ERA as Medicine
Medicine for a New ERA: Eco-Response-Ability
At this time, there is no doubt that our Mother Earth is sick and that she needs healing. There is one reason why she is so sick – because of US. What we, as human-beings, are doing to our planet, through our ever-increasing numbers and our excessive over-consumption of what the good Earth provides for us, is wreaking havoc on the environment, while utterly disrespecting the world of Nature.
Natural Law governs this Universe and is implicit in the form and structure of Life and All Relations, as so beautifully manifested here on Earth in the web of inter-relations that make up the ecological world. Indigenous peoples around the world naturally know this through their strong connections to the living land, upon which their survival wholly depends, and by having healthy relationships with guiding ethics such as Respect, Love and Responsibility. This is true for all of us, but “civilized” man has veered away on an errant pathway under man-made law, which has manifested all the sickness, disease, and damage to our Mother Earth, demonstrating blatant disrespect for Nature and flagrant ecological irresponsibility.
The medicine we all need is healing, and in terms of Mother Earth she needs ecological healing in order to repair the damage and regenerate the natural abundance of the flow of life. To do this we must take care of each relationship, within and without, to maintain health and wellness and to live life in balance. But how can we do this if in fact the sum total of our efforts today amounts to destroying the Earth in the spirit of ecological irresponsibility?
If our root-problem is ecological irresponsibility, then the solution to this must be ecological responsibility. We also require holistic healing, which applies to all levels and extends to our ecological responsibility to take care of life and all relations. This implies working within and without, at all levels, with all relations: individuals, communities, all humanity, the interconnected family of Life, with the living Earth herself and all beings, energies and forces, seen and unseen.
We all have the ability to respond and the skills to respond with all our abilities; this is what is implied by response-ability. With this crisis of our Mother Earth being so sick because of us, we urgently need to focus our individual and collective response-abilities on ecological healing so that she is nurtured back to health. Nothing is more important. This is the medicine she needs. This is Ecological Response-Ability: ERA.
We are the cause of Mother Earth’s sickness, but we are also the medicine, if we only just realize it. Just like we, alone as individuals, have the power to heal ourselves, if we make the choice to do so, the same holds true for healing Mother Earth: it takes healing ourselves and all our relations. As a collective, we have the power to do so, if we so choose. This implies changing our behaviours and taking care and responsibility for what we do.
Healing the Earth requires Healing Ourselves and our ways. This is best done by taking our ecological responsibilities, which is the medicine for maintaining ecological health. Eco-Response-Ability, ERA, is both the social medicine needed for our sick society and ailing humanity that is out of harmony with Nature, and the environmental medicine required for healing our relationship with our Mother Earth.
How can we heal ourselves if we don’t love and respect ourselves? We can’t.
The same holds true for Nature...
How can we heal Mother Earth if we don’t love and respect her? We can’t.
So, healing our relationship with Nature begins with Loving and Respecting our Mother Earth and acting accordingly: taking ecological responsibility in doing so. This is how we become medicine for helping heal Life in a flourishing New ERA.
Respond with all your Abilities to Ecology by Loving Life and Respecting Nature while applying this ERA ethic to all that you do, expressing care and devotion to all relations. If we can each do this individually, our collective Eco-Response-Abilities will heal our world.
