So there’s that fundamental difference between landscapes and ecosystems.
Of course, we’re always at the center of our own landscape. And even when we’re out walking in the woods, as a rule, we are still at the center of our landscape. We may be scared of bears, like this is a bear’s landscape or ticks landscape, or some other creature’s landscape, but in truth, the fear is an projection of our own landmarks and pathways and the things that we care about or worry about that ultimately lead us always back to ourselves.
So, that’s your landscape. You are at the center of your own landscape.
Ecosystems reveal something far different.
Those bears and the ticks, individually, they all live in their own, individual and unique landscapes too. But as species they live in ecosystems; they have their niche, they have their role, they have their purpose.
Very important idea: every species has a purpose in ecosystems. That purpose maybe large, like the wolves who – as we found out the hard way by trying (and failing) to exterminate them – have a very important role in ecosystems. Or that purpose maybe very small, like the first plants that grow back after a forest fire.
We humans, of course, don’t have our own niche. We lost that.
And so we are the minority. As outsiders, we are surrounded by nature’s in-crowd, and we are jealous of all their interconnectedness and all their contentment. We are haunted by the thought that they are in touch with something sacred and we are not.
So how are we to find our purpose?
By creating a distant invisible god who, gee, is just like us? How naively primitive!
By withdrawing further into our disconnection, isolating and deluding ourselves with symbols of power? How psychotically destructive!
Friends, the signs are all around us, inviting us to belong. We don’t have to be jealous of ecosystems. Or scared of them.
Yes, we are no longer a purely instinctual species. It is a blessing to be able to reflect on all the beauty and sublimnity all around us. We each have unique minds – but not that unique! As individuals we can see through and beyond the landmarks and pathways that the human landscape grooms us into believing.
We can consciously ritual and receive the gifts that ecosystems reveal between the veil of our human trauma. We might just discover our role again, if we can .