As I've written here, I was deeply touched by the landscape of Japan. When I returned, my niece shared a book with me she is reading for a freshman course she is taking in college. The book is Body and Emotion (Contemporary Ethnography) by Robert R. Desjarlais. He shares his experience as an apprentice healer among the Yolmo Sherpa, a Tibetan Buddhism people in Nepal.
Of course the sherpas are very much in our minds right now because of the avalanche disaster on Everest. What is the price of pride? What is adventure, renewal and discovery, and what is arrogance and disregard for natural forces?
I saw Wade Davis speak at the Bioneers Conference many years ago, and that led me to his books then, and now this week I re-connect to him through his book The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. Reading this book, I was reminded of the movie, "Rabbit-Proof Fence". If you haven't seen it, I recommend it as a way to celebrate new perspectives on how we plant our feet on this earth.
The question is how do we find balance with this nature we need, this nature we are, and with the technology that allows us to connect across distances and lifestyles and here on Live Journal?
I have no answers, only a growing awareness of how much I need to feel earth under my feet, and hear the singing of birds.
I offer Stanley Kunitz's wonderful poem, "The Snakes of September".
http://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/sk-snakes.htm
I love the whole poem, and twine gratitude and appreciation in these words at the end.
After all,
we are partners in this land,
co-signers of a covenant.
At my touch the wild
braid of creation
trembles.