Honouring Life - an article by Ms. Rudite Emir - featured in a recent issue of a magazine that we subscribe to. I loved the message conveyed by the author.
Given here are some excerpts:
Ancient cultures knew that human beings had a sacred connection to the Earth, something modern mankind started to forget when industrialisation set in and profit motive began to emerge as the guiding principle.
A Native American prophecy attributed to the Cree tribe reads:
When all the trees have been cut down,
When all the animals have been hunted,
When all the waters are polluted,
When all the air is unsafe to breathe,
Only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
A good many ancient cultures felt a similar reverence for the Earth, a bond with Mother Nature. Latvia, a country in north-eastern Europe, whose rich folk tradition includes thousands of four-line verses called dainas – sometimes sung, sometimes spoken – revealed how people of the land communed with the animal and plant kingdom. For them nature was alive, sharing the same life force that gave their own being vitality.
Eat, dear cows, the green grass,
Don’t trample it with hooves,
Each blade of grass cries out,
When pressed against the earth.
I live my life slowly, slowly,
And slowly God helps me live it,
Just as the bee carries nectar,
Slowly slowly, flower by flower.
The question for humankind today is:
Given here are some excerpts:
Ancient cultures knew that human beings had a sacred connection to the Earth, something modern mankind started to forget when industrialisation set in and profit motive began to emerge as the guiding principle.
A Native American prophecy attributed to the Cree tribe reads:
When all the trees have been cut down,
When all the animals have been hunted,
When all the waters are polluted,
When all the air is unsafe to breathe,
Only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
A good many ancient cultures felt a similar reverence for the Earth, a bond with Mother Nature. Latvia, a country in north-eastern Europe, whose rich folk tradition includes thousands of four-line verses called dainas – sometimes sung, sometimes spoken – revealed how people of the land communed with the animal and plant kingdom. For them nature was alive, sharing the same life force that gave their own being vitality.
Eat, dear cows, the green grass,
Don’t trample it with hooves,
Each blade of grass cries out,
When pressed against the earth.
I live my life slowly, slowly,
And slowly God helps me live it,
Just as the bee carries nectar,
Slowly slowly, flower by flower.
They acknowledged the rhythm of life, not forcing a faster rhythm upon nature than was natural, not imposing their own egocentric desires upon nature’s rhythms in order to gain more bounty from it.
The question for humankind today is:
Can we recapture this communion with nature?
Are we capable of addressing her as someone to honour and protect?
Are we capable of performing actions that support the rhythm of life, or do we continue to act, driven slowly by the thrust of insatiable desire for more?
(The sequence of the above paragraphs is different in the published article. Here, I have re-produced only certain portions of the entire article.)
(The sequence of the above paragraphs is different in the published article. Here, I have re-produced only certain portions of the entire article.)
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