#earth prayers

Grandfather, Look at our brokenness.

In protecting the earth, we found good pine needles and harsh dried wood along with rocks helpful. When you begin to examine our earth, You find tiny mushrooms and small grass blades, Ornamented by the chatter of ground squirrels. You find our soil is soft and rocky, It does not permit artificial soil topping. Our pine trees are diligent, dedicated and graceful, In either life or death they will always perform their duty of pinetreeness, Equipped with sap and bark. We find our world of wilderness so refreshing. Along with summer's drum, we produce occasional thundershowers, wet and dry messages: We can't miss the point, Since this earth is so bending and open to us, along with the rocks, We are not shy, We are so proud— We can make a wound in a pine tree and it bleeds sap, and courts us, in spite of the setting-sun shadow; They bend so graciously, whether dead or alive. We love our pines and rocks; They are not covered with the superstitious setting-sun chemical manure of this and that. We are so proud of the sky that we produce on our horizon. Our stars twinkle and wink as if they know us; We have no problem of recognition. Our rocks and pine trees speak for us.

When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego, and when we escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personality and get into the forests again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves.