Disconnection

Disconnection, separation, division, detachment, disassociation - these are all words that too often describe the way we view our world and ourselves. We are disconnected from the Earth herself, separated from the delicate web she has woven, divided from each other by arbitrary encumbrances, detached from the very meaning of our existence, and disassociated from the awe and mystery of the world and the universe.

Our daily lives are filled with more events than our elaborate datebooks can contain. We live by the litany, "oh, that there were only more hours in the day," and we bemoan our lot in life. We are scared to death of spiders and cockroaches, consider the natural world as wild, untamed and therefore dangerous, and resist awareness of the intricacies of our world for fear of having to take on one more responsibility. We in the western world have tried so hard for so long to disconnect from the Web of Life.

We can break the bonds of our cultural, intellectual, and emotional imprisonment. We can open our eyes to see our connections and realize our true place in nature, a place that is beside other species, not above them. We can do all these things, but we need help. The disassociation of the last few thousand years will not erode overnight. But by carefully teaching each other to re-member, re-integrate, and re-associate, the embrace of our Mother Earth can be felt again.