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September/October 2008 Peace Makers
What Would Love Have Me Do?

by Vicky Thompson

Julia Butterfly Hill

On Dec. 10, 1997, 23-year-old Julia Butterfly Hill climbed 180 feet into the branches of a 1,000-year-old redwood tree to prevent its destruction. She came down from Luna two years later as a leading environmental activist and later published the national best-seller, The Legacy of Luna. Hill shared her thoughts on nonviolence and nature spirituality with New Connexion.

Q. How can everyday people create change in the world using the practices of nonviolence?

A. When I first heard the term "nonviolence," something about it did not settle well with me. I could not understand why we would use two negative words to describe such a positive movement, and why we would choose to define ourselves by what we are against instead of what we are for.

After doing quite a bit of reading on the ahimsa movement though, I came across another description that resonated with me to my very core, "To live so fully and presently in love, that there is no room for anything else to exist."

Everyday people (which is by the way all of us) can use ahimsa practices by beginning first to look in our daily lives and choices and ask ourselves, "What would love have me do in this moment?"

Love would call us to keep lights off unless absolutely necessary to use them; to run water minimally when doing things like dishes, brushing our teeth, taking a shower and even flushing the toilet (which is literally flushing away gallons of clean drinking water every time we flush); to lighten our food footprint by choosing vegan or at the very least vegetarian, local and organic as much as possible. Love would have us look at every single thing that ends up in the waste stream and ask ourselves, "When I am throwing something away, where is away?" Love would have us bring reusable mugs, containers, utensils and bags everywhere we go. Love awakens our consciousness to realize that waste in all of its forms is an act of violence.

Then love would compel us to look outside of our immediate home life to the community of which we are a part and find a way to be a contribution to our community even if only beginning with one hour a week. Love would also have us extend even what we perceive of as community to include those who do not necessarily look like us, sound like us or act like us.

Q. How can earth and nature spirituality bring peace to people and the planet?

A. We will never have peace on Earth if we do not have peace with the Earth. As humans we have ripped out our roots of connection to nature - our human nature. In the process, we have destroyed what is our truest nature as we have destroyed the world around us. Earth and nature spirituality is to create a practice of reclaiming our sacred connection as part of the circle of life, and in so doing, reclaim our own divine nature, as we restore and heal the damage we have caused to ourselves and our planetary home and family.

Q. Your tree-sit in Luna lasted two years. What is the most important thing you learned about yourself spiritually during that time?

A. I learned so many powerful lessons in my time in Luna and continue to learn from that experience. It is hard for me to narrow what I learned to "the most important thing." I think that if I distill all my lessons into this one theme, though, it would be that life itself is a spiritual practice. As religion is how we work on and define our understanding of spirituality and the divine sacred, then my religion is love. Therefore, my life is a spiritual practice of striving to live so fully and presently in love, that there is no room for anything else to exist.

Q. How have your nonviolent practices changed since your time in Luna? Have you found other ways to create peace in the world?

A. My practices have not changed so much as evolved. The more I practice, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I grow. Since returning to terra firma in 1999, I have continued with my work of being in service to my planetary family, working with thousands of grassroots groups and individuals around the world to create a healthy, vibrant, loving world for all. My organization Circle of Life (www.circleoflife.org) was an integral part of this work and most recently launched a new non-profit, the Engage Network and a wonderful program called, "What's Your Tree?" (www.whatsyourtree.org) to help people uncover purpose, passion and power, turning inspiration into action.

Q. You feel a deep connection with trees and nature. What message does the natural world have for humanity today in living peacefully on Earth?

A. Everything we need to know is within us and within the natural world from which we come and to which we return. Nature is a powerful and profound mirror to help us see and remember that which we have forgotten. Nature reminds us to celebrate and protect diversity. That everything exists within the context of community and that every piece has a vital role to play, no matter how seemingly big or small. To recognize that everything has a season, including our own lives and work - to take time for the wintering of our souls and energy so that we can grow vibrantly in the spring, play and celebrate in the abundance of the summer, and harvest the gifts of our lives in the fall.

Nature reminds us that there is no such thing as waste. It is only waste if it is not being used in an honorable way. Everything should be food for something else, and that includes us when our spirit leaves our physical body. We are not separate from the Earth - we are merely a colorful dance in a continuum. Nature reminds us to never forget the miracle of life - that every single breath is a gorgeous gift, an experience of magic, a reason to celebrate and live our lives as a gift to the world around us.

To learn more about Julia Butterfly Hill, visit www.juliabutterfly.com. Hill is a keynote presenter at the Nonviolence as a Way of Life Conference on Sept. 11-14 in Eugene. Visit www.nonviolentliving.org.