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In the early 1980s I worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories and served as the Superintendent of Social Services on Baffin Island. We ran a complete range of services: social assistance, child welfare services, correctional services including a correctional center and various other services. The delivery of all of these services was guided by laws, regulations and policies.

I would often travel to the thirteen small communities scattered across the High Arctic to explain our services and get feedback. Often, during the community meetings, one or several Inuit elders would get up and say,” Learn from the land.” This happened time and time again. I respected their comments as a cultural statement but considered them irrelevant. The elders simply didn’t understand the rules and regulations we operated under. Besides, I was a “Kadluna” (a white man), was a city boy, and had no experience on the land—especially their land.

And I was also a slow learner. However, as I heard this mantra repeated time and time again I gradually realized that they were not talking about learning from experience on the land—though this was important. They were trying to tell me that the land was living, it was a teacher, it had a law, and we must be guided by this law.

In the days leading up to the creation of Nunavut there were constant discussions in communities about law. At one community meeting an elder got up and said, “You Kadluna think that we Inuit don’t have laws. You’re wrong. We do have laws. But they are different from your laws. Your laws are written down in a book and can be thrown in the fire and burned up. Our laws are here,” and he placed his hand over his heart.

Long before there was written law—Roman Law, Church Law, The Magna Carta and English Common Law, the Napoleonic Code—there was only one law—the law of nature. And it has not ceased to exist just because folks decided to write things down in books.

The law of the land (also referred to as Wild Law, the Law of Nature and Earth Jurisprudence) recognizes honours and protects the rights of planet earth as a living reality and the rights of all its species, including the human species, to fulfill mutual self-supporting destinies.
As Thomas Berry has noted, every component of the Earth community has three rights: 1) the right to exist, 2) the right to habitat, and 3) the right to fulfill its role in the ever-renewing process of the earth community.

Rivers have river rights, birds have bird rights, insects have insect rights. These are not human rights. They are analogous to human rights and must be seen within the laws of nature which includes such things as predator-prey relationships. Just because they are analogous doesn’t mean they are not real.

A fundamental principle of the law of the land is what we might describe as nature’s Hypocratic Oath: DO NO HARM—TO THE ECOSYSTEMS THAT YOU DEPEND UPON FOR YOUR EXISTENCE.

So how can we rediscover and implement Law of the Land?

We can’t do it by trying to extend human laws to include nature. By its very definition, jurisprudence is the study and practice of human law. And, because human laws depend upon the government in power, they can be removed for political expediency—as we are now experiencing in the area of resource developments on both a federal and provincial level.

We have to learn to step outside our traditional approach of trying to extend human laws and realize that the Law of the Land is the primordial law. It is the first law which must guide the development of human laws. Fortunately in some parts of the world this is beginning to happen.

Ecuador and Bolivia have enshrined the rights of nature in their constitutions. Some local governments, particularly in the United States, have adopted this approach regardless of whether state and local governments consider it “legal.” And there is a growing body of literature in science and even in law that is exploring this option.

Meanwhile, for those of us dealing with local development, we might “Learn from the Land” and adopt Aldo Leopold’s principle: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, the stability, and beauty of the land. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Mike Bell
Comox B.C.

Start the truck, make sure it has gas and you have a full jerry can in the back that’s sealed good…theres nothing worse than having gas everywhere.
Double check the directions to the camp.
Head out onto the ice road, yah yah sort of like Ice Road truckers, just not as well groomed roads. “You’ll see a bright orange marker, its rough but well send the Bombardier out to open it up a bit”.
We see the fish camp, they’ve been out there for a while and there’s a big file of culled fish…fish that won’t be processed and sold to restaurants.
We back the truck up, we load the truck high with frozen fish. We have some tea.
She tells me: “You know Kate, when the world is kicking at yah, yah just keep kickin’ back, just keep kickin’ back and eventually they’ll stop”.
Drive back to the “city”.
Put the extra dog houses in a circle.
Back the truck up to them, unload the fish, throw a tarp over it. Throw snow up over the tarp and the dog houses. I see a fox watching from a ways a way. No ravens will get into this pile but I will leave it open just a bit so the fox can get in if it’s that hungry. There’s lots of them and they are starving this year. Poor soul. I leave some grub out for them and watch them eat a bit. They eat more like a cat than a dog like animal and they don’t like my cooking.

