our human creativity to be the kind of keystone species that helps perpetuate life?
We are learning but also remembering. And it’s good to remind each other to keep an eye on the horizon- and if a Cooper’s hawk flies by, to revel in the elegance of its flight.
Amazing! Just beautiful!
Thanks Margaret!
Well said good fellow.
The past years my heart has been heavy with all of the crucial undoing that needs to be done in our human world. It’s overwhelming, despairing, to constantly be focused on how wrong we were to get here, how wrong we are to continue with business as usual; not only in the treatment of the earth but in the treatment of one another; the continued deep disrespect and insane abuse of indigenous peoples, people of color and women- the ones with ways of knowing that are crucial to our continued existence, to the liberation of all of us.
The dominant narrative continues to be what NOT to do. But people aren’t inspired by what not to do. When we take something away, we need to replace it with something better.
Rather than just undoing the systems that oppress life, how can we use our human creativity to be the kind of keystone species that helps perpetuate life?
We are learning but also remembering. And it’s good to remind each other to keep an eye on the horizon- and if a Cooper’s hawk flies by, to revel in the elegance of its flight.
Well I’m sure glad someone else gets it!
Cacaw!! 🦅
So insightful, raw, direct, and telling Mathew.