“Fall in love with what you don’t know rather than fall in love with what you think you know.”
~ Grandfather Fire
Do you want to fall in love? It’s easy. Simply go outside, breathe the freshness of the air, look around, find a bug or leaf, a finch or magpie. Listen to the sounds, even the traffic noises. This is what we have. Accept what is here: a dandelion growing in the crack of the sidewalk, a sycamore dropping its balls of seeds, the dramatic seasonal changes, this is what She gives. Fall in love with Her, even if you don’t know what you are falling in love with. Fall in love with it all. This is joy and joy is our birthright. Joy never leaves us, it is not fleeting, it is steady, always there. It’s the lack of love, envy, hatred, feeling disconnected, fear that covers up one’s feeling of joy. Joy is present even in grief and sorrow, happiness and sadness; it lies still in anger and resentment, but it still resides within us.
Can you begin to know Her mystery? Of course not. I mean the mysterious life that has been given to you, the one that eludes you at each corner turned; the one that hides its face because your eyes are too focused on something else, perhaps that illusion of love? Perhaps focused on what you don’t have, rather than what you do have. Fall in love with what you don’t know. What if, on Valentine’s Day we got on our knees or laid flat on our back, to praise and express love to Mother Earth? What if everyone on Earth, in the eyes of mystery, humbled their selves to this mysterious world? What if we loved ourselves so much that we could outwardly express love with humility in this way, to Her? This one time, this one day? How would our lives be different? Would the rivers swell with joy? Would the rains fall and the creeks sing? Would the seeds in the earth wake up a little happier? Would the trees breathe a little easier, making the air a little brighter? Would the rocks filter the waters a little better? Would She forgive the people for the thoughtless misdoings our people have wrought upon Her? Would we decide to run our vehicles less and spend more time sitting and walking with Her? Would we shut off the faucets and take extra water from our sinks to water the plants? Would we revel in the site of a crystal clear lake or river? What about picking up someone else’s trash thrown unhappily upon Her body? Would we think twice about doing harm to Her body? Would we feel the beauty She presents each and every day and strive to maintain that beauty for future generations? I witness the first of February boasting the coming of Spring with Red Wing blackbirds trilling in the background of warming days, fat Prairie Dogs scurrying about greeting each other atop their snow covered mounds, flocks of Robins return to nest while the symbolic mother of the earth cow is heavy in labor and the newborn calves frolic in the dismal winter pastures.
Underneath the surface, the soil warms bulbs and seeds in the low country, readying for their first poke out of the ground. The early peach, willow and cottonwood trees have a showy glow of brilliant color as they start to bud out. Soon, love will have its way. Mother Earth has been impregnated with the snows and rains and will blossom in all Her glory to feed Her people, once again. It takes love, that energy of connection, to make even the most barren of wintered lands come alive. This fecund time was ritualized by the ancient Romans in the Feast of Lupercalia while the Normans celebrated Galactus Day, a day for lovers. Animistic celebrations of Spring arrival. This was the time of fertility and match-making. To expel these pagan rituals, Pope Galacius I, way back in the 5th century, combined the pagan rituals and the martyrdom of two men named Valentine, both were killed on February 14th in the 3rd century A.D., to become a holy day called St. Valentines Day meant to honor and celebrate their sainthood in the Catholic Church. Just as many of our modern holy days have “put their clothes back on”, these traditions lost their flagrant pagan rites of fertility, yet remained as a special day for love, romanticized by William Shakespeare but eventually reduced to a day to exchange greetings of like and love, paper hearts and sweets and hopefully an invitation to a romantic dinner. Today, Valentine’s Day is an 18.1 billion dollar industry. Some single people celebrate this day they call SAD, Singles Awareness Day, only to further their pain of isolation by taking themselves out to dinner and binging on chocolates they bought for themselves. Given the state of our world and the lack of love we are losing accessibility to Her land: we see, feel and experience the results of the earth extraction industries from the viscera of Her body, we are dying from the toxins sprayed on Her hair, the grains and grasses, fruits and vegetables, we breathe the filth of Her air while her lungs clog and the villi and bronchial (trees) are being cut from Her surface, around the world, making CO2 conversion difficult, and we experience Her sacred mountain tops being removed while lakes and rivers continue to be polluted with effluent. With greed and warring in quest for more resources to quell our insatiable appetites that continually rises as we are blinded by our thirst and hunger, while billions have resigned to starvation, we still will not get what we need to survive. For this time of year, I want to share an old Beetles’ song of the 60’s that influenced me. They must have channeled Mother Earth singing: All you Need Is Love “Love, love, love, Love, love, love Love, love, love There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It’s easy All you need is love All you need is love All you need is love, love Love is all you need
Love, love, love Love, love, love Love, love, love Nothing you can know that isn’t known Nothing you can see that isn’t shown Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be It’s easy”
[LINK to "All You Need Is Love" on YouTube] All She needs is love. All we need is love. Send hearts and greetings of love to revitalize the enchanted and endangered world of Her body and soul. Show Her that you care. Make a Hallmark day for the Love of Mother Earth. She will rise to greet you in her myriad ways, as Her life cycles normalize, because love is the most powerful healer of all. And love will come back to you. And you will change. We will all change. Human’s core values do not hurt or destroy that which they love. Even global warming can change with love. Love is in the air!