Changing From Being Earth Stewards to Earth Partners: A Lesson In Eco-Humility

Amid all the discussions about alternative fuels, climate change, responsible farming, eco-tourism, biophilia, and more, global citizens are demanding that the human species be “Earth Stewards”. They say that we have a responsibility to use our wisdom, knowledge, and collective thinking to protect, shepherd, defend, and care for Mother Earth and Nature.

Isn’t this arrogance, this sense of noblesse oblige and “we know best” part of what got us into this mess in the first place? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate if we as humans were Earth’s and Nature’s partners? If we connected with and listened to what Mother Earth, Nature – and the Creator—is telling us to do, and then did it? If, in our connection, we became partners, working with Mother Earth and Nature and, in exchange, to help and heal ourselves?

In her seminal work “Finding Peace in a Turbulent World: Living in Sacred Nature”, author Marnie Kuhns discusses this concept. Relating a story of visiting and feeling a natural vortex in the red rock country of Sedona, Arizona, she tells of listening to Mother Earth and realizing that she, and Nature – because they are God’s creations – have the answers.

Marnie learned that Mother Earth, like any parent, is in pain, filled with “an overwhelming sadness, a heartbreak” because of the problems that humans, her children, are bringing on themselves.

“I felt Mother Earth longing for better things for those she nourishes. A visual popped into my mind of people squirreled away in their homes and offices watching televisions, working on computers, or with their focus on phones. Rarely, if ever, did they get out into the sunshine or into nature.”

Marnie continues: “In my attempt to speak with God, I felt Him redirecting my attention, inviting me to listen to the earth. I felt as if there was something Mother Earth wished to share with me.”

As I opened my heart, I sensed the earth’s immense intelligence … a highly intelligent being with a grand role in our Creator’s Divine plan. Instantly, I saw the arrogance of humanity. Humans have been looking at Mother Earth as if she is damaged. Mankind acknowledges we’ve thoughtlessly vandalized and polluted the earth. Most believe that if we don’t concoct and enact solutions, everybody’s going to die as Earth is destroyed. Popular viewpoints lean toward the entire solution lying squarely on our collective human shoulders. Mother Earth is seen as an object that is helpless, incapable of contributing, much less partnering with us in the process.

Marnie Pehrson Kuhns, “Finding Peace in a Turbulent World: Living in Sacred Nature”

A Shift in Viewpoint [From Earth Stewards To Earth Partners]

“Mother Earth, on the other hand, sees us as her children who are suffering. She knows she has the answer for us, but we’re off in our little holes, not receiving or accessing the solutions she’s offering.

In mankind’s hubris, we view Mother Earth as a victim, something beneath us. In our myopic pride, we think we can ignore our relationship with Mother Earth and then somehow fix her like we might fix a nuclear reactor that has a core breach. We refuse to see her as working in harmony with our Creator. As a result, we refuse to partner with her or with our Creator. In our egoic state, we have the audacity to think we are the ones to fix Mother Earth, when we can’t even fix ourselves.

In mankind’s hubris, we view Mother Earth as a victim, something beneath us. As a result, we refuse to partner with her. We have the audacity to think we are the ones to fix Mother Earth, when we can’t even fix ourselves.

Using Jesus’ analogy, Mother Earth’s problem is a splinter in her eye, while our issues are beams sticking into our heads. What we do not see is that we are symbiotic with the earth. As we heal, she heals. If we came to know her, we would automatically love her, revere her, partner with her, and care for her the way she deserves to be treated. And we would feel the love she has for us.

If we came to know Mother Earth, we’d listen to her and learn from her. We’d be open to her input on the problems we face. We’d be open to solutions that might seem simplistic or counterintuitive. We’d listen to our Creator and follow His advice – even though it might not be what we want to do and may even seem old-fashioned or unrelated.  

Mankind is more in need of Earth’s solutions than Mother Earth needs ours. Mankind is worse off than Mother Earth is. The reason she’s suffering is because we are contentious, irreverent, selfish, and depraved. We cannot see the sacred in Mother Earth because we are oblivious to the sacred within ourselves and within all things.  We have little harmony within ourselves or with each other or with the Earth. This disharmony on all fronts hurts Mother Earth.

The Earth is in pain because of what mankind is doing on her and to her; but, soul wise, she’s good. The Earth is being what she was created to be. She is fulfilling the measure of her creation. Mother Earth is not doing anything outside of God’s laws. We humans are the ones who daily violate God’s laws and natural laws. Mother Earth chooses to obey God’s laws.”

Marnie points out that we humans need to take a new view, a new direction, in working with and partnering with Earth:

“The Earth isn’t something to be fixed. She’s the remedy! And mankind is not all bad and destructive. … We have our own medicine to share.

Just being out in nature, seeing the beauty of the earth, breathing the fresh air, gaining appreciation for nature’s beauty, and accessing the joy and the peace available in nature would greatly shift humanity in a healing, peaceful direction.

