We do not live on Mother Earth, we live IN Mother Earth.

Just as a starfish scuttles along on the floor of the Ocean of Water, so we walk on the floor of an even deeper Ocean of Air that surrounds our planet. As the finned ones breath water, so we humans and all “land living” creatures breathe air. There is no difference. If we were to trade places, the fish would drown in air as we would drown in water.

At more than 10 miles in depth from the Mother’s surface to the upper atmosphere, our Ocean of Air is deeper than the deepest known point of the Ocean of Water, 7 miles. Even the highest-flying winged ones cannot reach the surface of Mother Earth. And we humans must wear protective suits and use specialized equipment to live outside of the extremely narrow band, less than 1 mile deep, that supports us. This band that can support humans is very thin, indeed.

The water of the ocean is invisible to those who swim within it, as the air is invisible to us who “swim” in it. We take for granted that the air we cannot see is clean and clear, even while we know it is not. When the Ocean of Water becomes unbalanced and spoiled with too much silt, too much contamination, it is abandoned. The finned ones know it cannot support them, and they move to other, cleaner fields.

When the Ocean of Air becomes unbalanced and spoiled, we humans often do not notice because we live so much through our eyes and judge with our heads rather than our hearts. Because we cannot see the contamination, it is not real to us, even though our bodies are suffering.

Many do not understand that we are swimming in the Earth, not walking on it and somehow above it. They are like starfish who walk on the ground of the Ocean of Water and believe they are somehow separate from the Earth, not seeing the greater truth.

When the Ocean of Air becomes so unbalanced that the contamination is impossible to ignore, we cannot just pick up our lives and move on as the finned ones do. We adjust; we cope with medications; we try to control. Yet our Ocean of Air cannot be subdued or controlled in that way. Once it is spoiled beyond a certain point, it is done.

Many in our times have lost track of our fragility in the face of this reality. We want to believe that we are special, in some way blessed above all other living things not to be extinguished when our ignorance outgrows our resilience. But we are not.

Mother Earth loves us as she loves all her children, all our brother and sister creatures, all our relations. She blesses us with that most precious gift of Freedom to choose and to act, even though it may mean that we so contaminate our thin slice of the Ocean of Air that we extinguish the light that we are and could be.

And if we do, Mother Earth and all our relations will continue without us. In time, the Ocean of Air will also do what the Ocean of Water does: it will rebalance itself and make room for those who remain.

As Caretakers and Keepers of the planet, our Mother Earth, it is upon us to ensure that we do what we can to stay in balance with Nature, with our environment. Not only for ourselves, but for all our relations.