Realities to LIve or Die By

Canyon de Chelly in the Late Afternoon

©Lynne Buchanan (Image watermarked by Digimarc)

"Intimate knowledge of the natural environment--its whims, cycles, patterns, seasons, terrain, and topography--became second nature to them.   Such knowledge can be the key to our survival as humans, but this time, instead of adapting to the environment in order to maintain our existence, we must save and heal the wounded earth so that future generations are assured of survival.  To accomplish this, we must go back to the beginning." --Joseph Marshall III, To You We Shall Return: Lessons About our Planet from the Lakota

Near the end of this wise book about what he has learned from his ancestors, Marshall writes, "Only after I learned the reality of how my ancestors tried to exist within the parameters of the natural environment did I finally begin to understand.  Whatever is beneficial to the natural environment is beneficial to humans.  Conversely, anything bad for the environment is bad for humans.  These are simple realities to live or die by."

The superstorm we experienced this past weekend should be a wake up call to us all that global warming does exist and that each and every one of us, through our patterns of living, are contributing to this problem to a greater or lesser extent.  We all need to increase our awareness of how our actions impact this beautiful earth and find ways to live more harmoniously with the natural world, or both we and the planet will continue to experience such dire consequences as we have just witnessed.