Beloved Earth, I sit with you
not as a “resource” for me to use,
or an “environment” for me to occupy,
but as a friend,
a creature of God,
a living being.
You are Word given root and wind,
cell and sinew, mountain and depth.
Your seething, your burgeoning, your swirling
I dance with.
I am part of you.
I belong to you.
I live and die in you;
your living and dying is in me.
Your storms breathe in me,
schools of fish move in me.
Your diversity, your exuberance,
your teeming abundance
is my home, my body.
You are my teacher,
my mother,
my flesh.
Oh, Beloved Earth,
speak to me.
I will sit
a long time
and listen.