What does the earth ask of us?

What does the earth ask of us? In a way, the presented question can be seen as stated from a humanistic standpoint. A lot of our human race is brought up with the idea that when you give you will receive. Most people give only with the mindset of expecting their action to be reciprocated. The earth acts in ways of existing from purely being. We have been taking from the earth for years. Neglecting all of the marvelous gifts nature has to offer. The whole concept of taking is purely wrong. Some indigenous people say we “white man and man kind” have raped the earth…. We act accordingly simply because we feel like the earth is something other than us. Since there seems to be a sense of removal and distance from nature, I would like to put that idea to an end. One way we remove our self from nature is by simply calling nature an it.  The earth can’t really ask anything from us because we are the earth. We as humans are all living not necessarily harmoniously but we are all living off of one another, including from the properties the earth has to offer. Some of which include lessons and teachings. We receive the gift of solitude at times, though we are simply never alone, we have free space to feel accordingly. On a blizzerding morning I found myself writing submerged in a sea of cacti near my local greenhouse. The piece went like this… “The human connection between nature and woman.. I am a element of the soul that is mother nature. Sitting alone, silent submerged in an ever-growing sea of cacti. Nature is one of the oldest teachers. It is who my educators go to for help. Expeditions teach us patience. I am alone. Another universe. In the dark for too long. We are earth, we are water, and we are weather. During the icy release of energy, my body is in syncopation with the cotton whispering wind. My sight of vision was narrowing. The pale horizon was closing in on me. It is almost as if I forgot how it felt. Here in a little bubble I am awakened. There is life. Living vessels, breathing. They all coexist in the simplest of ways. Change perspective: I wonder what its like to be a bug. This place would be paradise. I am a spider in search of my greenhouse. This brings me joy. My second time journaling at the local greenhouse was filled with new revelations. It was when I began to write I realized that it is our right to live in harmony with all living beings around us. When I say beings I mean from humans as far to the energy of a weeping willow tree too babies. “What is it about cacti that is so enticing? The hard exterior with a milky interior. To live in harmony with the world including the beings that Rome. Thinking about Timothy Treadwell living with the Bears. Yes he was living with Bears but not in harmony. He thought of himself as a bear rather than a different entity who is willing to coexist. Being in nature is not altering it because we are nature. People say that nature is pure, not altered my man, yet there are plants and animals that have major affects our nature as a whole. Beavers build dams to create shelter, so why can’t we build huts for our Home, our habitat. Why is wilderness and understanding of solitude from man/Women. We are just as much nature as nature itself.” Timothy Treadwell is a radical environmentalist as well as being a documenter  who took learning to extremes when he lived amongst brown bears for quite a bit of time. Though he lived amongst bears he didn’t quite do it harmoniously. He would try to place himself in their lives. For example as opposed of a bear coming up to Timothy, he would go up to them and try to establish a friendly connection. I would just like to reiterate that asking what the earth asks of us is a very humanistic question. The earth has much to offer, it is up to the individual to understand what they can receive from the earth, whether its knowledge or physical elements one needs to live.