Author: Geordie Nelson

Mindfulness:
Of the planet,
Of its beauty,
Of its destruction.

Of the rainforests, of the glaciers, the oceans and the sun,
Of deforestation, fisheries collapse, extinctions, and pollution.

All organisms are connected,
Yet we disconnect all organisms.

I am mindful that the world is in a state of disrepair,
That we are stewards,
Who have chosen to act like parasites.

We are at a turning point in Earth’s history,
A place our grandparents never reached.

Our world society needs change,
It must be us.

Change must happen through love,
The largest opposition to love is not anger,
But apathy and indifference.

In a world of indifference how do you make people care?
By every personal action you make.

“I am mindful that no one person can save the world and each of us can do something important to make a difference.” – Vivienne Simon

I am constantly mindful of the state of this planet and the state it is in. The first step is to acknowledge that. The planet is changing. We are harming it. Others live in denial, but we cannot collectively change our societal mindset when we still have ostriches sticking their heads in the sand. Once we bring others to this state of mindfulness we can bring faster, more efficient change. The planet doesn’t need saving, it will go on, but what really mean is saving a planet that is habitable for humans for the next seven generations and more. What legacy will we leave behind? A post-apocalyptic world devoid of resources, with contaminated air, land and water? Or a healthy planet with ecological integrity?

-Geordie

“We need to prefer being in love to being in power”
Eve, who ate the fruit in the Garden of Eden, wanted power over love. What if Eve had a conversation with the divine first, with God, before she ate the fruit?
So many people in our society are focused on power over love. This is reflected in our relationship to the land as we inflict our dominion over creation. We need to step back from our position of power from over the land to a position of love, as stewards of the land. Since the fall of creation many societies throughout the ages have asserted their dominance over the land, through anthropocentric viewpoints over forests as lumber, animals as livestock and vegetation as food stocks. Once we start a discussion and have dialogue with people over the land we can come back to a position of love.

In Indigenous Mind Twotrees discussion of “right now” reminded me of being present where I am and more specifically to be present in nature. Coincidentally, I chose to do the reading sitting outside by the little artificial creak by the classroom building before I knew what the chapter was about. After reading this chapter I wanted to do more of this “being present in nature” so I chose to walk to school the next day. Normally, I ride my bike or lately have driven a lot, but being able to walk through Jubilee Park on my way to school I was able to experience so much more. In the early morning I was able to see the frost on the ground, without my earbuds in I was able to hear the blue jays and the crows, as well as feel the crisp autumn morning air on my face.
I felt serene.
I felt more focused when I arrived at school after walking through the park and felt I had a good start to the day. The walk helped me to slow down, and reclaim intimacy to nature as Twotrees would say.
At first her discussion of indigenous mind made me feel disconnected to her idea because, I’m white. And let’s face it, I’m not indigenous in Canada, but then she says how all humans are indigenous to planet Earth which I appreciated. I think it’s important that all humans can play a role in being present in nature and acting as stewards to the planet. As an ethnic people moves around more and mixes with other ethnic groups it seems we have lost some of our connection to nature. Just look at the mixing of people in England by the Saxons and Norse peoples and then further mixing of different ethnic “settler” groups such as Ukraininan, German and Scandinavian in the Prairie Provinces. As we have moved so much we have lost our connection to the land. Twotrees discusses how in many indigenous languages in North America the name of a group of people is based on the surround geography such as the river people or the mountain dwellers. Just as a person who has lived in many different places may not feel connected to one area, so can a people not feel connected when they have moved around. I feel this just means we have to work harder to feel connected to the land and have respect for it because as Twotrees says we are all indigenous to the Earth.

We, as a society, have allowed the degradation of animals from creatures of God to Descartes ideal world where they are merely units of production in a system dominated by man where we take away everything natural, behavioural, and instinctive for these animals and replace it with the cold, barren world of concrete and metal. We have taken ‘dominion of the land’ to the extreme where we are no longer stewards but subjugators. The wanton horrors we commit are in the name of progress, short-term economics, and cheap food. We have disassociated the meat we eat from living breathing creatures because we have to in order to rationalize our actions. A quote from Mahatma Gandhi is often paraphrased as “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” What kind of a society are we living in based on pain, cruelty and suffering? Is it healthy to continue down this path? We have become disconnected from the dirt and plants after the Green Revolution and now we have become disconnected to life that is so similar to us. When we cannot show mercy and compassion those who have no voice of their own then we are farming our own conscience on an industrial scale so that we become numb with no feeling.