Waldeinsamkeit & Smultronställe

On this earth day I find the German word Waldeinsamkeit and the Swedish word Smultronställe to be my perfect mantras. Such powerful words of experience and feeling. I wish English had words of this magnitude. So many reasons to embrace other cultures, and other languages. Humans do have “a way with words”. Now let’s develop an equally diverse and reverent way with nurturing, appreciating and showing our gratitude for nature and our planet. We are one of the newest creations. Accordingly we are forever searching for our place and trying to justify our belonging. We would do so very well to appreciate all the other natural elements and creations and realize that our place among them should be one of harmony and care, where words may be useful to our species, but there are many more ways of connecting with and nourishing our societies and our environment. Just as many social scientists affirm that getting to know a person or group of people makes it virtually impossible to hate them. Which leads to dehumanization and strife. This too is true of nature. We need to always walk among the trees, stop and smell the glorious floral perfumes, appreciate the birdsong, and natural beauty that abounds around us. Maybe then we could really stop our need to conquer and lay claim to all the natural resources which is causing our planet to change in irreversible and unsustainable ways.