Day 133 December 15, 2010

Aran Islands  2004 photo by Jessica

The other night I revisited a thought I first had in Ireland in 2002.  As my brother, sister and I toured through villages on small secondary roads it seemed that every village had its own ruin from days long past.  Crumbling monuments that spoke to ancient times.  These monuments were celebrated by the local people.  What I realized is that here in Canada the native peoples also left their own monuments.  There are the serpent mounds near Rice Lake in Ontario and most likely other examples of this same kind of monument in other locations and the Inuit created inukshuks in their part of the world. 

What was also left as records of the native peoples’ passing over the last 10,000 years was our pristine wilderness.  I hold a deep gratitude for the reverence the native peoples showed the earth.  They used what they needed.  They left the rest untouched.  And so, because of their foresight we are currently enjoying the vastness of a primarily unspoiled landscape here in Canada.

Since other peoples settled what we now know as Canada, much has changed.  For one thing the landscape is no longer pristine due to the incessant harvesting of natural resources.  Forests are cut and finally some are now replanted, but even 40 years ago in this part of the world replanting was less common.  The huge tar sands project in Alberta that extracts oil is seen by environmentalists as a blight.  The old tar sands pit in Sydney, Nova Scotia, a site where coal was extracted, has left behind an environmental nightmare. The new peoples who settled this land have done much good in many ways, but it seems “the bottom line” is in many cases more important than the sweet earth upon which we stand.

As my yoga and art practice deepens throughout this year, so too does my awareness of the interconnectedness of my life here on earth.  We have much to be grateful for but we need to relearn the lessons of protecting our earth that the native peoples taught us.