The years that I have spent gunk-holing around the inland waters of the Puget Sound and beyond - these waters that are now designated the Salish Sea - have always brought Williams' words to mind. There is a dynamic aliveness to how the land, with its rock, trees, grass and underbrush meet the nutrient rich depths of deep moving water. Coming up Haro Strait puts you ten yards off shore - and in 800 feet deep water.There is something about these islands and the waterways that separate them.
Both have been carved, shaped and given personality by the constant expansion and contraction of glacier ice. The Puget Sound, with British Columbia islands and mainland as well, is an incredible rich landscape that first drew many of the First Nations tribes to settle and live. And then the europeans came, with western world settlers to follow. Today, the Salish Sea ecosystem is the address for approximately 7 million people.
As humans, we are a community that needs to 'meet and integrate' with our very unique environment. It is my sense, that human beings rarely consider their ecological identity. Our footprint on the lands we call home are lost within the cacophony of sound and fury that feeds into our lives. We've focused on the socially constructed divisions - on who we are versus who they are - instead of exploring how our diversity can bring a deeper, richer wisdom of what it means to be a members of the human race on this particular planet. Whether it is the concrete world we never leave; the messages of fear, scarcity, and impotence fed to us daily; or the TV/Computer that we lose ourselves in every day for hours on end, human beings have become disconnected from one small fact: The earth doesn't need us to survive. We, however, need a healthy environment in order to continue to live.
Becoming aware of how our human community interacts with any given ecosystem is going to be in direct correlation with the well-being and survival of our species. We can't ignore the interface. We need to find our way back into relationship with this planet for many reasons. Perhaps the most important reason right now is so that we can find our way back into connection with those that we like to label "them" or the "other." Those human beings that you've closed ranks against. The cultures, religions, genders, sexual preferences, political positions that you lock out of your world. We won't find peace, we won't thrive as a species until we recognize that we are all homo sapiens: an indigenous life form on this planet.
I do not mean to disrespect the term indigenous as I do believe it has been incredibly important for indigenous peoples to hold that term as a defining attribute for their cultural communities. However, as long as the rest of us human beings don't grok the fact that we are a unique species of this one, particular planet in the vast galaxies of space, we will continue to violently express our singular visions of sanctioned humanity. Oh what we as a species could learn from the indigenous peoples of our planet!
Look, what I'm trying to say is this: we can't lose sight of what we are. Human beings are biological creatures (surprise!). We are mammals, warm blooded, bipedal and big brained. We depend on water, air, and all the minerals, vitamins, fats, calories that are found within and on the soil, in the atmosphere, and in the water that surrounds us. Our bodies are miracles of biological evolution - right along with all the other millions of living animal and plant species on this planet. That's why its so important to get outside - to find that edge, to breathe in the borders of our constructed world with the planet that actually exists. Its uncomfortable, humbling, scary - and yet it gives us back a sense of self that makes it impossible to ignore the reality of what we humans all have in common...
Earth.
Humans need to actually 'meet' - to take in, see, pause within, explore or simply breathe in - the natural world, we have to be willing to connect with some part of it.
To connect, we navigate the borders - and find ourselves. We remember that the term "ecosystem" more often than not includes us in the mix.
Look around you, find the landscape. Stop and watch a bird. Go out and experience the awe of a whale breaching or an eagle gliding over the water. Listen to the wind in the trees and walk the rocky beaches that line our sea. Find that piece of agate that skips perfectly across the water. Just get out and connect. Find the place where the being that is you meets the implacable, bewildering power of this planet. Find the creative edge and explore what dwells there.
Remember.
