Living wisely and intelligently
“I believe this kind of transformative thinking is what will save us. It is a philosophy of treating the world’s creatures, its gifts, as of equal importance to us. This begins by recognising that trees and plants have agency. They perceive, relate, and communicate; they exercise various behaviours. They cooperate, make decisions, learn, and remember - qualities we normally ascribe to sentient, wisdom, intelligence. By noting how trees, animals and even fungi - any and all nonhuman species - have this agency, we can acknowledge that they deserve as much regard as we accord ourselves. We can continue pushing our earth out of balance, with greenhouse gases accelerating each year, or we can regain balance by acknowledging that if we harm one species, one forest, one lake, this ripples through the entire complex web. Mistreatment of one species is mistreatment of all…The rest of the planet has been waiting patiently for us to figure that out…Making this transformation requires that humans reconnect with nature - forests,, the prairie, the oceans - instead of treating everything and everyone as objects of exploitation. It means expanding our modern ways, our epistemology and scientific methodologies so that they complement, build on and align with Aboriginal roots. Mowing down the forests and harvesting the waters to fulfil our wildest dreams of material wealth just because we can has caught up to us”.
Suzanne Simard is amazing and everyone should read her book Finding The Mother Tree. It is incredible what she has helped to discover about trees so that we can understand more about the inter connected nature of this world we live in and I hope that with time the rest of the scientific community will catch uo with her and stop separating and dividing and seeing everything separate from one another, including may I add, our medical profession.
We should all be making an effort to grow trees where we can, because they truly make a difference to this planet on so many levels. It was this awareness, inspired by Dr Diana Kroeger-Beresford, who also writes incredible books, which led to Ewan and I setting up our Plant a Tree Project, which sadly was never as well received as we hoped - you can’t even give trees away these days, there just isn’t the interest, nor for some, the space. And this is the concern isn’t it, with all our over development. No space for trees, so fundamental to life on planet earth and our human existence.
Taking on board all I have learned from this book about mycorrhizal networks and the interconnected nature of all living beings growing in the earth, I am curious to grow my veggies in a different way this year, to see where they most thrive in the garden. The medicinal plants are have certainly been abundant in their dedicated moon garden, which receives the light of then rising moon all year around, and has been worked with crystals and sacred geometry. I’m intending to use different crystals with my plants this year to see if they thrive more with clear quartz or rose quartz for example, I will let you know!
I love how Suzanne weaves in Aboriginal wisdom from various Canadian indigenous people, and the way that they used to live in harmony with nature before the colonists came in and basically took what they could without any regard for the land or the waters or the many people who lives so lightly and simply in the areas that were developed, all for money…we have a lot to learn and fortunately this wisdom is now being used increasingly to heal the areas that have been destroyed by the greed that motivated the rather aggressive practices of forestry and mining, for example.
We have a lot to learn. Here on Guernsey we really do need to wake up to other ways to be with then land - greed will destroy us otherwise and all the magic that Guernsey has. Those if
But for us too, on an individual level there is much to learn from this book, about the impact nature has on us, in our own self healing, in communing with the trees and the plants, of giving back and not just taking so that when we do take we do so respectfully, living in greater harmony with all aspects of our being in the process - just giving Reiki to the trees and plants and land will help and I would urge those of you Reiki attuned to start doing so. I give Reiki to neolithic stones, they are alive too. Everything alive will benefit from Reiki, including you!
Reiki encouraged harmony and it is always about harmony. There is a lot we can learn from nature by being still and listening to what nature has to share, of the wisdom and intelligence, of the gentle pace, of the interconnectivle and supportive nature, of doing what is yours to do and leaving the rest, of just BEING love (and when you see that energetically, it is mind blowing). Nature can be such a wise and intelligent guide for us in how we live our lives - the key is to get out in it and just allow yourself to BE yourself.
Love Emma x
