As a species, we’ve reached a painful turning point. Animals are vanishing, ecosystems are collapsing, climate disasters are becoming commonplace, and even our communities are fracturing under the weight of fear and division. Beneath all of this lie two root causes: greed, and a profound loss of connection to the earth — the very mother who sustains us.
Many Westerners dismiss shamanic and animist cultures as primitive or superstitious, yet these traditions hold something we desperately need to remember: relationship. Their songs, rituals, and offerings were never about persuading the earth or the sky to grant favours. They were about cultivating humility. About remembering that we are part of a living web, not masters standing above it. Praise, in this context, isn’t magical thinking — it’s an attitude. A way of keeping the heart soft and the ego small. A way of staying aware of our interdependence with everything that allows us to live.
A culture that honours the land tends to protect it. A culture that sees the earth as a resource to plunder eventually destroys the ground beneath its own feet.
This song came to me while sitting on my veranda, surrounded by the natural world I am so blessed to live within. It’s a small offering — a reminder, a gratitude, a way of listening. And perhaps, in its own quiet way, a call to remember what we’ve forgotten.
