“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

I’ve been raped and pillaged, my resources taken.

Beaten, betrayed, and ignored.

Meditating now, as I sit on the earth, it occurs to me that I am the earth.

How fortunate am I? Have I not been privileged to feel what she feels, to hear what she hears? Like our Mother Earth, from where our flesh and blood bodies are born and die, I have died and been born again, and again, in this life.

As we dug into the earth of our mother and cut down her trees to the point of deforestation, someone dug into my soul and cut into me with the words and beatings of hate disguised as love. As we took Mother Earth’s resources, there were those who took from me. I gave freely, unselfishly, as she did. In return, some took until there was no more.

As we create things we do not really need and cast them away into the rivers, the oceans, and the lands, we clog up the earth. So, too, have I had waste thrown at me, and have tried to regenerate new life from it.

So, it is, I see the Mother.

I see and feel the earth—as I am her. The empathy that I have for humans is unending. Yet, I stand tall in knowing that there is only so much to be given, and that I will not allow those to continue to take, though loving I am.

Like the Mother, I hold strong. I receive the love and embrace the hope. I see the Mother and understand her; and I hope others do, too.

For if not, my body shakes and casts off the trauma. My body roars like a cyclone and casts off the abuser, who hits and mars. Like the earth, the ocean of my tears becomes a tsunami and cleanses my aura from abuse, unrest.

The earth is a nourisher.

So am I.

The earth is intertwined and connected to all.

So am I.

The earth has all it needs to survive within it.

So, do I.

The earth is a regenerator of life.

So am I.

If we look to the earth, the answers are clear—to our personal salvation, and to mankind’s, as we are one.

Just like the Mother, I’ve experienced the raping and pillaging that humans have performed on my body. In receiving such a violent blessing, I understand what she knows, how she feels. Our future is dependent on changing how we treat others and how we accept ourselves.

We are the world, and as we allow our families and communities to deconstruct, we deconstruct on a global scale. If we don’t hold people open to the transparency of what is, then we die.

In this case, the earth will regenerate and go on. Eventually, the human race may also do the same.