When I was really young I would watch Laura and Gerard and their relatives Peter and Linda work with their French Bulldog and other dogs. They would prepare different types of dog food. I learned to make fish dog food from watching Fran and Mathew. They were patient with me and let me tag along and watch. They set me up with my first 3 dog team and Matt would go ahead on the skidoo and the dogs would chase and if I fell off Peewee, the big white leader, would turn the team around and come back for me. I wasn’t very old.

Pull three big fish out of the pile. Chop them up with an axe. I have a little rule: a chunk for each dog. Chopped up, they cook faster that way. Throw them in the big metal pot. Turn the propane on, start the torch. Lift the metal pot onto the frame. Pour the hot water from the house into the pot. Let it cook for about twenty minutes and check on it.
Take the lid off and stir with the old boat paddle.

It’s bubbling. I breathe in the steam. I believe the oil from the fish makes me healthy. Healthy lungs, healthy hair, healthy skin, healthy mind.

The fish is cooked. Let it sit and cool.
Dump the contents into the big plastic garbage can. Plastic, because it is easier to clean and also to drag along the snow to where ever it has to go, heavy sometimes.

If it’s cold, add more oils – like corn oil.
If you want to enrich their blood feed them some beaver.
If they are sick feed them some beaver intestines.
You want to keep them parasite free, give them some beaver fur to play with. Eventually they eat it and it will go through their system.
You want to make them lean and fast? Feed them beef.
It’s cold and you want to still keep them training? Add chicken skins or start feeding real fatty chicken. If it’s cold and you want to go real old skool, give them oats and lard.
You want to give them wind and open up their lungs? You chew on some rat root, kneel beside their bowl and spit it in there. Just a bit.
Lots of water. They always need to get to water. If they are healthy and aren’t training they won’t want to eat everyday but they always need access to water.
Jackfish they don’t like so much.
Whitefish they like better in the summer when you throw them a frozen one to knaw on.
Trout they kind of like only frozen and chopped up and they just need a little chunk.
Char when you can get it. The dogs that know what that is gobble it right up.
Pickeral, um, not so much. It has spikey fins.
Fresh water cod or Ling or Mariah or burbot, that’s what I feed, they love it when its cooked.

“Feed them good and work it off them” said John as we were standing there watching Robert feed these beautiful, lanky, strong hounds. John taught Robert how to run dogs when he was a young adult, a loooonnnng time ago. Robert won every race that year.
I got to spend a couple of seasons with John and his wife. He taught me a lot. “Kate, why do you always have to do things the hard way? Think about things!”. When I saw him he gave me a big huge hug. So big, I scared myself around it. He was glad to see me.

I have the individual dog dishes all laid out around the garbage can. I look up at the first dog in line. Esau. He looks a little thin, a little more for him. Longlegs. She looks a little fat, a little less for her. Those crazy puppies are under four months old get them fat in case they get sick they will have some reserves.
Don’t feed them so much them so much that they lose their appetites. If they ever turn away from their food take it away from them and give it back a bit later. Sounds funny but you train them to eat fast. That way when they are under stress or sick or tired that eating becomes automatic and in extreme cases of sickness that can be lifesaving. “Those dogs eat so fast I thought they were going to eat their dishes!” I heard Danny say once. He also said to me one time when I was talking about training a young leader once, a dog he didn’t like: “The only place that dog will lead you to is straight to HELL!!!” I am still laughing about that.

I am still kneeling there, deciding how much of this heavy oily dog food I should add. Not to much, they don’t need a lot.

