Hermitage Meditation December 14, 2024
by Anne Arseneau
The coastal valley fog covers us below the Mount Washington ski slopes in the distance. Our dramatic west coast rains and winds sweep across our island doorsteps, as we do our best to keep our distance from cold, tireless, natural forces. The low light of shorter days affects our bodies. And yet, we bring nature inside our shelters – scented boughs of pine, green holly and ivy, dry wood for the fireplace. As we look ahead at 2025, we must have intentions for contributing to the care of our planet. 2024 was the warmest on record and climate solutions seem further away from political will. As we enter a new year of challenges, it is appropriate to recognize and respect our interdependence.
David Suzuki, Canada’s outspoken environmental activist, says we are interconnected with nature and with each other. What we do to the planet and its living creatures, we do to ourselves. “We are one with nature.”
David Suzuki – The Declaration of Interdependence
[Abridged]
We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.
We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.
We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.
We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.
And we share a common future, as yet untold.
When we compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to serve the fleeting present.
We are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics of hope.
We are one brief generation in the long march of time; the future is not ours to erase.
All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.
At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.