romanticising the earth

We do a disservice to ourselves and the planet when we romanticise the earth too much.

When we get wrapped up in ideas that ‘natural’ means ‘good for humans’, that everything in the natural world is ‘magical’, framing ‘planetary consciousness’ or what the ‘earth wants’ with a predefined agenda.

This can take us further away from ourselves and our embodiment as earth beings.

It keeps us in a layer of fantasy & conceptualisation that is not really earth ‘stuff’.

It is a distancing move.

This paradoxically doesn’t mean that the earth is not full of magic, that there is not an inherent wonder for us to experience, connect to & commune with, that these relationships are not vitally alive and reciprocal.

They are, and we must remember them for the health of our species and for all life on this planet.

But I’m not sure that getting more romantic and conceptual about our earth and the non human is really the way.

When we romanticise something or someone, what we do is we start to project a shit ton onto it.

Then it becomes an object, a way to experience what we want to experience, rather than a genuine other that we are curious about.

This shifts when we are willing to ask ourselves: “what is actually here in this connection?” rather than avoid the challenging or muddy parts of it.

Because through our seeking and projection of our conceptions of magic onto the earth we miss what is actually available.

The grounded knowing of our interconnection and belonging and that this has responsibilities beyond consumption or fantasy projection.

This requires us to actually listen, be aware of our own seeking and to tend to these parts of ourselves.

When we really engage with the earth we also experience a full spectrum of experiences with it.

Earth is also challenging, potent and powerful beyond our ability to perceive or conceptualise & we don’t always get what we want here.

And this is also where the potency of embodiment on this planet lies