So inner, so outer? Back to our nature
I struggle. And I struggle with the struggle. And then I struggle with the struggle of that struggle. Very tiring. And not helpful, at all…
This week I went to the documentary KIVA. While watching it, I felt my whole system relaxing. To me, this is truth, this is our nature, this is how life is meant to be. All people of the 5 continents of our Earth united together, honoring Earth, planting seeds of peace, for the benefit of all. Only taking from Earth what we (really) need and showing our gratitude for it. The KIVA ceremony is 3000 years old, of course it is truth. Yet it is not, at all, our outer reality. That was made very clear, when the three elders spoke to us after the movie. Time for ceremony is over…it is time for action…
Every time I hear ‘it is time for action and the future is now’, my stomach contracts. I know it is true, I feel it, I hear it, I see it, but how? And where to start? Like many people, I am really looking for ways to contribute to a better world, but is, how I try to do so, enough? These three elders focus on their own land, their own people, their own nature. And they travel the world to spread their message, as the voice of these wisdom keepers really needs to be heard. Loud en clear. And so it was: loud and clear.
Firstly Shirley Krenak, a wisdom keeper and indigenous activist from Brasil, with a very clear message: stop all the bull shit (mining, deforestation, greed) and greenwashing and act! The night before, a friend of her was shot, when trying to defend their native land from being mined. Still, she said, I will practice forgiveness and will not fight hate with hate. I am fighting hate with love. Because if we can step in each other’s shoes, we can all feel the Earth.
Then Cheryl Angel, a Lakota wisdom keeper, made it very simple: choose sovereignty and decolonization and you will change in every aspect of your life. ‘When you are 100% connected, there is no doubt that you want to save the Earth from being exploited. Her question to all of us, was who of us, white western people, would have the courage to protect indigenous peoples by voicing one clear message into the world: Stop killing indigenous peoples, who are defending their lands from extractivism.
Sankale Ole Ntutu, a Masai elder from Kenia, concluded these three powerful voices, by inviting us to take a step backward from greed, power, fighting. To remember that we are not products of technology, but that we are nature. He said we are not ‘lost’, as humanity, but ignorant, greedy and needy. Multitasking is killing us. He elucidated how our inner nature is polluted and has become a nature of fear. How we are using our energy in the wrong way and how we, therefor, don’t understand the language of trees and animals anymore. How action would be to remember that we are all the same, that we are all nature. To be united as human being to make peace with each other.
These messages are all totally aligned with David Attenboroughs’, in his documentary ‘A life on our planet’. He shows the picture of the world that he would be born into, had he been born today and live for the next 97 years on this planet. Shocking. They are also fully aligned with Jessica den Outer, who elucidates on many of these, painful, cases of indigenous land being exploited in her book ‘Rights for Nature’ (Rechten voor de Natuur). She pleas for an ecocentric approach in law, so that nature has a voice. An ECOcentric, instead of EGOcentric approach of life, which is at the root of all indigenous traditions.
I used to say, that I am not an activist…but is that still true? I just found the definition of an activist: ‘A person who campaigns to bring about political or social change’. Ahum, I am definitely an activist… I am an activist, strongly rooted in nature, our nature. Like all indigenous people are. An activist who lives in a white body, in the Western world. That is one of my struggles. And becoming a bigger struggle every day, so it seems: to know how to live in both worlds, in peace…with myself and all. In ‘Rights for Nature’ an ecologist explains that two steps are needed to move to an ecocentric world: the second being organizing the rights for Nature within law. The first one is for people to reconnect to themselves, to their nature, to remember we all are nature.
Today, it has been exactly a month, that my book ‘Living Natural Law’ was launched. My dream is that the book facilitates the first step towards an ecocentric world: to remember and reconnect to nature, to our nature. And to spark inspiration how to do that. The more people will live this, in their inner world, the more our outer world will follow. I’ll have to have patience…another struggle, as I so feel the sense of urgency. The future is now and every day and every voice matters. So inner, so outer. I’ll just have to trust the process…