Sustainable WNC

Dear Relatives, 

Ten thousand thanks to all who’ve posted such kind and generous comments here!

You may have noticed that we are now “Healing Earth.”

Yes, if we’re open, Earth is healing us – allowing us to become whole once again.

After our first entry on this blog, I received this post from traditional Cherokee Grandmother Red Leaf: 

Dear Paul:  Thank you for sending “Earth Healing”. Long ago, these words were given to me: 

“Even when we poison the air, the air is still there for us. 

Even when we pollute the water, the water is still there for us. 

Even when we cut into the breast of Elohino, she is still there  for us. 

Her love for us is unwavering, and complete and total. 

Would that our love for her be so great.” 

Grandmother Sara Smith from the Mohawk Nation said this: “Sounds like Grandfather teachings.” 

It’s both extremely humbling and a great honor to receive this recognition from the traditional Elders.

I can only try to continue to live up to their positive regard for our work.

In this spirit, I respectfully offer this one: 

Prayer for the New Millennium 

Our ancestors remind us that gratitude is the beginning, where we come from and to where we return.

Our awakened nature invites us to recognize any imbalance or woundedness within ourselves or in our relationships and begin the healing process, and continue the healing process.

We become ruthlessly practical.

We make compost, grow gardens, plant trees, restore wildlife habitat, and build solar to restore balance and recreate community with all living beings.

We become serene and courageous in our everyday lives.

We celebrate the gifts of fresh air, pure water, fertile soil and the spark of creativity.

We practice mindfulness, respect, kindness, and compassion wherever we go.

Our kindness is our kinship responsibility with “the egg-born, the womb-born, the moisture-born, the miraculously-born, those with form, those without form, those with consciousness, those without consciousness, those with no-consciousness, and those without no-consciousness.” 

We rediscover and honor all our relations with our every good thought, good feeling, good word and good deed:                                                                                                                                 the 4-leggeds, the 2-leggeds, the wingeds, the roots, the greens, the swimmers, the creepy-crawlies, the blue green algae, the soil mycorrhizae, all the elements of the periodic table, and the 7 directions.

We practice peace through forgiveness and understanding.

We live peace by extending a kind word and a helping hand.

We plant and nourish the great Tree of Peace.

We remember to give thanks for the gift of each and every breath.

We humbly remember to respect and honor the unborn and unborn yet to be, and the 7th generation.

We plant more trees. 

– Paul Gallimore, Director

Long Branch Environmental Education Center

POB 369      Big Sandy Mush Creek
Leicester, NC 28748

Tel. 828.683.3662

Fax: 828.683.9211

Email: paulg@main.nc.us

Web Site: www.LongBrancheec.org

Dear Friends, Relatives, and Relations,

If you’ve found your way here guided or unguided, consciously or unconsciously, Welcome!

May our journey together be both uplifting and inspiring!

Gratitude to Richard Fireman, Wally Bowen, and all the other good-hearted individuals who’ve conspired to create this portal to sustainability here in these ancient
Southern Appalachian mountains!

May we collectively offer encouragement and inspiration to All Our Relations across all watersheds and bioregions on this Mother Earth to begin and to continue our awakening — remembering our intimate connections with All Living Beings!

Thanks to all of you for joining us!

Let’s begin with trying to define some terms.Where does this word “sustain” come from, and what does it mean?

Its etymology is traced to the Middle English sustenen, from Anglo-French sustein-, stem of sustenir, from Latin sustinEre to hold up, sustain, from sub-, sus- up + tenEre to hold.

Sustain: to give support or relief to, to supply with sustenance, to nourish, to keep up, prolong, to support the weight, to carry or withstand, to buoy up, to bear up under, to suffer, to undergo, to support as true, legal, or just, to allow or admit as valid, to support by adequate proof, to confirm.

In Sanskrit, the word “dharma” is that which is upheld, and comes from the root word dhri which means to hold together, to sustain, to carry, to hold. Hence dharma is that which contains or upholds the cosmos, the truth. So Sustainable WNC, WNC Dharma, can be seen as the truth that we hold up, and in turn, the ancient mountains that hold us up.

Our essence is sustainability.

Our practice is sustainability.

Sustainability is grace.

We seek sustainability in an impermanent world, full of dissolution!

(Small joke: What do you get with 2 doctors discussing the nature of the universe?– A paradox!)

Ah, thankfully, even ignorance and ceaseless craving are impermanent!

Earth

From our Indo-European Roots, er is Earth, ground. Consider some of the definitions: 1.a. The land surface of the world. b. The softer, friable part of land; soil, especially productive soil.

2. often Earth The third planet from the sun, having a sidereal period of revolution about the sun of 365.26 days at a mean distance of approximately 149 million kilometers (92.96 million miles), an axial rotation period of 23 hours 56.07 minutes, an average radius of 6,378 kilometers (3,963 miles), and a mass of approximately 5.974 × 1024 kilograms (1.317 × 1025 pounds).

3. The realm of mortal existence; the temporal world.

4. The human inhabitants of the world

5. a. Worldly affairs and pursuits.

b. Everyday life; reality.

6. The substance of the human body; clay.

7. The lair of a burrowing animal.

How about the mythological connection? The Greek Goddess Gaia.

Terra Mater or Tellus Mater was a goddess personifying the Earth in Roman mythology.

Ela is Mother Earth in Cherokee, and Earth is Makoce in Lakota.

A Prayer for Mother Earth!

Mother Earth!

Thank you for giving birth to us, for nursing and nourishing and nurturing us throughout our lives.

Thank you for all your great caring and sharing and for all your great kindness and generosity of heart and spirit.

And when our bodies are old, sick, tired, worn out and decaying, even then do you take us back without hesitation, without judgment, without anger, without fear, without disappointment, without expectation!

O Mother Earth, please help us to open our hearts as wide as yours!

And help us to remember to practice unconditional love and forgiveness like You!Mother Earth, you who give birth to the 4-leggeds, the 2-leggeds, the wings, the roots, the greens, the swimmers, the creepy-crawlies, the blue green algae, the soil mycorrhizae, and all the elements of the periodic table, and the 7 directions….We say Thank You!

May you always continue to share your gifts and abundance, and remind us to do the same!

And may we always be humble enough to remember to offer Gratitude to You!

********

The environment may be defined as the totality of surrounding conditions.

Why Healing Earth?

Kailo is the Indo-European root word for Hale, Health, Heal, Whole and Holy. In the roots of our language healing and spiritual practice are the same. In other cultures, the consciousness still persists that we are all connected, All Is One. Being whole and healed still means being connected to everything.

And so here we are.

Sustainable WNC.

Environment.

Healing Earth.

Welcome!

In honor of the Vernal Equinox, we remember these words –

“Behold, my brothers and sisters, the spring has come.

The earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life.

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this land.

My love of our native soil is wholly mystical.”

– Chief Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotaka), Hunkpapa Sioux (1831-1890), Lakota Medicine Man and Chief was considered the last Sioux to surrender to the U.S. Government.

–
Paul Gallimore, Director

Long Branch Environmental Education
Center

POB 369 Big Sandy Mush Creek
Leicester, NC 28748

Tel. 828.683.3662

Fax: 828.683.9211

Email: paulg@main.nc.us

Web Site: www.LongBrancheec.org