We returned last night to our house on the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains, after fire evacuation. We remain under evacuation warning but the fire is now imposing greater threat to the north, into Antelope Valley. As I drove on the LA freeway system, headed back toward the mountains, I watched the columns of smoke rising from both the Bobcat and the El Dorado fires, distinct from the smoky fog surrounding the entire area. I was thinking of two simultaneous texts I receive a few days before, from two deeply spiritual friends, living in very different places. From India, there was simply the comment, "The Never Ending Crisis". It didn't need further elaboration. From the midwest, the message read: "Is this the Apocalypse?"
Despite the re-closures from the Covid-19 surge, the traffic was heavy. Even though the west coast fires have raised the alarm on global warming, the immediate scene showed little ecological concern. I too was one of those drivers. So I thought about Apocalyptic thought and the "Never Ending Crisis". As I have written before, I have chosen to see the Pandemic and the subsequent upheavals of this year, including the fires, as one process and I name it healing. No one model can possibly explain or interpret all the events of life. Life moves beyond our human capacity to hold it all; Life always has something hidden and something in reserve. Yet, human intelligence and the human heart are integral parts of that Life. We hold a reference point and from that point we impact the whole.
As I watched the magnificent trees along the highway towering over us, I felt a point of choice: to give way to human confusion and the fear-based focus on disaster or to surrender and trust that we are inseparable from the natural order and let nature lead. I saw in a new way, how civilizations and groups have formed around nature worship, although modern times have left that far behind. The vastness of the spiritual, the Transcendent, the Source, infolds the Earth and Nature, all that we know and all that we cannot name or comprehend, far beyond the ideas and life of our planet. We cannot go back to a time of Nature-worship, but we can mature in our understanding and acceptance that in the 21st century our well being, our healing, remains dependent on our relationship with Nature. As Larry Morris would say, "The Earth is not your enemy. The earth is your friend." And cannot be ignored. (Susan Nettleton)