“Mother Nature is punishing us for our greed and ignorance.”

I’ve seen post after post online and many comments bearing this sentiment these past few weeks… With earthquakes, hurricanes, and outrageous fires, it is understandable that people might view things with this lens.

But, is it helpful? Is it true?

I have a different understanding of our world… perhaps this perspective offers medicine to you in times like these.

I don’t believe in a punitive universe.

I think it’s human ego to make ourselves so important so as to be punished like this for our actions. This makes us not only superior and more influential than any other living being, but also places us squarely in the role of VICTIM. Why would our actions “deserve” punishment that also affects every other living and nonliving thing? What did they do to deserve that? Nothing…

And yet, the storms keep coming. Nothing we do is going to magically erase the fact that sometimes nature is brutal; that people, plants and animals die, and it is often tragic.

Yes, we humans have NO DOUBT contributed to the acceleration of climate change. YES we are depleting many of our resources… It would take FIVE planet Earths to sustain our current global population if everyone lived like the average American. That is simply not sustainable. For us and for many of our fellow beings.

There are consequences at play… We have created disturbances that have ramifications for the Earth as a complex organism… As She continually adjusts toward homeostasis, there are side effects. But consequences are quite different from retribution.

What is happening is mysterious.

There are infinite contributing factors to weather phenomenon and earthquakes.

Over the global time-scale, we are not living in any more intense times than have existed here before… Remember when this planet was a molten sea? Or when there were thousands of feet of ice everywhere? What about before the primordial breath of bacteria gave us the sky?

This place hasn’t always (nor will it always) be habitable for humans… because it isn’t here for us. This is not “our” world… We are children of the Earth. We are hers. For now.

We are not so special.

These times are no more special than any other time… with the caveat that… this is the only time we have. Us. You and I… right here, right now.

What is true is that, no matter whether there is proof in the sky or shaking ground, humans are out of balance. Right here, right now.

We are collectively disconnected from our ecosystem. From our brothers and sisters of all species. From the seven generations on either end of now.

How do we shift into right relationship again?

One moment at a time, imperfectly.

We look at our choices. We use less chemicals. We walk more and drive less. We dialogue with people who think differently than we do. We listen deeply. We open our hearts. We feel pain without letting it stifle us. We learn to see beyond eyesight, into the heart of our world. We open our minds, we disturb the patterns. We live a revolution inside us.

We turn to our plant teachers… we look at everything including our technology as a child of the Earth. We stop longing for escape and ground fully into the mess.

I’m willing to get messy. Are you? Will you?

We don’t always get to choose (nor do we necessarily manifest) our circumstances.

But we can be damn sure that there is medicine for us in the present, no matter what that present looks like. It’s not (y)our fault that the world is in chaos. The world IS chaos and we are part of it.

What’s your medicine, man? Wo-man? Hu-man?

Loving you and your wildly doing-your-best magical extra-ordinary human ways.

To an ever better relationship with All That Is.