Land Use and Reverence

[WhistlingBadger55 10]

I really, really appreciated this essay. I have a feeling some of you might, too.

On Reverence

Instead of asking what we can take from our public lands, we should first ask what we owe them.

www.groundshift.us

 

[Jennet39 97]

So very true. Your country is so big and ours so small, but no matter what the size, we owe a depth of gratitude to both nature and our past ancestors and their ways. Science has also brought us so much knowledge that should be respected, but unfortunately today, too many people do not stop to take a breath at the beautiful simplicity of life around us. We should stop and take a breath, relax and enjoy what nature and the past gave to us. And be thankful for it.

 

[Uberhoust8 2]

Reminded me of my time in Lutselk'e. I got to go on the community's fall cariboo hunt and learned of the practice of "paying the land". Cold morning breeze, clear skies, and nothing around except plants and animals, it is what I appreciated then and still do whenever I get a chance to go out on the land or water.

 

[GaryE20 18]

I've never owned a centimetre of land - just legal documents that said I owned it. We walk on land, live on it, pave it but it can shrug us off in a second. The lot I live on here has a natural history, and a geological history - it's torn off of North Africa yet sitting in North America.
I wouldn't leave it offerings when I take from it because it's wonderfully indifferent to whether I'm here or not. But I try to take care of it not just for future generations of people, but also for the other creatures who live on it. I often find myself in places where I stop and wonder how those spots looked when other long gone eyes saw them. I think it's a good mental exercise to stop and reflect like that.
Oddly, I think I can feel similar reverence in an old red brick industrial revolution town or a medieval village. There's the human history that also surrounds us, and that can remind us of lives like ours lived.