I have recently read ‘Sacred Nature: How we can recover our bond with the natural world’ by Karen Armstrong (Bodley Head 2022).  She includes quotes and teachings from religions and philosophies that highlight our interdependence with the natural world.  Here are some insights from China.

The golden rule is found in all religions in some form.  Jesus said ‘Do to others what you would have them do to you.’  Confucius first promulgated it as ‘Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire’ in the 6^th century BCE.  The Chinese view was that human beings together with all the myriad things of nature (the wanwu) formed one body with the universe, and people were not seen as distinct or superior, a view that science is now endorsing.  So the Chinese philosopher Mencius (3^rd century BCE) insisted that the golden rule applies not only to us but to all aspects of nature as we are inextricably connected; we share the same vital force.  Such a simple but effective way of enhancing our relationship with the natural world.

And Zhang Zai (11^th century CE) from the Western Inscription:

Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother
and even such a small creature as I
finds an intimate place in their midst.

Therefore that which fills the universe
I regard as my body
and that which directs the universe
I regard as my nature.

All people are my brothers and sisters,
and all the things in nature are my companions.

We have had a lot of windy days recently.  I love the wind.  It is so alive, so fresh, so tingling.  It chases the clouds and dances the trees.  It brings air swirling around us from far distances, mixing and mingling our breath, our scents.  My Professor of Geology said ‘Perfection is death’.  If we didn’t have different temperatures of air and of water we wouldn’t have rain, we wouldn’t have our abundant life, we wouldn’t have wind.

When it is next windy, take time to feel it and enjoy it, and send your breath with it as it journeys on.

Highly strung

The wind is skeeting the tired tide,
the slow surface of low waves,
blowing it away from shore
in fast running sheets like hidden shoals
escaping the shallowing land.

Above, it seizes a sycamore tree,
lookout on the cliffs,
ballooning in its branches,
sending wild signals
with its blowabout hair.

The swifts are racing it,
tossing their bodies high
before they swoop to find its sinew.

It shakes and sifts the banked bracken,
whistling through grass
and nettle feathers at its edge.

The wind is highly strung tonight,
whirling skirts and stamping feet,
shape-shifting the landscape in random acts of passion.

There will be a total solar eclipse on April 8^th but unfortunately for those of us in the UK, it will only be visible in North America.  Total solar eclipses occur because of the amazing relationship between our sun and moon as our sun is about 400 times larger than the moon and also 400 times more distant from the Earth.  We may be the only planet in the Galaxy to experience total solar eclipses!  We will be able to see a partial eclipse in the north of the UK starting about 7.50pm.  The other striking thing about April 8^th is that all 7 planets will be in a line in the sky which is a rare phenomenon.  Because of their distance from the earth the gravitational pull is minimal so we will not see any effect on the tides.

These are occasional, dramatic events that we can enjoy and marvel at, but our planet’s distance from and relationship with the sun and the moon affect all of life here in ongoing cycles that we can also enjoy and marvel at.

Playing the day

The sun
rolls into the waiting sky
as the earth tilts towards it.

Birds sing in attendance,
the air quickens like an ocean
ready to move.

I sit at the end of dawn,
at the edge of the garden,
matching my strength to its pull,
playing the day
through shoals of unmarked time.