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“We must teach our children a new way, in order to ensure that future generations will experience the beauty and abundance the Creator has given to us.”
—Grandmothers Counsel the World, by Carol Schaefer

Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Listen.

It is spring here in Indiana, and along with the rain, there are days filled with bright sunshine, tree branches bursting with new buds, birds chirping and frogs peeping in the meadows and marshes, and children frolicking about amid the sticks, fresh green grasses, crumpled wet leaves, and mud. Spring is a wonderful time for new beginnings, digging in the soil, planting gardens, discovering tiny pink, lavender, and white blossoms, and bringing more playfulness, joy, laughter, and love into our lives. Spring is nature’s life-affirming gift to this miraculous planet; it reminds us that, yes, despite times of darkness, decay, and death, life is reborn, again and again. Mother Nature continues to thrive with spectacular beauty and magnificence.

“What we do to the Earth and to the inhabitants of the Earth, we do to ourselves,” advise the wise elders. In Grandmothers Counsel the World, a book of indigenous wisdom teachings, it is said, “The true essence of civilization is learned through observing with humility our true place within all Creation.” There is much we can learn from the trees, animals, rivers, birds, rocks, whales, mountains, and fish . . . if we are willing to listen. Nature can teach us how to restore harmony and balance. Nature can reveal the sacred and the holy. Nature can bring healing.

“When we begin to understand the divinity, the cosmology of all life, we will no longer take our beautiful planet for granted,” counsel the Grandmothers.  We must, according to the wise elders, enter a reconciliation with Mother Nature in order to create a new alliance. We must learn the language of nature, and we must practice small acts of great love.

Walk gently. Quiet the mind. Open the heart. Seek guidance. Listen carefully. Pay attention. Be here, now. Only then, will we learn how to live.

May there be peace in your heart this day, 

Diana J. Ensign