Mother Earth grounds us to reality and to what is essential. When we immerse ourselves in nature and her lessons, we feel peace and joy which enables us to break the shackles that bind us. If we took time to know Mother Earth, we would naturally open our hearts to her and to each other. We would turn to our fellow beings with compassion and a desire to lift, build, and bless. Why? Because when we commune with Mother Earth, we are influenced by our Creator’s love and wisdom which naturally flows through the earth!

The earth is constantly broadcasting, “I love you. Come to me. I can heal you.” This message is the Creator’s message. Mother Earth is perfectly aligned with the Creator. She is living her purpose. All beings who live their purpose and who are aligned with the Divine are conduits of God’s love, healing, and messages. Mother Earth’s message is God’s message, and His message is one of healing, love, and peace.

As we inundate ourselves with the cacophony of noise available via man-made broadcast systems, we’re drowning out the subtle, beautiful messages naturally streaming through all of God’s creations.

“All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”

Alma 30:44,  Book of Mormon

When we cut ourselves off from nature, its beauties, and its lessons, we cut ourselves off from our Creator.

Mankind’s fabricated, technological, simulated “meta-verse” is not real. It’s an artificial counterfeit of the great light-based communication flowing through all things, in all things, and comprising all things. The Divine web is infinitely more powerful than any internet.

The answers to mankind’s and the earth’s problems are to be found in spending less time in man’s echo chamber, less time in the mindset that created the problems, and more time listening to and collaborating with the earth and the One who created her. As we connect to God and His creations, we will connect to our own individual Core Sacred Selves. The peace and love we find there will spill over into our relationships. We will begin to respect and treat all living things, including our fellow beings, and the earth, with reverence, respect, and the value they deserve.”

Healing the Earth is about healing ourselves. Mother Earth is our Creator’s gift to facilitate that healing.

Marnie Pehrson Kuhns: “Finding Peace in a Turbulent World: Living in Sacred Nature”

How Do We Change From Being Earth Stewards to Earth Partners?

To change from being an Earth Steward to being an Earth Partner may be as simple as changing our viewpoint. Our work at Spirit Tree Farms is an example of how we learned and applied this concept of being partners with Mother Earth.

When we first started working on the property at Spirit Tree Farms in Northwest Georgia, we were determined to “plant more plants”. It didn’t matter what they were, or if it “fit”. Whatever we thought, whatever we as property “owners and stewards” was going to be good for the property, and good for the Earth.

One of the first things we did was start expanding and transplanting some plants that were evergreen, seemed to grow well, had fragrant blossoms in the Spring and provided small fruits in the late fall and winter. This species seemed to be the perfect plant, and so we got busy transplanting them and expanding their footprint on our property.

Fortunately, we quickly learned that Chinese privet, though evergreen and beautiful, is a serious invasive, non-native plant. This knowledge started as we were transplanting some near some native oak trees. All at once, we got the feeling that something was “wrong”. Not knowing what, we researched what the plant was (Doug Tallamy’s work at HomeGrownNationalPark.org was immensely helpful).

Become Earth Partners instead of Earth Stewards

Discovering that privet is invasive, we checked in with Mother Earth, with the property, and with the native plants that were there. We opened our hearts, our souls and our feelings, and were shocked at what we learned. We quickly got the feeling not only to stop transplanting privet, but to pull out and kill as many as we could. In fact, a friend – who has the ability to “sense” and feel Nature in a very deep way – came on a visit. As she was catching the vibe from “The Old Woman of the Woods”, the giant pre-Civil War oak on our property, she turned to us and said, with great sorrow and urgency: “She is being strangled.”

We realized that privet plants were invading the space above her roots, denying her of vital hydration and nourishment, while adding a “non-growth” solution, a type of poison oozing from their roots. The privet were literally strangling The Old Woman of the Woods (and her children, the saplings coming out of her acorns).

Not only that, but we learned, as Earth partners, what we needed to do, and how. So we cut down, dug out, and pulled out as many privet as we could. Shortly afterwards, as part of “following Mother Earth’s guidance”, we took back our property from the neighbor who had been monoculture farming it, and we began the transition to letting it be a wildflower and native plant refuge. And we continue to maintain that area under the giant oak, and the rest of the property, in partnership with what we feel lead to do.

This is just one example of how we as humans can listen and feel what Mother Earth wants us to do.

Symbiotic Earth Partnership

Fortunately and luckily for us as humans, Mother Earth is like most good parents, giving more than taking. As Marnie mentions in her book, and as we’ve learned from experience, the more we listen to Mother Earth, the more we connect with the Creator and do what we should be doing, the more peace we receive, and the more joy and healing we experience. At Spirit Tree Farms, we’ve also learned that, with the increase in peace, joy, and healing comes a dramatic improvement in our own creativity.

A partnership with Mother Earth is much more receiving than giving. BUT it does require that we give. And it requires that stop thinking that we know best, and that we form a partnership with Mother Earth. When we humble ourselves, when we listen, then we can give Mother Earth what we are inspired to do, what she and our Creator guide us to do.

For more information about Marnie’s book, visit her website at http:www.CreationGirl.com/FindingPeace, or go to SpiritTreeFarms.com/peace.

To learn about the Spirit Tree Farms concept of Earth Partnership and creativity, check out our courses.