Nature is our Lifelong Caregiver

“On a very tangible level, nature is our lifelong caregiver. It is the source from which our lives are made possible, a mirror here to help us when we have lost sight of ourselves. Whenever we peek out from our hard places and hiding spaces, nature will reflect back to us the depth of our goodness, not because the denizen of nature are objects into which we project ourselves, or because the more than human world lacks its own personalities and sentience, but because the beings of the natural world are our kin, our elders, and our teachers. As Potawatomi author and botanist Robin wall Kemmerer recount in her book, braiding, sweet grass, “in some native languages, the term for plants translates to“those who take care of us.” We are the youngest children of creation. When we see ourselves in the wider world, we remember who we are.” 

- Asia Suler, Mirrors in the Earth