Three wise women

“He saw nothing. The country was thick with sacred stories more ancient than the ones he carried in his sweat-slippery Bible. He did not even imagine their presence. Some of these stories were as small as the transparent anthropoids that lived in the puddles beneath the river casuarinas. These stories were like fleas, thrip, so tiny that they might inhabit a place (inside the ears of the seeds of grass) he would later walk across without even seeing.”

This is author Peter Carey’s rather harsh description of the European/Christian attitude to the Australian landscape as found in his novel, ‘Oscar & Lucinda’. An attitude that still lingers today as we continue to desecrate both our cultural and natural environments by remaining blind to the damage caused by an elitist world view that denies the sacredness of all humans and of all the earth.

But…. and here is the good news…. it is an attitude being constantly challenged and eroded by more and more people from all walks of life: scientists, Christian clergy, Buddhist monks, corporate heads and a smattering of politicians. Just recently, there was an Earth Liturgy held in an area of ancient Tasmanian old growth forest and one speaker, a Catholic priest, said: “God is Green”.

Within Australia, there is an important reconciliation taking place between blacks and whites.

As well, heeding one of the definitions of reconciliation as “the purification or restoration to sacred uses after desecration or pollution”, there is also a second reconciliation happening between people and the landscape.

The three women above, each in their own small way, are doing what they can to change our dominate western behavioural pattern from one of arrogance to one of accommodating both forms of reconciliation.

Sally, the youngest, keenly aware of the health implications that arise when the environment is not treated reverently, is on her way to Kenya as a volunteer doctor in the Medicine sans Frontier organisation. She will both help the Kenyans with her expertise and learn from their stories a different knowledge.

Marie, working with Chinese business people, knows how important a respectful listening to the world’s cultural stories can be in the making and fostering of a sustainable global peace. She carries a hugh, laughing optimism that the human heart is inherently good and will prevail.

Carolyn, befriended by aboriginal elders, is working passionately to find a way for all the people of Australia to come together, simultaneously across the nation, and affect a great healing by simply singing up the land in unison with one great collective voice.

As they blessed Windgrove with their presence over the weekend, may I now offer a blessing to each of them on their continuing journeys.