43 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
43 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
EARTH
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Gavin Greene
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This is how it begins. Sleet and rain are called from the sky. Their
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impact slowly changes the surface of a granite outcrop... Frost cracks the
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sides of a mountain.. A wind called The Destroyer weathers great tables
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of land brought up from the surface of the earth. This is the birth of soil.
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The mountains move, gravity calls rocks and dirt to the rivers below.
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Swift water, bringer of life and death, carries debris and the bones of
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fishes to the plains beneath the bodies of mountains. Floods rise leaving
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layers of stuff worked from centuries. Wind and water move particles of
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soil to a place where it can be still and welcome the touch of a seed. If
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the weather is right the seed will take hold and interact with the earth
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through growth, death and decay. The plants add their properties to the
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soil. Bacteria and small life forms live there, they eat and convert their
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food to different nutrients. They die and disintegrate, building rich earth.
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Spring floods move top soil from the middle of the continent to the gaping
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mouth of the sea. The hot breath of dry years lifts dust and layers
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it on the foothills below the mountains. Volcanos erupt sending clouds of
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ash into the sky where it is carried by wind and the spin of the earth to
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drift down somewhere else. This is how the soil moves and builds into
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something with the ability to support life. Plant life, animal life, human
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life.
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The earth is a living being. We are a part of that being. Most of us
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have lost that connection and are desperately searching to find it again.
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These words are not a map. That was lost long ago. A few humans who
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live in rocks, along river beds, in the great deserts, still carry the map
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in their bodies. Ever notice how your feet contact the ground? The ground
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is rolling away from you. Remember to correct for the tilt of the earth.
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Follow the path that registers in the pit of your stomach and indicates
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direction by the blue tingling at the ends of your fingers. I cannot
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guarantee that you will find what you're looking for.
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Spend some time alone with a mountain or rushing river. Notice how small
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you are. Walk, breath, listen. After a while you will see that you have
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left the trail. Do not concern yourself, you can not get lost here. You
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live here. Over there by those rocks, see, a few strands of fox hair, a blue
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feather. Eventually it will all return, as will we. I want my body placed
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in the earth to decay over centuries and become part of the planet it
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sprang from. That is the true order of things.
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