The Earth is Sacred
photograph by Michael Roeder
by Antoinette Voûte Roeder
For decades, what has spurred me on to support various environmental organizations has been my perception of planet earth as holy ground. There are no words that adequately describe the conjunction of cosmic forces that would lead to the evolution of life on this small blue-green ball in space. The possibility of abundant life was given to us in every way possible, as poetically spoken of in the creation stories. But we have mistakenly set ourselves apart from the earth process. We have assumed that we are different, that we are masters of our own destiny.
Some people are waking up to the cataclysmic climate events we have set in motion but many still refer to the environment as if it were something “out there.” Thich Nhat Hanh, wise Buddhist sage, offers a different perspective. He coined the word “interbeing,” naming the fact of interwoven, interdependent, wholly contingent life. We are part of a web so interconnected that when one strand goes missing – as in the multitude of species we are losing every day – everything and everyone remaining are affected.
We are merely members of a tribe that includes the red-breasted nuthatch, the giant sequoia, the coral, kelp, and the whales that ply the ocean. It is enough to bring me to my knees and that is what I felt on the day I wrote this poem:
Fed
At the base of this mountain
high over the valley
Stillness drops down
drapes the forest, dresses
us, washes our feet, enters us
with each inhalation.
This is the altar of the Sacred.
This is the bread of the Great Thanksgiving. *
I was standing on the shore of Pyramid Lake, once more drinking in the rosy flanks and corrugated peak of Pyramid Mountain in Jasper National Park. It felt like eucharist. We come to this park every year. We simply cannot stay away from the Rocky Mountains. This is where I feel closest to the Holy.
Is there a spiritual practice of the sacred in a world that is inherently and intrinsically sacred to begin with and always has been? A practice of awareness that doesn't worship creation as a separate thing but breathes it in, day in and day out? I know I’m in love with that sacred core that expresses itself in a zillion ways in our world and in the cosmos. It’s not a matter of doing but a matter of being. It's recognizing that "being" as part of a huge process that is entirely mysterious and beyond our grasp and our wildest imaginings.
*from The Space Between by Antoinette Voûte Roeder
Antoinette Voûte Roeder
is a spiritual director trained in the Pacific Jubilee SoulGuiding Program. She has facilitated retreats on contemplative prayer, mystics and mysticism, feminist spirituality, and poetry. Her poetry has been published in various journals, magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. In addition, she has five volumes of published poems. Antoinette is passionate about people, poetry, the Sacred, and the plight of our earth. Read more about Antoinette's spiritual direction practice here.
