Song of the earth
One of the dominant trends of our time: the multiplication of specialists and the paucity of generalists and, with that, the increasing inability to grasp things within a larger context, an overarching big picture. When we can’t see the forest for the trees we experience a failure in our comprehensive vision; we simply cannot grasp the big picture. Of course, the big picture is the forest, as well as the trees together and each of the trees held in a unity with the others. Buckminster Fuller wrote, ‘If it is true that the bigger the thinking becomes, the more lastingly effective it is, we must ask ourselves “How big can we think?”. Short films, poems, songs, paintings and everyday events can enlarge our thinking.
These films are inspiring, mind boggling, expansive, life-affirming initiations into another possible, more desirable, world. We see ourselves as creatures connected to the whole universe, and see that the universe is also within us. We are earth’s children responding to the cry, and the poetry, of the earth.
Even at the micro level, we can think broadly and expansively.
Of course, at times it feels too overwhelming. Sometimes the big picture feels too overwhelming. Sometimes the big picture makes us want to dig our heads into the sand like striches, or confine our attention to what we feel we can manage.
Still, each day challenges us to be present and responsive to all life, as it is happening to us. Comprehensiveness means that our map of reality, or our context, takes in everything that is relevant, so that nothing is left out. It means that both the forest (the overarching big picture) and the trees (the myriad details that make up the forest) are living parts of our context. Both the overview and the detail influence our decisions.
The systematic nature of reality demands an integral approach.
Thomas Berry wakes us up to earthcare as soulcare in his poem “To all the children”.
Vision: To ignite our sense of connectedness with earth and nurture a spirituality of earth care through learning circles
The vision for Programs in Earth Literacies was first developed among a number of colleagues who worked together preparing workshops and retreats that focus on Earth spirituality, Ecotheology, care for Earth, and deep ecology. The primary goal of Programs in Earth Literacies is to nurture a love for our Earth home and for the Cosmos. The programs will engage participants in hands-on work, workshops, retreats, conversation circles and guided reflection. Our programs are attentive to seeing Earth as sacred and to learning practical ways of shaping our personal lives and forming the human community into a more loving presence on Earth. Thomas Berry speaks poignantly of the great importance of Earth care, education and spirituality programs for the future, for all children. He dedicates his book The Great Work, Our Way into the Future, to children:
To the children To all the children To the children who swim beneath the waves of the sea, To those who live in the soils of the Earth, To the children of the flowers in the meadows and the trees in the forest, To all those children who roam over the land And the winged ones who fly with the winds To the human children too, That all the children may go together into the future In the full diversity of their regional communities.
OPENING PANDORA’S BOX: The New Wave of Land Grabbing by the Extractive Industries and the Devastating Impact on Earth
http://www.gaiafoundation.org/sites/default/files/PandorasBoxReportFinal.pdf
SONG OF THE EARTH
Martha Tilston- Good World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r901J39mrM
Linda Perhacs - Call of the River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r901J39mrM
Earth Mother – Anuna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEgWbob_RL0
Mercy Mercy Me" (The Ecology) - Marvin Gaye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Kr1YB2cs4
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Who's Gonna Stand Up and Save the Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfXVUHhZnHM
Vashti Bunyan - Diamond day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3W4sLS67oI
Sparks - Never Turn your back on Mother Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMbtOZDMHOk
Amata - Water Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3i2Fwd-VC8
Albert Hammer – Down by the River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKIYRP48-Cg
Where Do The Children Play - Cat Stevens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a4DCxAi020
Nature's Way – Spirit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V0Vu_utUZY
We Won't Wait Any Longer Gwydion Pendderwen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMnYgWcrYtY
Linda Perhacs - The Soul of All Natural Things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwJyiBq_MVg
John Rutter : A Gaelic Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Las_UnTCf8
Green Peace, Really Green – Roy Bailey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL20nQPFz-w
Secret garden-Silence Speaks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4GmSNbMLiA
The Truth Comes Out - Corb Lund
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EljkIvHAfWc
Bob Marley - Natural Mystic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWoDSGfSu6o
Children Of The Universe John Denver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6AvtBBeTuc
R.E.M. - Fall On Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6vCjtaV1k
Melissa Etheridge - I Need To Wake Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUVqUz8m2PQ
Linda Perhacs – Freely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n-nWy6fB00
GARDEN SONG / PETE SEEGER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR5C-JCI-eU
Jay Mankita Living Planet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdjkOOO9iCo
Motherland - Natalie Merchant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIJ1ZPW5_L4
Joan Baez – Rejoice in the Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiCoGkbln-0
Blue Boat Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtZUM0JhLvc
Pete Seeger - God Bless The Grass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Ly_dXE_2Q
Eddi Reader - "Roses"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dpQaxUgCGk