thinking of circles

Sometimes I think the Native Americans understood.  And if I believed in reincarnation I would say I was one in a past life.

As I've studied Native American literature this semester, I've fallen more and more in love with their way of life.  There is something in me that just loves the circularity, the interconnectedness, of Native American thought.  Maybe it's that I've been struggling to find this in my own life.  But regardless of the reason, it's easy to believe that a holistic approach to life would solve a lot of problems in the world.

The Native American concept of sin is not the act of disobeying God, it is the act of failing to coexist in harmony with the community that surrounds you.  The earth is a beloved Mother, the animals are sacred, and in everything the people seek balance.  What if we believed that any kind of hostility against another person was a sin against God?  And what if we truly understood the earth to be a loving, giving, mothering being?

It would be the end of war.  The earth would be freed from its state of polluted, shameful disarray and restored to its natural beauty.  And we would shape our actions to unconditionally love each other, our God, our mother earth, and ourselves.

I have been taught to love the sacredness and beauty of this living earth.  So today I will be content to wonder, is there anything that can capture the poetry and grace of a fallen leaf?  Or of trees bursting forth glorious yellow and dazzling red.  The twisting branches of a tree against a blue, blue sky swirled with clouds.

These things surround me, and I am so very blessed.