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an unexpected encounter
A year or two ago, I was on a train on the road to Austria, when we were passing a chain of mountains. The route we were travelling on led us through a narrow pass, and the trains gentle humming felt both comforting and adventurous at the same time. Then I saw it- how an iron web had been adjusted to the mountain walls right next to the rails we were traveling on, and my immediate reaction was to feel sorry for nature- for the mountain, associating this iron web with the ruthless treatment which nature often suffers under humanities grip.
~But to my surprise, I heard a gentle and firm voice laugh very amused, and the mountain answered lighthearted and firmly:”Why should I be bothered by this? I am still the mountain, after all. Nobody can take that away from me.”~
And while I heard this answer I could feel how the web felt to the mountain- insignificant, amusing, even. The rock itself was not bothered by the adjustments the humans had made, he didn’t feel threatened at all. I felt that behind these stony walls was a consciousness with a profound self-awareness, with a much different way to experience the world. The mountain- older than our civilization and fully grounded with earth and sky- was aware of his divine nature and in harmony with the flow of life. There was not the slightest amount of fear in his being. And most of all, he did not fear humanity.
the realization
A lot of different information was flowing to me then, and after pondering for some time, I felt that these were in tune with the truth of the divine. But most importantly: I started to reflect myself and my own relationship with nature. I saw myself in my memories, how guilty I felt when I stomped on a flower, how I apologized while walking through a field and how the thought of taking anything from a plant made me feel like a thief. I was always viewing myself as an aggressor, even if my intentions were nothing but innocent.
And I know exactly that I am not the only one who has looked at herself in such an unloving way. Many people feel guilty of how big cooperations harm the planet and they identify with it is as if there was some kind of “original sin”, damning themselves to repent for everything others have done, resulting in them becoming super- aware of every step they make (which is, obviously, the other extreme to what the economy does. And neither is it healthy.).
an “original sin”?
The thing is that this “original sin” of being a human on Planet Earth (one who happens to have been born into a society that was built on destruction) is hammered into our heads all the time. “Humanity is Cancer” is what some say, and it’s ridiculous. If you cannot say :” All Mexicans are like this/ All French people are like that/Every man is an aggressor” then you cannot take the actions of a few and make a whole species responsible for it! I cannot take the blame for oil pipelines, but what I can do is to, for example, watch closely how much and what I consume everyday.
I take the responsibility that I do have very serious- but that does not make me accountable for the decisions that are made at the headquarters of multi-national companies. And no matter from which point of view you look at this, the way we are supposed to view ourselves does not help us to become closer to nature, it drives us further away. Nature wants to be experienced, fully, but we cannot do that if we are too afraid to, let’s say, walk on the ground because we could kill some ants.
what the mountain helped me to realize
~But Mother Earth is not a suffering, sad victim that begs humanity to stop doing what they are doing. You can only truly do that if you have fallen for fear-induced consciousness, if you have forgotten your own strength and connection with the Source of life. Mother Earth is much more like an understanding grandmother or grandfather who look at a raging child with deep compassion in their eyes.~
Of course it leaves an impact when the little child throws a tantrum and breaks something, but on the inside, they know exactly why the little one does this, knowing full well that this helpless little creature will evolve into a grown, responsible adult that will be able to handle their negativity much better. They understand the struggles of growing up. They know exactly that the behaviour stems from a severe lack of self understanding and self-love, and the things that have been broken are just a mirror of that.
That doesn’t mean that the negative impact humanity has on nature doesn’t count at all, but the understanding from which it is looked at is very different from what we would imagine. Even though the harmful impact has clearly been made, and there surely is some sadness about that, Mother Earth never loses her deep compassion and wisdom.
mother earths care and compassionate perception
Mother Earth has (unlike us) never forgotten she is part of the divine, expressed in the polarities of two aspects that compliment each other; day and night, warm and cold, male and female, yin and yang. This divine being can see beyond the current destruction, fully embodies her souls journey and, that’s the most important thing, knows no fear.
Because nature is not bound to the unbalanced mind and ego and has not been harmed by purely rational thinking, she can see beyond the things that we see, or rather: That we could also see, if we hadn’t been taught to make ourselves so small. We think of ourselves as so weak- struggling, uncertain, easy victims of outer circumstances- and then we go and project this victim state onto nature, because most of us have forgotten how it feels to be in the flow of life, in unconditional love.
~Mother Earth sees the invisible link between how we feel and the destruction on the outside. She knows these actions are not really an aggressive attempt to diminish her, for they are manifestation of a confused and lost civilization. The unconscious acts of humans who suffer from not remembering who they truly are, being taught to hate themselves and to confuse consumerism with love.~
Every piece of trash in the ocean is a direct metaphor for how humans poison themselves and choose to ignore it. We’re running away- from ourselves, all the time. From the pain inside of us, from our true dreams, from what we really want. Instead of choosing to do anything to fulfill what is dear to our hearts, we drown in victimhood and believe in our own insignificance, never doing steps out of the life we hate, degrading ourselves. And because we are so unhappy, we are searching for satisfaction in consumerism, in quick and cheap fixes, and while we refuse to care for our inside and what is truly hurting there, the pile of trash in the ocean gets bigger and bigger.
Of course, we can and we should do as much as possible to prevent further damage from happening, but to achieve longtime change we need to clear this problem at its root: Inside of us. The outside is always a mirror of the inside.
the abundance of earth
As Mother Nature has never forgotten her divine nature, she is aware of all these things. And neither is she begging for mercy nor does she willingly start a war against us. There are still plants growing from streets of stone, and idle land keeps restoring itself after enough time has passed. I am writing this while sitting in a village in Austria, surrounded by an abundance of green, of mountains and thousands, if not millions of flowers. She still gives- unconditionally, through human inflicted odds, because that is her souls mission.
If you really want to help nature and not simply only avoid damages to her, then go outside- experience her, feel her, be joyful and share yourself. It’s the easiest and also the best thing that you can do for yourself and the Planet. Forgive yourself, whatever you might feel to be wrong about the fact that you are a human.
This does not take away our responsibility to care for the Planet at all, don’t get me wrong. But it does take away the need for a sick form of self-hate that we are taught to have, because this is the thing that keeps us separated- not only from a healthy relationship with the planet, but also from a healthy relationship with ourselves.
letting go of guilt
The mountain taught me this- to clearly see when I project my own insecurities onto nature and to understand how I can truly help. While it is very important to stop participating in things that harm the Earth (e.g. unlimited consumerism, consumption of the meat of tortured animals), we should let go of guilt and shame and instead participate in an active friendship with nature.
Be in contact with her and her many beings, be joyful, laugh, love, share, care for yourself and discover your own divinity, whatever that means to you. Trust in yourself and your abilities. You are greatly loved, and I know for sure that it is no joke when they say “love is stronger than hate and fear”, because everything around you reacts to what you emit. Love is the source from which the universe was made, nature is inherently loving itself, and love is what will heal the planet. And while one aspect of love is to stand your ground and say “no” to harmful things, the other aspect is to join in connection and celebrate the good that is already here.
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