So there’s that fundamental difference between landscapes and ecosystems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. Think of it this way. We may be scared of bears – after all, this is a bear’s landscape, isn\u2019t it, or a tick\u2019s landscape, or some other creature\u2019s landscape – but in truth, the fear is a projection of our own landmarks and pathways, and it is the things that we<\/em> care about or we worry about that ultimately lead us always back to ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, that’s your landscape. You are at the center of your own landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those bears and the ticks, individually, each 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now here is a 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We humans, of course, don’t have our own niche. We lost that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And so we are the minority. As outsiders, we are surrounded by nature\u2019s 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. That is really where our fears come from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how are we to find our purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably not by creating a distant invisible god who, gee, is just like us? How naively primitive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nor by withdrawing further into our disconnection, isolating and deluding ourselves with symbols of power? How psychotically destructive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friends, the signs are all around us, inviting us to belong. We don\u2019t have to be jealous of ecosystems. Or scared of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 . <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. Think of it this way. We may be scaredContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-qualiens","post-5688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9QShd-1tK","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5906,"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688\/revisions\/5906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetqualia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}