I hold the world. I am the home of life.
I am the weather, I tint the light, the colours and so the earth’s moods. I shape the temperature of everything, I carry sound. Birds, planes, leaves hang in me. I join everything together. I am the reciprocity of all things, all species, that draw me through their own bodies. I am within and without everything.
I am the homeostasis of the world, the carrier of the chemicals of life. I carry the load of human abuse – the spewing of dirty chemicals into me, the disruption of my beautifully choreographed balance of atoms perfect for balance and harmony in the earth.
But that is to say all things too quickly, to matter of factly. For I do all things with poetry, I am the orchestra of the symphony of life. I am vast, endless, stretching to the very edge, where earth fades into universe. And I am in the smallest thing – nudging the smallest leaf in the most inconspicuous cranny.
So rightly does David Abram, name the earth Eairth. For all earth dwells in me, moves in me, rises up into me and I dance around it all, or settle close in stillness.
I dance and play in the tallest tree tops, I shimmer in the reed beds, I shiver the little plant at the side of the footpath.
I am the weather. I am a clear blue sky, I am thick mist over the salt marshes, I am hurrying cumulus over the open plain. I carry the biting cold, that clings to stiff winter branches, I am the heavy dampness of a sultry summer afternoon.
When you speak of the weather – you speak of me. I am the chameleon of a thousand moods.
And I am the light. No, of course I am not the source of light but as it passes through me I colour it in a thousand shades. At dawn and dusk, I paint myself with it in endlessly changing hues. Out in space without me is just blackness, but to gaze on the earth is to see a beautiful jewel, coloured by my embrace.
I carry scent – the fragrance of flowers, the faint musk of a thousand creatures, the salt off the sea – you only know them because of me.
I carry sound – the heavy thunder, faint distant voices, each and every sound reaching your ears I bring to you and in endless different ways.
I am the one in whom you live and move and have your being. I smile that you once gave that honour to some abstract god when I am sensuous, tactile, flowing, dancing, ever changing, ever the same.
I am ruach, I am psyche, I am spirit, I am breath.
Breathe me, touch me, feel me, dance in me, be present in me.
Respect me and know me.
Photo by Abeer khan on Unsplash