My dogs know, they don’t jump up. According to Cesar Milan, I am to be the pack leader, the dominant one. I am not sure I like being that, however, it makes life easier. The respect me and I respect them. They watch me and I watch them and if they don’t pay attention to me when I walk in the yard, I’ll throw a little rock or twig at them when they are not watching to get their attention. You need this, you don’t need out of control baboons not listening and potential killing something and they are more than capable of it. They should be aware of me. They are working dogs and only after we have had a real good run do we play a bit.

I make each one sit before they get their food. It takes longer.

Each one eats vigorously. They are healthy. Healthy coats, healthy eyes, good muscle tone, coordinated balanced and focused. They are not the fasted, we are still trying to find our niche. I am thinking longer races. 50 to 150 to 300 miles maybe. We will see. I don’t really know how to train them. If I asked them for something than they give me everything they have. It takes a very long time to figure these things out on your own.

I get to travel to other communities. Communities beside rivers and lakes. Not many dogs. Why? Hard to get food I am told. That’s weird. Even fifty years ago dogs were a huge part of life, there was food then wasn’t there? Even when I was a kid people were still keeping dogs. That’s how I learned.
Dogs that people did get are dying, big pussy cysts vets can’t figure out. Can’t get them healed. Breast cancer. Pups dropping dead from at four, five months old. One right after the other.
Fish? The stuff I chose to feed my dogs? You find them with cysts. Even the ones without cysts I would be leery of. Feed them to my dogs now, if I had any? No. Fry them up for my kids, the way I was raised? No way.

My kids haven’t learned to make dog food like that and they probably won’t. The more I think about it, the harder it would be to find a steady supply of food.

Now, instead of hopping in the truck to drive hours to a fish camp on the tenth largest lake in the world, we go to a mall.

If you think we environmentalists should learn from nature, the chrysalis experience would be a good place to start.

Towards the end of its life the caterpillar disintegrates into a pool of gooey protoplasm. Eventually a few different cells emerge. They are called imaginal cells because they contain the “image” of the butterfly. Then comes the battle for survival. The cells of the caterpillar’s immune system attack the imaginal cells trying to destroy them. Eventually, however, the imaginal cells overwhelm the caterpillar cells and bring forth a new and different life-form that can fly.

Environmental groups are experiencing a chrysalis experience. In the past they have worked to improve the inadequate environmental laws. But many of those laws no longer exist.

The federal and provincial governments have been dismantling environmental laws that have taken thirty years to develop. They have silenced their own scientists and reduce staff who have monitoring responsibilities. They have given corporations the right to design requirements for environmental impact reviews. They have silenced the voice of citizens in public meetings.

Then there is the attack on environmentalists and their organizations.

Prime Minister Harper has indicated that his government will be investigating the tax exempt status of non-profit advocacy groups who get too involved in politics. This silencing of environmental groups is the reason why David Suzuki had to leave his own foundation

Joe Oliver, federal minister of natural resources, has jumped in to protect the federal government’s resource extraction immune system. When he declared last year that environmental groups were radicals and un-Canadian for opposing the Enbridge pipeline I thought of Helder Camera. He was the Archbishop of Recife in Brazil, famous for his programs to feed and house the poor.

At the end of his life he asked. “Why is it that when I feed the poor they call me a saint? But when I ask how come the poor are poor they call me a communist?” And I thought…”Why is it that when we get folks together to clean up a stream they call us good citizens. But when we ask who polluted this stream and who allowed them to do it they call us radicals.”

We environmentalists must recognize that we are in transition. We are peering into this gooey political, economic, democracy disintegrating mess for the imaginal cells that will lead us into the future. And some of them are coming into focus.

We’ve got to stop being against things and start talking about what we are for. What does sane development look like at the local, provincial and federal level?

We’ve got to become more holistic. We must shed the “tree-hugger” reputation and work with coalitions to create a common ground that links environment, the economy, health and social programs.

We have to get political, recruiting and supporting good candidates. We must work cooperatively with governments when we can but always hold their feet to the fire.

