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    All Our Relations: GreenSpirit Connections With the More-Than-Human World
    All Our Relations: GreenSpirit Connections With the More-Than-Human World
    All Our Relations: GreenSpirit Connections With the More-Than-Human World
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    All Our Relations: GreenSpirit Connections With the More-Than-Human World

    By Marian Van Eyk McCain

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    About this ebook

    The first ebook in this GreenSpirit series, 'What is Green Spirituality?' described a form of spirituality towards which more and more people are turning these days: one that is grounded in a deep love of—and reverence for—the Earth and of all Nature and which sees the emergence of higher levels of human consciousness as the growing tip of the ongoing evolutionary process.

    It is a spiritual attitude that is perfectly compatible with all the world's major religions and it goes hand in hand with people's increasing desire to halt the destruction of habitat, the loss of species and the over-use of the planet's resources and to live a satisfyingly 'green' and sustainable lifestyle.

    To this end, each subsequent book in this series looks at how the principles of green spirituality may be applied to one particular aspect of our daily lives. As its title suggests, All Our Relations' celebrates and honours human beings' relationships with all those other life forms who share our planetary home. How we treat these 'fellow-travellers,' how we perceive them and interact with them—and the extent to which we love and respect them—is a measure of our humanity and our spiritual evolution. The greater our appreciation for other creatures, the more they give to us, the more they teach us and the more joy and inspiration they bring into our lives.

    For we, too, are animals. And along with the other members of the animal and plant kingdoms, we make up the delicate web of life that makes this place liveable and beautiful. Whatever damage we do to that web, we do to ourselves, to each other, to our children and grandchildren and to all our relations of every size and kind. If they fail to thrive and survive, so do we.

    Contributors to the book include scientists, researchers, poets, authors, health practitioners and others. Here you will find discussions ranging from the merits of vegetarianism to the problem of linguistic 'speciesism.' You will read about dogs who know when their humans are coming home and be encouraged to rediscover your own inherent, animal 'knowing.' Above all, you will almost certainly delight in the first-person accounts of life-changing interactions with members of other species, from snakes to horses, from dogs to oak trees and from huge whales to baby frogs.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGreenSpirit Ebooks
    Release dateFeb 14, 2013
    ISBN9780955215766
    All Our Relations: GreenSpirit Connections With the More-Than-Human World

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      Book preview

      All Our Relations - Marian Van Eyk McCain

      Published by GreenSpirit at Smashwords

      www.greenspirit.org.uk

      ISBN: 978-0-9552157-6-6

      © 2013 Marian Van Eyk McCain

      Cover design: Stephen Wollaston (aka Santoshan)

      Photo Credits:

      Front cover image © Ducu59us/Shutterstock.com

      Part 1 photo © Soru Epotok/Shutterstock.com

      Part 2 photo © Utopia_88/Shutterstock.com

      Part 3 photo © Serif Image Collection 3

      Part 4 photo © Eric Isselee/Shutterstock.com

      Further information and resources photo: © Vanessa Clark

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      All in the Same Boat ~ Marian Van Eyk McCain

