“Nature speaks. The pivotal act of drawing closer to nature is to learn how to listen,” says painter and art therapist, Peter London. (1) The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cries out for our attention. The earth pleads for us to listen—not just to heal her waters, but to examine the wasted opportunities and resources that contaminate our own natural flow as well as the fabric of life itself.
The natural world and humanity are two parts of a whole, seeking reconciliation so that we can know the healing power of our oneness. We are invited to dive below the surface of finger-pointing to enter into what Jewish philosopher Martin Buber refers to as the I-Thou relationship. By listening to the earth from the “… depths of our own ‘I’, [we evoke]… the possibility of its hidden Thou becoming manifest, … [revealing] the Thou residing within” (2).
This truth dawned on me through my paintbrush. I had no idea why my colors and shapes morphed from green and red earthbound layers to blue, lavender and turquoise currents. It was only after weeks of delivering these themes onto paper that a friend informed me: I had been creating visual prayers for the Gulf.
Holding a stethoscope up to my own chest, instead I had heard the heartbeat of the earth. Once that happened, a wave of connection washed in from all directions. People from all over the world were listening to their own inner muses and uniting to understand our shared path forward.
These are but a few glimpses:
Robert Jensen, Journalism professor at University of Texas at Austin, sees “… our collective task …[as shaping] a society that helps us act with caution and compassion… [based on] a deep conception of respect: Respect for oneself, for other people, for other living things, and for the earth as a living system” (3).
Author Mike Dooley points out, “Never before have so many prayer and meditation groups suddenly formed, amongst and in between every religion and those belonging to none, to foster healing of …[the] planet… And… the planet has a loving, brilliant consciousness all her own. Of her countless balancing acts, healing herself is one in which she truly shines” (4).
No one has provided a more vast container for understanding the depth of our healing potential than Dr. Masaru Emoto, whose work with water crystals has demonstrated water’s property for mirroring even the vibration of our thoughts. As we make a shift from anger at oil company executives to examining our own and our planet's capacities for renewal, water reflects a parallel shift.
Dr. Emoto uses the Japanese martial arts secret of “winning without fighting” to demonstrate how to neutralize both the contamination of the earth’s waters and our own frustration (5). He suggests that rather than engaging this disaster at the vibration of fear and regret, that we instead rise to the most powerfully transformative feelings we can exert on any brokenness, in ourselves or in the universe: the simple emotions of love and gratitude.
What are the practical applications of this understanding for universal healing? That’s just what 350 people wondered as they gathered in September 1999 by the banks of Lake Biwa to chant and pray with then 97-year-old Master Nobuo Shioya. Dr. Emoto explains, “Just a month after this event took place, a strange thing happened to Lake Biwa. The newspapers reported that the putrid algae that appeared each year and cause an unbearable stench had not appeared that year… The spirit of words has the power to influence all of existence and change the world almost immediately” (6).
Dr. Emoto would affirm Martin Buber’s understanding, and point out that the I-Thou relationship between humans and water is literally true. Our healing begins with communicating to the water that fills an average of seventy percent of our own bodies:
“I am peace.” “I am love.” “I am grateful for the wholeness within each moment.” By extending to yourself the same forgiveness and healing you wish to see in the world, it is so done—perfectly mirrored in both places.
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Dr. Emoto's Healing Gulf Prayer
I send energy of love and gratitude
to the water and all the living creatures
in the Gulf of Mexico~
to the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish,
shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, and all living creatures.
I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.
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Sources
1. London, Peter. Drawing Closer to Nature, Making Art in Dialogue with the Natural World. Boston and London: Shambhala, 2003. p. 86
2. Ibid, p. 73
3. Jensen, Robert. "Struggling to be ‘Fully Alive’ ". CommonDreams.org, July 8, 2010
4. Dooley, Mike. Tut… A Note from the Universe, July 15, 2010
5. Emoto, Masaru. The Hidden Messages in Water. New York: Atria Books, 2001, p. 49
6. Ibid, p. 144