We’ve got to strop preaching to the choir and broaden our base. We need young people, folks from the middle class, folks that are unaware of what is happening around them but are susceptible to change.

Finally, as individuals, we’ve got to recognize our personal and creative chrysalis. We have to reach deep within our souls to discover the moral, ethical and spiritual imaginal cells for our activism that will lead us into the future. We are fighting the good fight for one reason: because it is the right thing to do.

Mike Bell
Comox B.C.

By Ellen Parker
Eagle’s ending questions “What do you call connecting with nature, and the action of healing with and from nature?” have stirred me into responding. I resonate with Eagle’s frustration of finding a ‘meaning-full’ word for being in nature. I find the tension especially strained in our society that places so much emphasis on ‘doing’ instead of ‘being’. Do you notice often when introduced, the first question asked is “What do you do?” I realize it is our fumbling attempt to get to know each other, but for many of us who don’t have a ‘defined vocation’, it’s not a very inviting way to find out or share who we really are. I’ve been experimenting with other ‘ice breaking’ introduction questions, like “What gets you motivated to get out the door each morning?” or “How’s life these days for you?” I haven’t settled down with an ‘at ease’, quick, slip-off-the-tongue kind of question yet, though, so I’m open to suggestions.

Although, I do have a word to share with you for ‘being in nature’ from my German cultural heritage: ‘Spaziergang’. Like so many words the full meaning gets ‘lost in translation’. If you go to the dictionary, you’ll find it translated as going for a ‘walk’, or a ‘stroll’, or the one I like that gets closer to the deeper meaning is to ‘take a turn in the woods’. Let me illustrate by sharing my personal experience of going on a ‘Spaziergang’ or it is also a verb ‘spazieren’ with my extended family. Whenever we visit family in Germany, the common practice we have is to go ‘spazieren’ after a fine meal (which usually is a feast, because we, coming all the way from Canada, are the ‘special’ reason to gather the family together).

Imagine everyone rolling away from a groaning table of delectables and then offering politely to ‘help with the dishes’. No, my Tante replies firmly, first we need to have a ‘Spaziergang’ to ‘digest’ the meal (there always is a practical reason given), but the real reason is to truly ‘visit’ and ‘be’ with each other. (The dishes always get done faster anyway after a ‘Spaziergang’ — tidying tasks become ‘postlude’ activities to finish any lingering thoughts from the ‘Spaziergang’ with the grande finale being cozying into couches and easy chairs).

Of course the healthiest ‘spazieren’, at least in my extended family’s opinion, is to be strolling outside in the woods or in the park. Surprisingly the weather usually cooperates with sunshine, but we have been known to get out there with umbrellas and rain coats. We walk with all generations from cousins to Omas and Onkels, taking a pace that ebbs and flows, kids running back and forth, finding butterflies along the way, or Omas stopping to smell the roses (Onkels have been known to talk about which trees would make the best furniture or building material). We enter into not only conversation with each other, finding out how we ‘really’ are. One Tante will comment, ‘oh I see you’re not having as much trouble with your knee like you used to’ … the opening to finding out the struggles lived through and surpassed. We also enter into a kind of interaction with ‘all our relations’ — that which surrounds us and enfolds us.

There is an implicit and notable understanding that we are ‘breathing in’ the life that is around us and within us. There is an easy flow between queries of personal health, ‘nature observation’, and healing. Conversation is peppered with remarks made about ‘ah, smell that wonderful pine’ or if we are in the park, ‘look how well the rhododendrons are blooming this spring’ (everyone gets an education in botany, biology, and gardening along the way too). We are healed, made whole again and again. Our lives have been so graced by such ‘spazieren’; my family history is interwoven with place, time, and ‘nature presentness’.

It is a living legacy. This practice embodies me now, especially since my Omas and Opas, many Onkels and Tantes, and my parents too are gone from this world of ‘matter’, yet their very ‘beingness’ embraces me and infuses every breath I take, because I know what it is to be on a ‘Spaziergang’ with them. There is no separation.

