For my final posting, I’d like to share what I call “The Ten Touchstones of the Wild Soul.” They are guiding principles to help us live in a manner that can help all of live to thrive. I’d love to hear your responses.
The Ten Touchstones of the Wild Soul
1. I feel my own flesh and the flesh of the Earth as one. In harming the Earth, I cause myself harm; in caring for the Earth, I care for myself.
2. I honor the Earth as a primary source of spiritual revelation.
3. I treat the Earth and all her inhabitants as relations to be honored and celebrated.
4. I open myself to the wild and creative energy of the Earth that seeks unique expression through me.
5. I respect the Earth’s finite physical constraints while embracing the boundlessness of my spiritual nature.
6. I take regular breaks from technology and the human-built world in order to reconnect with nature and my own wild soul.
7. I bring a listening spirit to the Earth, recognizing that all beings are sacred and hold essential wisdom.
8. I protect, celebrate, and seek intimacy with the place on Earth in which I make my home.
9. I believe that a shift in consciousness, rather than advances in technologies, is the principal means to overcoming our planetary crisis.
10. I attend to the wisdom of deserts, forests, oceans and rivers, mountains, and grasslands as I continue to learn that to be wholly human is to be wild.
[From “Reclaiming the Wild Soul,” White Cloud Press, October 2014]