Great Spirit, Great Goddess, a simple prayer for understanding

This morning I've been mediating on the similarities of the teachings of Oshun, and the promise of White Buffalo Calf Woman, who reassured that she would indeed return to purify the world, returning harmony, balance, and spiritual awakening when the hearts of men were prepared.

I've been meditating on Earth Day celebrations and commitments, about three decades too late in our consciousness, but better late than never.

I've been taking an accounting of what has been lost in selfishness and corruption around me, and the lessons that remain unlearned. I've watched the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free given a new home built on sand. I've been watching time, cycle over itself, tripping over itself, for human beings unaware.

Today I pray...

Great Spirit, give us hearts to understand;

Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give;
Never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed;
Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty;
Never to take from her what we cannot use.

Give us hearts to understand
That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion;
That to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty;
That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench;
That as we care for her she will care for us.

We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.
We have abused our power.

Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst,
Help us to find the way to refresh your lands.

Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,
Help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.

Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse,
Help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.

Great Spirit, whose creatures are being destroyed,
Help us to find a way to replenish them.

Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption,
Help us to find the way to restore our humanity.

image credit: www.thevillagenews.com/images/photos

Oshun: Healing, Loving, Honoring the Earth's Sweet Waters

"In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." –Baba Dioum

Oshun is the Orisha Goddess of fresh water - the energy of bounty, blessings, home, and hearth. The name Oshun translates to mean "spring" or "source." As the Orisha of fresh water, Oshun represents the source of all life. No matter what country we live in, our religion, our income, our lifestyle, or our politics, water will continue to be a dwindling resource. We face a crisis, globally as well as locally, in meeting our clean-water needs. The crisis is as serious as our energy crisis.

Most of the world’s surface water is locked up in the oceans as salt water. Only 3% of the world’s water is freshwater. As the Earth’s population continues to grow and expand, the search for freshwater sources is ongoing whether existing, recycled or desalinated.

Two-thirds of that 3% is frozen into the North and South polar icecaps and glaciers. With those ice caps now melting and dissolving into the salty oceans, how much further does that reduce that percentage?

More than 1 billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water. Nearly 5 million die each year from water-related illnesses. That number continues to grow.

The most effective and sound water policy is conservation. Here are some simple and effective water conservation tips to incorporate into your life today, and hold sacred for the rest of your life:

• Dripping faucets and leaky pipes are among the worst water-wasting offenders. Make certain sure that your appliances aren’t big wasters.
• Low-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads help to ensure conservation by restricting the volume of water involved in each flush or during each shower.
• Make sure to turn off water during periods of non-use, while brushing your teeth, for example. If washing or rinsing dishes by hand, adjust the flow of water to a small stream so that the majority of water goes where you need it to, and doesn’t escape down the drain.

• Drip, or trickle irrigation has been used for centuries, and is a very water-efficient system for your yard, aimed at getting the water where it’s needed most - plants, not pavement! If your space is small enough, consider watering by hand – not only will the water get where it needs to be, you will maintain a connection with your plants and the natural surroundings.
  
• Water early in the day so your watering efforts are maximized and evaporation does not occur too quickly, which can dry out your plants.
• Apply a layer of mulch over the soil for your flowers, plants and vegetables. This will help to seal in and retain moisture, and preserve your soil’s nutrient content.

Representing the living water, Oshun teaches us if we are caught up in in the flow of our lives to stop and be truly present. She also teaches us to go with the flow of our instincts in order to find intuitive and new ways, better ways. She teaches us to love and be generous to ourselves and to each other. She teaches us self-confidence, and she urges us to restore harmony by working together so all may know health, wellness, abundance and prosperity.

I know that you've heard this all before, but today, this Earth Day 2009, please choose to act, choose to honor the Earth and the spirit of Oshun by making your life and lifestyle choices an homage to the sweet waters. Lead by example. Do what you consider to be your part, and it really will make a difference.

May you be blessed with commitment, courage, and compassion.

Imagine the world as a village of 100 people...

This is a great little experiment that I do every summer with my Lil' Sprouts Program. I give each child 100 pennies in a paper cup. And then we begin...

Imagine that we could reduce the world’s population to a village of 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same. The demographics would look something like this:

The village would have:

60 Asians

14 Africans

12 Europeans

8 Latin Americans

5 from the USA and Canada

and 1 from the South Pacific

... we spread the pennies around on our world maps.

OK, 51 would be male, 49 would be female

82 would be non-white; 18 white

(That gets a wow! here in New Hampshire.)

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

39 would lack access to improved sanitation
( I explain what that means.)
Eeeeewww!

24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do
have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

only 7 people would have access to the Internet

and 1 would have a college education

5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens

and 67 would be unable to read, ever!

That's where we pause. This year marks the 15th season I have created and facilitated a Lil' Sprouts program at our local natural history museum, The Libby Museum. It's all about embracing earth-friendly concepts of diversity, oneness, community, respect, and tolerance through multicultural, age-appropriate literature. I throw in a generous dose of art, music, and a hands-on, active learning approach. Sticky, muddy, messy fun!

Lil Sprouts are asked to create a community where all creatures are embraced for their similarities and appreciated for their differences. The emphasis is on understanding differing points of view and creative peace-making. The Sprouts know the importance of books. Sharing ideas. Getting to know about the world. Caring about the world.

And we vote on what do to with the pennies.

I highly recommend this book:
If the World Were a Village
David J. Smith & Shelagh (ILT) Armstrong

There are currently more than six billion people on the planet! This enormous number can be difficult to grasp, especially for a child. But what if we imagine the whole world as a village of just 100 people?

In this village 20 earn less than a dollar a day, 17 cannot read or write.

In a time when parents and educators are looking to help children gain a better understanding of the world's peoples and their ways of life, If the World Were a Village offers a unique and objective resource. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own. The shrunk-down statistics will encourage readers of ALL ages to embrace the bigger picture and help them to establish their own place in the global village.