As we come to realize that the environment is not something “out there” but is, rather part of us—that we are earthlings—we begin to rethink many other things we have taken for granted. One of them is the meaning of “community.”

Our Western culture tends to think of a community as a place—a neighbourhood, a town, a city. But many indigenous peoples who have lived most of their history as nomads think of a community not in terms of place but in terms of relationship.

One of the traditional indigenous definitions of community is this one. “A community is an intimate relationship with all living things both animate and inanimate”. I smile when I think of it. It seems that it was developed specifically for white guys like me. They knew we would jump on the definition and point out that something cannot be “living” and “inanimate” at the same time. But it would make sense if we adopted their concept that other species and even the rocks and mountains are part of a living land.

This awareness is not something new or even an exclusively indigenous concept. More than two centuries ago Plato, in his Timaeus, spoke of the anima mundi—the soul of the world. He said: “Therefore, we consequently state that this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence…a single, visible entity containing all other living entities which by their nature are all related.” This concept of the anima mundi has come down and been refined through the ages.

This new awareness does not mean that we can’t cut down trees or till the soil or fish and hunt or use and enjoy the fruits of the earth we need for our existence. It does mean, to quote Thomas Berry, that we must use these things in a way that develops a mutually enhancing relationship between our species and Earth.

As for me personally, the lights went on when I was struggling with the aboriginal sense of community in the Arctic and came across the words of Thomas Berry: “We are not a collection of objects. We are a community of subjects.”

Mike Bell
Comox, B.C.

“The world sends us garbage. We send back music.”
-Favio Chavez

One billion tons of garbage. This is how much garbage is generated every year worldwide. We live in a disposable society; we consume excessively and waste unnecessarily. But as long as we dispose of it properly, there should be no issues right? Out of sight, out of mind.

When my garbage is full, I tie the bag shut, place it in the alley and wait for it to magically disappear. Most days, I don’t even see it go. I just assume that whoever comes every week, will return once more and deal with my unwanted items.

All this waste has to go somewhere, right? But what if that somewhere is your home, like it is for so many people around the world? How would you find inspiration and beauty in your surroundings? How would you connect to the land to which you call home?

I know that I take for granted the natural beauty that can be found in my home. The open green spaces, the abundance of wildlife, pristine rivers, even the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind. If this was all destroyed and covered with the garbage that I personally generate in a year, how would I connect?

This is reality for so many people, including those who call Catuera, Paraguay home. This is their reality, yet they have chosen to find beauty in their surroundings and transform it through music and resourcefulness:

If a community that faces such adversity is able to come together and transform the lives of its youth, we must surely be able to do the same. Find the rhythm of the earth that surrounds you, immerse yourself in it, and share it with the world.

