Talk of interdependence immediately calls up the work of saving the planet, rightly so. But what if the first step
toward saving the planet is learning to speak to it? And hear it? Could our collective failure to confront the
climate crisis be rooted in our lost ability to listen? What if the quickly-going-extinct creatures don’t want our
sympathy, but our ear? What if the fraying of the web isn’t just about us failing to act, but also us having
forgotten who we are. And what if nature itself is the only one who can help us remember?
It’s a month of tricky questions, friends. As we begin, may these words by Rev. Kaaren Anderson send us on our
way.
We Are One
Perhaps if I could pull my senses back
to the scraping squeak of the window opening
that welcomes in the pasture’s chorus of peepers,
whose resonate tones glide over my bed sheet and mental haze,
I’d be able to hear my amphibian friends’ primordial call:
We are one, we are one, we are one
Perhaps if I could recall the rapid thrum
of the nine hummingbirds beating wings,
whipping in and out around the feeder,
with a thrummmm, thrummmm, thrummmm
on that cold Montana morning in May,
I’d remember that my heart beat synched with metronomic ease
to their tiny thrumming selves and rhythmic reminder:
We are one, we are one, we are one
Perhaps if I could be real still
and lay my body on the syrupy mud
along the creek behind the wood
and hear the ferns unfurling in unison
and the roots of the poplar stretching toward the spring,
I’d remember that the universe sings a song to us,
each minute, of every hour, of every day, of every year:
We are one, we are one, we are one
Perhaps if I made it a priority to listen to that siren song,
I’d ask the right questions, and make the right statements;
and return to the communion of creatures of which I am a part.
The truth is we make this planet about us, and only us
and when we do, the earth calls our separate selves back, singing:
“Ask yourself, you beautiful, thoughtful, gorgeous species,
How much of the planet are you really entitled to?
How much of the planet are you really entitled to?“
And with the peepers, and the hummingbirds and the ferns and the roots,
I would respond:
We are one, we are one, we are one.We Are One
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