WATCHING RIVER OTTERS: Visioning a Life-Sustaining Future

LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE is a Sufi and spiritual ecologist who is passionate about the sacredness of the Earth and the oneness of all beings. Here he discusses our current environmental crisis in the light of problems and solutions, and initiates a call to action to contribute to a brighter future.

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Walking in the wetlands I encounter a family of river otters playing in the water, then, sliding their sleek bodies onto the land, they tumble over each other in the sand, as a blue heron watches nearby. In their primal world there is neither truth nor falsehood, just life present, unfractured.

Once, long ago, we walked in this landscape, were part of this ecology of place. With songs and prayers, dances and dreams we were also alive in life's wholeness. But today our human world is not like this, its consciousness long lost, held only by a few Indigenous people and others who live close to the Earth. And in recent years social media has increased the noise of discord and distortions, half-truths, falsehoods, and conspiracy theories. Our collective consciousness has become fractured, different voices shouting while the planet burns.

And yet, even as our patterns of disbelief poison the Earth, the land, the sea, and the air, even as we deny our responsibility for the coming catastrophe of climate change, or in some ways, more dangerously, think that we can "green the economy," continuing our fantasy of eternal economic growth, this landscape is still present. It can be heard in every dawn chorus, seen in the "v" of geese flying south, in the fox found curled asleep in my garden. The Earth has not forgotten what is real, even if we are increasingly lost. Buds still break open in springtime, leaves turn golden in autumn. And our bodies still awake every morning into this world, even if our minds are quickly caught in other patterns. While our attention is drawn to our smartphones, sunlight filters through the clouds.