A Common Spirit Unifies All

"From the Great Spirit there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things-the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals- and was the same force that had breathed into the first human. Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery." Chief Luther Standing Bear

We live in a time and place of deep divisions. The words of Chief Luther Standing Bear remind us that deeper than all of our divisions is a unifying reality: spirit.

We humans are unified in that one spirit enlivens us all. We share a common spirit. We breathe a common breath.

On a larger level everything of Earth shares the same spirit. The same spirit that makes us humans alive also makes everything else of Earth alive.

Since one spirit animates all of us, we are related to each other. We are kin. We are family. In a very real sense the Earth and everything of it is one, single living being animated by one spirit: the Great Spirit. This is the Great Mystery.

Since one spirit animates us all, since we are one living being, what we do to others we do to ourselves and what we do to ourselves we do to others.

When we love and esteem ourselves, we take good care of ourselves. We do not harm ourselves. Likewise, when we love each other we, take good care of each other and do not harm each other.

I'm not promoting an absolute love. Neither am I promoting an absolute "do no harm." Spirit, that which animates, lives on death. Life feeds on death. Death feeds life. Such is the way of nature. It is not all peace, love, and light.

I am promoting mindfulness of the spirit in all. I am promoting an awareness of the common spirit that animates Earth and everyone of Earth. I am promoting love: love that honors and respects all life, love that is grateful for one's own life and that of all others, love that feels the profundity of killing another in order to live, love that gives thanks to those who die for others to live. I am promoting a love and mindfulness of the common spirit that animates all, makes us kin, and is deeper than anything that divides us.