My beloved forest.
Tending trees - where environmental engagement
meets spiritual evolution.
A picture taken while walking with Jan through the forest, 2020,
"My Beloved Forest" - I begin with an illusion. This place of "mine" is an incarnation of the divine, as are you and your place. Hanging on the wall in our cabin is a copy of the letter that Chief Seattle wrote in response to President Franklin Pierce's letter of 1854, in which the President sought to purchase the Northwest Territories, those which make up Washington State today. Read Chief Seattle's response below. There is suspicion about the letter's authenticity, but the sentiment is certainly full of wisdom.
Only known photo of Chief Seattle taken 1864
The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you sell them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people..idea is strange to us.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of a pony, and man, all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur in the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the river the kindness you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow Flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our Mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: Our God is your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.
As we are a part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: There is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are all brothers.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of a pony, and man, all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur in the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the river the kindness you would give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow Flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our Mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: Our God is your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.
As we are a part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: There is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are all brothers.
Albert Schweitzer, MD
Page 24 - "Everything here... everything... is an incarnation of the divine, and I am called to show reverence for all of the life that surrounds me." I made this a first-person reference because I have spoke of "my" land. The same could be said of your land, be it your yard, your neighborhood, your city. The whole earth is an incarnation of the divine. And the phrase "reverence for all of life" comes from my beloved exemplar, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. The phrase Reverence for Life is a translation of the German phrase: "Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben." These words came to Schweitzer on a boat trip on the Ogooué River in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), while searching for a universal concept of ethics for our time. Here are his words. "Ethics is nothing other than Reverence for Life. Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining life, and to destroy, to harm or to hinder life is evil." I posted this quote on Facebook and a friend who is a contrarian and libertarian asked, "Does this mean you are pro-life?" The answer is yes. And I am pro-choice as well. I want people everywhere to choose life. I am against capital punishment for the same reason. Reverence for Life, first delivered in a sermon by Schweitzer, has been a guiding ethic for me.
Page 25f - Trees. Above ground, and below. Peter Wohlleben wrote The Hidden Life of Trees: what they feel and how they communicate. More than 2 million copies sold. The author is a forester in Germany and he tells the astonishing tale of trees, and the life we don't see. I've watched what happens when a big beach tree is cut down and how the surrounding trees push up new growth in the stump left behind. There is a huge community underground.
Page 29ff - Wendell Berry has granted me permission to reprint his poem here, which can be found in a book with the same title - The Peace of Wild Things. I cherish nature and the peace I feel when I am hiking, walking, canoeing, or tending the forest around me. This poem sets the stage for what follows in my book. What happens when the wild things are dying? What happens when they are being decimated by our Global Environmental Emergency? Where will I go for peace? The image just came to me of a baby having its security blanket removed. Where will I find my security, my groundedness, my rootedness?
Page 32 - Hope is not lost. This has been one of the most challenging handles for me to grasp. What hope is there when we have so much environmental destruction going on day after day - unabated. In what am I to place my hope. Today (and this might change) I hope alone in love. My hope is that love, or Love Itself, we continue on in the hearts and minds of enough people that they - we - will do what is necessary to preserve the Wild Things. More about this in the final chapter and the notes that accompany it.
Page 34 - I conclude with three questions that T-up the following chapters. How do we Mother Earth is expelling us? Why is Mother Earth fed up with us? What is preventing us from soothing her pain? How we answer these three questions will set the stage for the work of regenerating Mother Earth while we still have time.