      PART ONE: ENCOUNTERS

      Today, of All Days ~ a poem by Helen Moore

      Meetings with Magic ~ Susan Meeker-Lowry and David Abram

      Whale ~ Eleanor O’Hanlon

      My Argument with Jamilah ~ Marian Van Eyk McCain

      Dancing with Trees ~ Kathleen Martin

      The Flame Robin ~ Sky McCain

      Wolf ~ Eleanor O’Hanlon

      PART TWO: LISTENING AND CONNECTING

      On the Other Hand ~ a poem by Hilary Wilmshurst

      Sharing the Earth Space ~ Marian Van Eyk McCain

      Return to the Listening Place ~ Clea Danaan

      Telepathy ~ Rupert Sheldrake

      PART THREE: LEARNING AND HEALING

      Lessons from Frogs ~ Marian Van Eyk McCain

      All Our Companions ~ Suzannah Stacey

      1. Lost in Translation

      2. Rescuing Ollie

      3. A Smack for Sam

      Feeling Connected ~ Franziska Holmes

      God Has Fur ~ a poem by Stephanie Sorrell

      PART FOUR: THE WAY FORWARD

      Bridging The Animal/Human Divide ~ Stephanie Sorrell

      The Wombat Principle ~ Marian Van Eyk McCain

      I Thank My Ancestors ~ a poem by Helen Moore

      EDITOR’S NOTE ON LANGUAGE

      FURTHER INFORMATION AND RESOURCES

      GREENSPIRIT BOOK SERIES

      Introduction

      ALL IN THE SAME BOAT

      Have you noticed how, even though we know the story of evolution, many of the ways that we talk about Nature and about our fellow creatures serve to drive a semantic wedge between ‘it’ and us, between ‘them’ and us? So much so, in fact, that it is quite a challenge to talk about other life forms without falling into the trap of separating ourselves from them with our words.

      As we all know, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that our species Homo sapiens is a member of the Kingdom called Animalia. In other words, we are animals. Like all other members of that Kingdom, we have a slot into which we fit. You can find our particular slot on any diagram of the Animalia tree. Specifically, we belong to the Phylum: Chordata (we have spines), the Subphylum: Vertebrata (a special sort of spines), the Class: Mammalia (we suckle our young), the Order: Primates (along with apes, and monkeys), the Family: Hominidae (one of the so-called ‘great apes’) and the Genus: Homo (men and women, boys and girls).

      So yes, we are definitely animals. Yet from the way we often speak about ourselves—and even the way we think about ourselves—you might come to the conclusion that we, in our culture, are in some sort of denial about it.

      The problem is that after centuries of imagining ourselves as separate from the rest of the animal kingdom and forgetting that all of these other life forms are related to us by our very DNA, our language has in turn been shaped to a huge extent by our beliefs. So that makes it hard to avoid the linguistic traps.

      For example we find ourselves using phrases like ‘humans and animals,’ as though we were something different and not animals. We find ourselves talking about how much we enjoy ‘walking in Nature,’ as though there were any place on our planet were Nature isn’t. Because of course Nature is us. Nature is in us and everywhere and in everything. Even in the heart of the city, Nature is not just the pigeons and rats and cockroaches and mice and the slivers of living green that grow up in the cracks between the paving stones, but all-pervasive. The air is full of unseen creatures; our own bodies have other creatures living on and within them, creatures in their millions, most of them smaller that can be seen with the naked eye, all living and breathing and doing their thing.

      We find ourselves falling into these linguistic traps, not just out of habit but because it can be hard to find other, better alternatives. However, just as wheels create ruts and ruts in turn capture wheels, not only does thought shape language but language ends up shaping thought and perpetuating attitudes. It takes a big effort to heave ourselves out of the rut and pay conscious, mindful attention to the way we speak of other creatures.

      The more we learn to stay mindful of this fact that we, too, are animals, the more offensive it can start sounding to our ears when we hear others use the word ‘animal’ pejoratively, as in ‘He’s no better than an animal,’ (particularly when we reflect on the irony of it, given that we ourselves are the species with the very worst behaviour record of all time!) Yet hopefully, the more we stay mindful, the better we shall become at developing a vocabulary that better reflects the true relationships between ourselves and what author David Abram calls the ‘more-than-human’ world.

      The very first time I learned that in the Native American culture other species are referred to as ‘all our relations,’ I immediately felt the sheer ‘rightness’ of that term. Which is why I have chosen that phrase as the title for this little volume in the GreenSpirit ebook series: a book that that specifically honours all those other life forms with whom we share the planet.

      They are all our relations. How we treat them, how we perceive them and feel about them and interact with them—and the extent to which we respect them—is, I maintain, a measure of our true humanity and a measure of our true worth. For along with them we make up the delicate web of life that makes this place liveable and beautiful. Whatever damage we do to that web, we do to ourselves, to each other, to our children and grandchildren and to all our relations of every size

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