“We are all related”

	Native American spiritualists have a saying; “We are all related”.  
Indigenous people acknowledge their close relationship with Earth and all 
that is on and in it.  The “two and four legged” creatures, the Earth, stone, the 
“grandfather” mountains, the trees, and flying creatures, the winds and forces 
of weather, the water, rivers and seas, the air that surrounds us, the fire that is 
created by the combination of these elements, all the elements that have come 
to make us up and out of which our physical bodies have been created.
	  “We all are One” (does that sound familiar as the core of almost every 
religion).  Born from the same materials, living on a planet spinning in a 
universe where EVERYTHING we do, or that happens, has an impact on 
everything else and vice versa.  If someone were to burn a fire on one part of 
the globe it has an impact, however minute, on something or someone else 
somewhere on the planet, in the Universe.  If we drive our car, and emit 
fumes, blaze down Main Street noisily on a motorcycle or blast our car radio 
it has an impact on those around us.  EVERYTHING we do has repercussions 
upon ourselves and the world around us. 
	But far beyond these “logical” and “rational” assertions, on a deep 
physical and multi-dimensional level, possibly beyond what our conscious 
physical minds are capable of comprehending, there is a spiritual connection 
between all things, and a cause and effect relationship that reverberates 
throughout the Universe.
	Native Americans who have more recently lived closer to the Earth, 
forces of nature, are able to see and remember this relationship more easily 
than a Westernized individual living in a big city, or descendants of people 
from more populated areas, surrounded by concrete and technical progress, 
etc.  In New York City, where you can barely see the sky between the 
buildings, you can more easily lose sight of your connection with your 
Mother Earth, than if you were living out “in” it in the Southwest, for 
instance, where the sky goes from horizon to horizon and nature is 
unavoidable.  It is more difficult to ignore that those surroundings are from 
whence you came, and that it took hundreds of millions of years for 
humankind to develop.  It is easy, surrounded by Western technology, by an 
awesome and complex man-made physical world, to forget our connection 
and relationship to our planet and each other and become involved in the 
more petty and selfish, or physical, aspects of need and want, without having 
any understanding of how to achieve our needs, or what our needs really are.
	The Lakota (Sioux) Native Americans end their prayers with the phrase 
“Mitakuye oyasin” which means “All My Relations” or “We are all related”.  
The ancient Egyptians had a god of unity, of oneness, named Amom.  The 
Hebrews, who had lived in Egypt for over 1000 years, when they returned to 
their homeland, used the word “Amen” to end their prayers.  “We are all 
one”.  
	Jesus Christ was said to have stressed the existence of “One” god, of 
the “One”.  This has been personified over 2000 years to mean a gray-haired 
man with a beard (more easy for simple folks to grasp) but it is clear that the 
origins of Christianity lay in the personal relationship Christ had with his/our 
Creator, the Universe/God-spirit.  Mohammed, Buddha, Christ all lived in the 
“wilderness” for a time, as do the Native Americans today when they want to 
experience a “vision quest” to become closer to the “One”, the Creator.  It is 
hard to ignore the fact that you are connected to your world when you are 
alone in the wilderness, desert, prairie, etc.  
	Understanding and remembering the relationship and the connection 
between us and our planet is essential to true spiritual enlightenment and fully 
understanding our place in the “scheme of things.”  That we have a power 
from within, to create our world, even as Christ, Mohammed and Buddha did.  
We are all part of the whole and the whole is a part of us.   
	If we are living in an apartment, driving in a car or taking the train to 
our job in an office every day, involved in our cycle of events, we can easily 
lose sight of these connections with the Universe and our Mother Earth, and 
the God-spirit, and of the fact that we have infinite choices as to how we may 
live our lives.  
	There are those who choose to live in areas of the world that may be 
susceptible to dramatic forces of nature; flood, earthquakes, tornadoes, forest 
fires, mud slides.  We must accept the forces of nature and change as a part of 
our Universe.  Mother Earth is not “evil” in her process of adjusting herself 
and “doing her thing”.  In fact these processes have existed since the birth of 
the planet and contribute to all that surrounds us.  There are times when Earth 
needs to wash some part of herself, maybe by a torrential rain or flood.  She 
does not want to harm animals or people, but she needs to wash just as you do 
sometimes, and she will use her water or wind to do so.  Just as you may 
destroy the “life” (bacteria) on your body when you take a bath or brush your 
teeth, our planet must go through her life perpetuating processes.  We must 
take that into consideration when choosing a place to live, and prepare for it.  
	The course of rivers, sought to be changed and damned, will eventually 
seek their natural level, though unfortunately floods will occur to accomplish 
this.  But it must be remembered that those people living in those areas must 
take and accept responsibility for making the choice to live in those areas, 
where the risk and indications are known.  They are not “victims” of the 
whimsical forces of nature, rather, if they were living in harmony and truly 
acknowledging those forces, they must acknowledge the choice they have 
made to engage in that activity, live in that location, and that they have 
chosen to remind themselves, and the rest of us, IN THAT WAY of their/our 
connection with all that surrounds them.  
	At the same time the forces of the planet are also a reflection of our 
consciousness and are effected by it.  The consciousness of our planet will 
respond to protect and heal itself from the rape and disrespect that “man” 
imposes upon it.  (We will discuss later the consciousness of our planet, of 
stone, trees and plants as embraced by certain Native American spiritualists).  
	Again, it is all reflected from within.  The birds in the area of a flood, 
who are instinctually connected and in tune with the forces of nature, do not 
have to be reminded of that connection and undoubtedly sought necessary 
shelter while Mother Nature did her inevitable and essential “thing”.  
	I was reading an article which revealed that there are forces, electron 
and proton charges, that are created in tornadoes that are not created by any 
other phenomenon.  These charges cleanse and recharge particles in the air 
and atmosphere and are essential to a balance in nature.  The charges that 
occur in the whirlwind of a tornado may be likened to an atomic reaction, 
where the wind, and the vacuum created, effect the polarity of the respective 
charges.  It is said that someday we will be able to predict the path of 
tornadoes by studying the charges produced.  In a sense the tornado is a 
“polarity machine” created by Mother Earth, that has no duplicate, just as our 
man-made nuclear reactors are needed to create certain atomic reactions.  
	So rather than looking at a tornado as only a “disaster” it may also be 
viewed as a benevolent and essential planetary phenomenon for the greater 
good.  And those living where they may occur would be advised not to live in 
flimsy houses with weak roof joints, but rather, possibly in deeper-set, strong 
houses and keeping their machinery in in-ground garages, and their animals 
protected.   
	Geologists and physicists know that even sun spots have an effect on 
Planet Earth causing weather changes, earthquakes, volcanoes, depletion of 
the ozone layer and even the appearance of unknown diseases. Obviously if 
we live anywhere near water, we are reminded 4 times daily that the position 
of the moon in relation to the Earth effects the tides and water levels. 
	However consider that Edgar Cayce’s psychic readings stated that sun 
spots were created by negative energy produced by human brain waves and 
that the whole planet is surrounded with this negative energy because there 
are so many bad thoughts. In other words they are a reflection of our 
thoughts.  This is yet another acknowledgment of the power of thought, by a 
world renowned thinker.
	Since we are all related, and everything we do has a spiritual and 
physical impact on everything else, everything we do and say must be in 
alignment with the true goals and desires we want to achieve.  We must 
accept responsibility for all that happens, seek to change that which we do not 
want to manifest and remember this connection to All That Is, that we are all 
One, part of Creation.