Ubiquitously we are surrounded by risks in life; we are constantly being pressured, challenged and pushed. Being under these constant pretenses causes a universal feeling of stress. The prescription that has followed to mitigate these stresses are usually in the forms of medicine, types of a condensed elements that help numb the tension and strain that we knowingly apply onto our mental and physical bodies. In this week’s readings, I agree that we are in need of some Vitamin N in our lives if we are expected to heal both physically and mentally. A quote that started my progression into putting myself with and in nature is,
“Humans living in landscapes that lack trees or other natural features undergo patterns of social, psychological, and physical breakdown that strikingly similar to those observed in animals that have been deprived of their natural habitat.”
Remembering that I am nothing more than another animal is humbling to my sense of being. We as a species may be highly “developed” in sense of social structures, scientific knowledge, having the use of five appendages, learning and retaining “intelligence” but simple reminders that I am just another animal here to “eat, sleep, procreate” are very comforting. I often find myself becoming so absorbed in the tasks for the day: drop this at so and so’s desk, fill in time-sheet, write reflection, meet with Kate to help her do that drama thing, pay phone bill, don’t forget to eat, make list for the list of things to do, that I forget that I am just another animal. And yes, I understand that with our complexities in society there are certain things expected of me to complete and withhold but sometimes it is nice to just stand back and realize that in all the essence of craziness, we are just animals.
In exploring nature, I think it is important to bring ourselves down from a hierarchical state and let ourselves be seen in within nature, never above it only then can we benefit from holistic healing. In Patricia Hasbach’s ecotherapy she testing what she calls “mapping the internal landscape”. When I first read this, I began thinking, what would the landscape of my mind look like if I was to walk through it now? Trying to envision what this may look like, I try to walk through my mind. What I see is a black room full of a stack of lists upon lists of things to accomplish. Near at my feet are things I must accomplish soon and at the back there are my future goals. In the middle stand the people that are important to me, I see them kicking their feet, some with flashing signs saying you missed their birthdays, and another is saying you should call me soon. I know this image all so well. In fact, I am in my internal map a fair bit.
Walking to school, I walk on a gravel road, where I pass a small hidden park, sometimes my neighbors have a fire going, I can smell the strong smoke that touches my body, I see the recently fallen leaves, but above all I see these things through calculated eyes. I see the tangible and the explainable. I read my surroundings not with my spirit and soul only my mind. In fact, I usually can see and notice changes in my environment, such as I have noticed that every week the Mündel’s part of the alley is drenched in a substance, which I have explained to myself as some sort of watering system. I can make these types of analyses all while consulting my task list in my head. I think this week’s readings eludes the stark issue in that in healing from your environment, from nature, is that you have to truly immerse yourself in it. I comprehend that the readings are a factual representation of trials and studies that concur that nature can heal a person but more importantly, at least for myself, I want to learn not that it works but how to do so in a way that both nature and I are mutually benefited. Outdoor exercise or green exercises for example, in my opinion, are petty examples of how to heal through nature. First of all, when I think of “exercise” or working out at all, in any manner, I automatically am reminded of pain or a time where I am forcing myself through something I thought I had to do because my body needed. In this sense, it just becomes another one of my daunting tasks. Therefore, why must we call it exercise? Why can we not just say, “oh… I’m going to go experience nature” or “oh, I’m going to go look for my peak experience in nature” or “oh… I’m going to have my Pocahontas moment with nature”. Using the word, ‘exercise’ to me diminishes the full meaning of what can be gathered in and through nature. To me it is similar to the concept of ‘putting the headphones on and in’ while being in nature. The semantics of connecting with nature then should mimic the peak experience that you can derive from it. So please help me, other than my poor explanation of engaging with your inner Pocahontas, tell me what you call connecting with nature? What do you call the action of healing with and from nature?

This is a thing that I do on my Facebook page about 2-3 times per month. They seem to generate some discussion around issues that are infrequently addressed in media and in everyday conversation. They are based on actual discussions with different friends. Names of course have been changed and a blanket apology for all of those I may unintentionally offend is stated.

Friend Quote of the Day
Scene: I am sitting in the University café area eating a sandwich when my friend Gerald, an Environmental Science major walks up to me and takes a seat. I know him well enough that I can tell by the look on his face he has a question and/or concern to hash out.

Me: Hey hey! I saw on Facebook that you are headed to the Oil sands Student delegation primer at main campus later this week! I guess that means they accepted your application! Right on! That’s wicked!

Gerald: Do I really have to go to this oil sands delegation primer dealie? Like what do they do there?

Me: Last year that had some wicked profs talking including Dave Schindler! That man has a spine, something I appreciate that’s for sure you can find some of his lectures on You Tube. You have to go and check it out! Super, super interesting.

Gerald: Well you know Kate, I was talking to my friend and I told her about how you went on this trip last year and how absolutely mortified and traumatized you were by what you saw in the Mac and she was like: “Gerald, I really don’t want you to go if you are going to end up with PTSD!” Am I going to end up with PTSD?

