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March/April 2005 Living Now
Every Earthen Day

by Jesse Wolf Hardin

Every April the powers-that-be sanction what sometimes seems like a perfunctory tip of the hat to the living planet we depend on, grow out of, and one day return our blessed bodies to. We call this date "Earth Day," as if we had spent the remaining 364 days any other place!  And to some degree many of us have, perhaps caught up in our minds more than our feeling bodies, inhabiting fear, anxiety and ambition rather than the inspirited world around us. For our own sanity we have to act at times as if the last old growth forests weren’t being cut down even while we speak, or the evolutionary pool being depleted by extinctions caused by lifestyles and political systems that we are all one way or another participants in.

The value of these annual commemorations lies not in making us feel guilty for what we have or haven’t done, nor in the relief we might feel after a twelve hour show of green solidarity. Rather, its gift lies in the ways it reminds us of the everyday work making us the quiet and persistent heroes of Gaia we are: caring participants in the cocreative world. People fulfilling our talents, assignments and destinies through creative and committed reciprocity. Folks who embrace our intrinsic, evolutionary and moral response-ability to protect, restore and celebrate the world of which we are a part!

As humans we've evolved to be not only thinkers, workers, mothers and fathers but also feelers, empaths, artists, healers, teachers and perpetually wide-eyed students who inevitably notice the weather, the new buds and blossoms, the differences between the tones and melodies of various neighborhood songbirds. Beings who each play whatever small role we can in repairing watersheds and reweaving community, reaching out to the kids we know with the ethics of balance and the lessons of nature. Making it real by recycling our cans, biking more or driving less. Savoring every meal, and saving our compost to give back to the providing ground. Planting wholesome and flower-full gardens even if all we have is the tiniest of yards, and getting dirt under our fingernails in the process. Enlightenment as I know it isn’t a matter of transcendence by ecstatic engagement. It comes not in single flash of revelation but through hands-on interaction with the very real world, seeing to the needs of a whole heart, whole self, whole planet. It’s quieting our wordy thoughts long enough to hear directly from the living Earth, through the land and through our empathic hearts, who we are and what it is we need to be doing next.

"Next" may mean the struggle of joining with others in the community to purchase, restore, rewild and resacrament some rural or semi rural land for its own sake as well as for that of the folks who will then gather, teach and share there. Or it may require taking time off of work in order to drive to a mountainside that’s being clear cut and protest its destruction, or risking income by switching jobs or starting our own business that better reflects the needs of our spirits and the well being of the land. Or finding new ways to exploit our skills as gardeners, writers, dancers, singers, parents or counselors in the service of the greater whole. It most certainly begins with our willingness to face what’s wrong, share in the pain of what is suffering, share in the joys of conscious life, and take satisfaction in our efforts to make things better.

Most of us know how ludicrous it is to talk in terms of possessing and controlling land which predates us by billions of years, and that will exist in one form or another for billions of years more after we’ve passed away. In truth we can only possess that which we contain, and it is clearly the land that contains us!   But even with this inherent inseparability, there is still a necessity for a "land contract" of sorts, a two-way commitment between the human and the more-than-human, between us and the bounty laden Earth. For centuries the land has kept its part of the bargain, offering up nourishment, shelter and instruction while we’ve collectively defaulted on our reciprocal obligations. We have as a species largely reneged on our calling to be the planet’s most sensitive receptors, and we as individuals make up the difference, doing the work that much of society has either shunned or denied, engaging in the acts and rituals that can help bring ourselves and our world back into a state of conscious relationship, caring and delight.

All of humanity is locked into a hereditary contract, and we’re collectively held liable for any mistakes. According to this contract we are not proprietors but responsible servants, and full partners with an equal investment and stake in its lasting integrity. Our duties are both custodial and priestly, tending to the energetic as well as elemental well-being of the land. The intuitive knowledge of when to interfere with the ecology and when not to requires an intense period of familiarizing oneself with the native energies, needs and proclivities of each place, wilderness or town. Rightful decisions, decisions that can positively affect future generations of humans and non humans alike, proceed from silence.... and arise from a great listening.

Only a small population of people live out in the countryside but the agreement, the contract remains the same. To be taken care of one must take care!  As individuals, families and neighborhoods, we take an active interest in the health of the area where we live, taking some responsibility for its problems and credit for its improvement, and all by virtue of an unblinking awareness. We can take care of the land we live on whether we own it or not, whether it's an acre of breathing soil or the patches of green surrounding our apartments. We can adopt and co-caretake any forested areas nearby, and the regional watercourse no matter how far away. The neighborhood park is just that, and its well-being is in the hands of a concerned public.

Any realistic hope for cultural, political and environmental relief lies in a radical shift — not in politics so much as in our elemental values and primary modes of perception. And in really fully responding from this place of holistic heartful knowing, walking our talk, fulfilling our most meaningful purpose. It will be voiced in songs cast to the winds, and in shouts of protest. In guarded groves and intentional community. In intimate personal contract with the forces that made us, and those places that allow us to really be. In our contract, our gifts and promise. And in the keeping of that promise, the carrying forth of that vision every single Earthen day.

Jesse Wolf Hardin is an acclaimed teacher of Earth-centered spirituality, living seven river crossings from a road in an ancient place of power. He is the author of Gaia Eros: Reconnecting To The Magic & Spirit of Nature (New Page, 2004) and performs on the GaiaTribe CD "The Enchantment" <www.cdbaby.com/gaiatribe>. Wolf and his partners share a riverside sanctuary where they host folks for retreats, quests, intuitive counsel, resident internships and the Wild Women’s Gathering in June: The Earthen Spirituality Project & Sweet Medicine Women’s Center, Box 820, Reserve, NM 87830 <www.earthenspirituality.org>