Oregon - the coast

Morning mist was rising off the ground everywhere. Nickie said this is the earth waking up and breathing. Out here, she said, where the earth isn't all covered with cement and asphalt, you can see it breathe just like we do.

I thought this was profound.





I was reminded of a Native American spiritual leader we know. He was kind enough to share some of his wisdom with us, which I will paraphrase here:

Native Americans have believed for thousands of years that everything is interconnected. The trees, the water, the rocks, the dirt, the animals, the stars, are all your brothers and sisters. European, and now American cultures, teach that everything is separate. The Native Americans were considered foolish and ignorant for believing that a living, breathing human being is related to the dirt and rocks, for example. You think you're not? Doesn't modern science now tell us that plants pull minerals from the ground, and you take those minerals into your body whenever you eat from those plants or eat an animal that ate those plants? And that, indeed, you will actually die without those minerals? The dirt and rocks are coursing through your veins as we speak. You are related to the earth. And doesn't the Big Bang theory tell us that the sun and Earth were formed by the same gases and forces that made all the rest of the stars and planets? You are by extension related to them too. European and American cultures are only beginning to scientifically prove and accept things that Native Americans have known for centuries.