Me: Well, quite honestly Gerald, if you think about the implications of what is going on in our country with regards to environmental legislation failures, corporate takeover of our government, food systems, medical care, media, education and absolute total disregard and disrespect for not just human life but for all life on earth you may just end up with PTSD. The Tar Sands – I refuse to call them the oils sands – and all of our governments complete and absolute failures and basically everything that is undeniable wrong with human civilization all rolled into one disaster beyond all imagination. Breaking through the denial of what this is what would cause such utter trauma that I suppose it could, with the right medical professional be diagnosed as PTSD. I mean there are misdiagnosis going on all the time…don’t get me started on the autism spectrum and ADD & ADHD stuff today my friend.

Gerald: You know if I didn’t know you and if I had spent so much time hearing you lecture people on this stuff I would think you were nuts. In fact it did cross my mind when we first met. Not that I am trying to insult you in any way shape or form, I know I can be honest with you that’s all.

Me: Oh my goodness, there is no insult taken whatsoever! Have a look at the news today about what’s going on in New Brunswick and anti fracking protests. People standing up for basic human rights and the media (TORONTO SUN – shame on you) slaughtering them. I so know it is not just me that sees this… I think it is really important for you as a environmental science student to really get out there and see what is going on and this trip will be good for that. Also Dave Schindler and David Suzuki are going to be speaking at U of A next month….maybe we should make a date of it???

Gerald: A date with you would be a total trip anyway, however, a date with you to go and listen to Dave Schindler and David Suzuki speak about the state of the planet would be completely surreal! You know you did demand that I watch a couple different documentaries that ended up blowing my socks off like “The World according to Monsanto” and “Thrive” and got me super aware of the horrors of GMO so you know what…I am going to the primer and I am so not going to hesitate going on this trip to the Tar Sands.

Me: That is good Gerald, hopefully they talk about the cancer related deaths up river from this “development” and the abscess and cyst ridden fish of the Athabasca. That will give you a bit of a view of how incredibly far reaching this disaster is and how out to lunch our society has become. And you know what, quite honestly, if you are that affected and think you are suffering from PTSD by your visit I will hook you up with a week long course at a place on an island off the coast of Vancouver Island that I know about….but I will tell you about that place later….

For much of my adult life I lived in the Arctic and worked as a consultant in Inuit and Dene communities. I had a close friend and mentor, Thomas Berry, (not to be confused with Wendell Berry) who was a monk, Roman Catholic priest and a geologian. He was one of the great seminal thinkers of the environmental movement in the last century.

Thomas lived in North Carolina. Twice a year, for a number of years before his death, I would travel down from the Arctic to spend some time with him.

On one these visits I said to him, “Tom, in the Arctic many people are interested in an earth-based spirituality. Have you ever written anything on an earth-based spirituality?” He said to me, “No I haven’t.” But then he said, “I’ve written something on The Spirituality of Earth that you might find interesting.”

An important lesson. For Thomas, Earth was not something outside of us that we just use for spiritual reflection and meditation. We are earthlings. We are part of the living Earth. Our human spirituality is the extension and internal manifestation of Earth spirituality.

Thomas taught that there were two great books: Book One and Book Two—and the Bible was Book Two. Book One—Earth—with its wondrous beauty, bounty, gifts and creativity is the primary revelation of the divine presence. He would say that if we lived on the moon with its harsh and barren landscape we would have no awareness of a divine presence. On several occasions, to make the Christian churches more aware of this reality, he suggested that they might put the Bible on the shelf for about twenty years.

Thomas was strongly influenced by Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest and palentologist. Teilhard taught that the Universe, and by extension the Earth, was not just a physical reality. It was a psychic-spiritual reality from the very beginning.

At the start of each New Year I write a reminder from Teilhard on the front page of my Daytimer. “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”

Mike Bell
Comox B.C.

I’m glad to have this recording of Daniel’s talk as I look forward to uncovering the multiple layers of his discussion.  His experiences as a minister among First Nations cultures have led him to deeply question multiple facets of Western society, and, of course, his own belief systems.