Nadim Barakat
"How, in our modern world, can we find our way to understand the earth as a gift again, to make our relations with the world sacred again? (31)"
Through the reading and in class discussions, I felt like this quote captured my feelings from the week. As I get older I feel that my connection with the Earth and its secrets slowly diminishes. When I was young, most of my time was spent outside in the yard, the pool and saving baby birds that fell from their nests. Now my time is spent mostly in school and in transportation so I seldom have time to just sit and observe a tree or the behavior of ants as I used to.
In this semester I hope to do just as the quote states "understand the earth as a gift." We are surrounded by many blessings on this planet and we often overlook them due to our bustling and speedy lives. In a way we are just a small part of this planet which has been here for many years. We did not buy our existence into the world just as we can't expect to buy the world itself. I think that its important to be thankful for all the things around us and to sometimes just slow down and appreciate what we have. Even the smallest changes in our lives to better understand this Earth may alter our perspectives for the better.
This concept of appreciating the world and slowing down also fits into the principles of ceremonies. The book states on page 35 that"Ceremonies large and small have the power to focus attention to a way of living awake in the world." By this understanding, a ceremony could just be to take five minutes to ponder upon the greatness and vastness of the world and the universe; it could also be pondering on the microscopic bacteria, enzymes, and nutrients that keep us alive and help to sustain agriculture.
I hope through this course to be more aware of our surroundings and to be more grateful and thankful.
I love the way of your thinking Nadim! I agree with that a lot of people feel almost disconnected from Earth and I think its awesome that you are going to try and be more aware of your surroundings! Like you said in your post that on earth we are surrounded by many blessings!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing I enjoyed reading it!
I think its a great thing how you want to become more connected with nature.I can relate to your feelings of when your younger viewing nature vs being older barley having time.
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