Manataka™ American Indian Council

Recently I received some good counsel from a dear friend. He advised me to put my hands in the rich dark soil and feel the life force of Creator. I had been talking about gardening, and doing a lot of talking - he summed it up for me in a few good words.

Thinking about his good words, I realized a few things. We humans like to box things up and separate them into definitions, categories, put boundaries around everything. Makes life easier to comprehend sometimes. But sometimes this boxing and labeling can mislead us into thinking that w e’re superior to our surroundings and can do as we please, with little thought to consequences - or to the footprints we leave behind, both literally and figuratively.

There is no separating the Creator and the created - any of it. Nor are there any boundaries between the Creator and the created, except the ones we manufacture in our own minds - our perceptions. The Creator is the life force, as my friend pointed out. The life force is also like the blood in the body - where does the blood not travel and nourish? Separate the blood from the body and there is no life.

Where is there no Creator? What part of Earth has not been created by the Creator?

We are part of all things created. Not better than, not separate from - but part of. Step outside, work in the garden, walk in the forest, swim in a lake, sit in the grass - we are not above, spending time in, or traveling in a foreign country. We are the Earth, and the Earth is us. What we do to the Earth, our back yards, we do to ourselves. What we do to insects, to Standing Ones, what we put in the water, feed the animals, how we treat all beings, send to the sky clouds, strip mine the Stone People - we do to ourselves also.

There is no separation. It is conceit and arrogance to think and to believe that just because a created being is not human or is not in the same form - that it can be “bought and sold.” All natural beings of Earth are part of us, they are not just “resources” to be used, any more than humans are “resources.” All of Creation has spirit, whether we are aware of it or not is not the issue - that is a matter of perception and prayer.

It is good to walk in a forest, sit in the grass, in the desert, by a lake, in a garden. It is good to spend time in all of these places, because then our awareness grows. As our awareness grows, our perception will open up, and we will see - not only with our physical eyes, but with our heart - the eye of the heart that perceives the spirit.

Then, we come out of the boxes, the labels, the need to define and limit and use. We begin to see how all works in harmony, how we are all related. The Web of Life intertwines and each strand is touched with relationships and connections. The miracles of life and Creation dazzle and amaze when they begin to light up like constellations - then definitions are no longer possible. We simply watch with silent respect and give thanks to the Creator of all things that exists in all of Creation around us.