Reverence

Reverence

The dictionary defines reverence as a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration. Where is the reverence today? Reverence is like a prayer, but it's more, it's having respect and honor for whatever you are contemplating or coming into contact with. Lets look at several examples. First lets take food. The food we eat everyday. Do we just cook it, or order it from a restaurant and then proceed to cram it in our mouths without thinking about or having reverence for it? Now you might say a prayer like "Thank you Creator for this food you provide" and that's a good start, but many people don't even do that. Reverence is different. Reverence is thinking or contemplation of where this food came from and how it got to you. It's not like it just appeared, it came from Mother Earth. You might look at the rice on your plate, and not think to much about it. Lets think about the word humility in regards to the rice. It wouldn't be in front of you if there wasn't humility involved. How is humility involved? Planting, cultivation, and harvest. Do you think this is easy? The growing of rice again involves many things before it gets to our plate. It involves care, planning, and working with the elements to grow it. It involves one of our relations getting down in the mud on their hands and knees to plant a seed or sprout, and space it carefully apart. It means looking at the seasons and the best time to plant, and working with the elements of mother earth. It means acceptance of accidents and storms.

The point is that it that it takes humility and hard work to do all this. We should have reverence for all things concerned. That again would start with our Mother Earth, and all the natural forces that come into play. What made that seed sprout in the first place? The spirit of nature, the spirit that moves in all things, Grandfather Sky, the Sun, Grandmother, the Earth. Then there is the person that planted and harvested that seed who is also a part of mother earth as we all are. Lets take this a step further. Lets say we lived in a community where every time a seed was planted, a prayer, reverence, or thought was directed that it be beneficial and medicinal for our fellow man. Barring that, how about this? As we eat our food bring the realization of it being like medicine, good medicine for our well being. This should give us pause to think about all our food and where it comes from, and how it gets to us. Naturally the less processed or massed produced food might be better, but what if our thoughts concerning the food changed it and made it better in an instant because of our realization that all food comes from our mother, and so we have reverence for it.

Lets take other areas of our life. What about the clothes we wear, and the house around us or our dwelling, including the products and items sitting in the house. Furniture, decorations, dishes, glassware, everything that surrounds us. When you think about it everything that we are exposed to originally came from Mother Earth. Even the plastic is petroleum or ancient fossils. So when we look around us do we have reverence?
How do you think this might change your life? Well lets look at it. The more we are mindful of the energy that surrounds us is from our mother, the more appreciation we have for it, and the more love we will have for it, in fact more love for the earth in general. As we type on the keyboards of our computer, do we realize that everything that we have, even that keyboard, comes from the universal source? Reverence for all things. Being thankful on a higher level means more then just saying a repetitive prayer of words or sounds without feeling them. Reverence comes from the heart not the head. Reverence is a feeling. Feelings from the heart empower us. Some say that when you feel things from the heart and visualize them it empowers you to create within the divine web of the universe, or the source of all things.

Now lets address reverence for our fellow man, our fellow beings on the planet. Do we look at one race as inferior to the next? Do we look at a persons skin color and see it as beautiful? Do we look at the shape of a persons eyes, and the eyes themselves as something deep, beautiful, and part of the great Mystery? How about the way we treat our fellow man? Is it with reverence, and the understanding that no one person is above another? We are all equal in the natural order. Having a lot of money, or prestige, or being famous (well Known) doesn't change this fact. The more we look at people and how they function the more we see spirit at work in all of us. We can do wonderful things for our relations or we can do un-reverential things. We can be bigoted and hateful. We can think of another race as being savage or backward. Is a race savage because it lives next to nature or closer to the earth? No! The ones that are savage are the ones that have no reverence for things of nature, and want to possess or control things as objects. They look at land and our natural resources with greed and as something to own. No one owns the earth, it is for all our relations, and should be shared not hoarded. Some even justify the taking of a human life for this greed. When they do that they Quote: " Take all that person ever could have been" They can never take what he was, because the spirit and memory lives in the hearts of people. How about killing animals for food, or plants for that matter. Is it ok? I would say yes, because it is meant that we live. But we must thank the animal or plant for giving its spirit so that it may live on in us. Do we do that? Do the mass killings at slaughter houses do that? No! But if we eat any meat we can still have reverence and thank the animal right then and there for giving it's spirit so that it may live on in us.

So how will this attitude of reverence affect you? It will affect not only you but the whole planet, for every reverential thought will help all. It is healing, for yourself and others to do this, because then life becomes "Good Medicine" or something that is healing for all, and the planet. Plants can feel and think, they are intelligent. Plants and herbs and food can bring a healing balanced quality to your life if viewed in the right manor. Think of how the world would change if we all were reverential to everything. This is true love, for reverence must come from the heart. Try this in your life. Don't expect it to take hold right away, because we are all conditioned in this fast paced society. Don't be hard on yourself for not remembering all the time, but give love to yourself when you do remember. Pretty soon it feels good getting all that love, and giving it too. This is what will change you, and the planet. This is what will change your heart and make it open instead of closed. Other people will pick up on it and be naturally attracted to your energy and it will rub off. They will think or feel, that here is a real person of the earth, someone who cares and loves. Blessings and reverence to you all.

Roger "Thunderhands" Gilbert
Wakiya