Encouragement

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We hear a great deal these days about ‘green issues’ and the dangers that our planet faces. There are even political parties and other pressure groups whose single aim is to conserve all that we have, and to try to repair, as far as possible, the damage that has already been done.

Despite this, virtually every day we hear of an oil spillage, nuclear leakage, or wide scale deforestation somewhere in the world, and it seems that Man, whether through greed or stupidity, cares little of the enormous problems he is blindly creating for future generations.

But this is no modern phenomenon, for over the centuries there were always those who could understand what the tragic outcome would be if we continued to treat Mother Earth as a commodity, merely something to exploit for gain.

The American Indians have always been spiritually very close to all things relating to the earth and its people. The Chief of the Suquamish tribe, Chief Seathl, addressed the leaders of the white settlers in 1855, in his native Salish language.
‘Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth” he said, “ This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.’

We who live on this beautiful planet, with its lush green meadows, its forests, mountains, lakes, and dramatic shorelines should celebrate the fact that we are truly lucky. It would be so easy to take all this for granted, to pass by each day without giving it all a second glance, not absorbing and rejoicing in the whole glory of the countryside. Yet that surely is a most dangerous path to tread, because one day we may look around and find these natural wonders are no longer there.

We can take heart though, for there is a story of a miner making his way along a tunnel, deep in the bowels of the earth, when he came across a delicate plant growing on a water pipe, its green leaves reaching out towards an electric light bulb. How the plant got there was a mystery, for there was no sunlight, and no birds to carry it. Perhaps the seed had dropped from the coat of a passing miner. The fact remains that this simple story is a message for all, that even in the darkest and most ominous of times there is always that glimmer of hope.

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