burst of scarlet flame, revealing Earth’s inner fire, now gone, She strives on
As Earth bathes Her Northern Self in sunlight and dances nakedly in the prolonged daylight, the Beings of the desert reveal their fiery inner life. On this day of prolonged revelation, i wander the arroyo hondo as the sun blazes down revealing things hidden from view. Like the scorched desert dust dancing up around me and the vibrant desert blooms igniting the rolling slopes, i feel my spirit is on fire.
Ignited by the endless ecological destruction and rape of the Earth, by the injustices revealed (though existed long before) in our continuing pandemic, by the absolute disregard for Life in the attempts to return to “normal,” by the blatant attacks on our Indigenous brothers and sisters by rolling back protections of their sacred lands in the name of greed and profit, by the murders of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor… and the continued justifications by those who are willfully blind (because it serves their self-interest) to the sin, the evil of racism in this country… i am enraged, i am on fire.
And yet, as the fleeting, fiery desert blooms teach me, to be on fire is not enough to sustain this awakening to Life that has ignited the whole Earth community.
For a brief moment, this Scarlet Hedgehog Cactus reveals Her inner blaze joining the chorus of the Beings around Her. Just as suddenly, Her flowers drop, and Her striving for life and survival move underground. Much of life in the desert is done below the surface and that is how it is sustained even in the most extreme conditions.
As the sun blazes down this day and my own spirit burns, i know this fire will not be sustained without doing deep inner work. As a white person and a descendent of colonizers, i must continue to dig up my rotting and festering roots in separation, conquest, and racism and let them shrivel and die in the desert sun. The lies i was told… that these roots were necessary for success, for value, for life! When they were really killing those around me and consequently killing me. This fire that has become a global movement toward justice cannot be sustained if we (as white folks and allies) are rooted in that which is actually killing us and those around us.
Without doing the work of digging up these roots that are killing us, we will burn out after a bout of outrage. We will long to return to “normal.” We will forget that our roots in separation, conquest, and racism will continue to leak poison in our being and poison our whole Earth community until the next “shock” of news jolts us awake.
We stand at a crossroads on this day of prolonged revelation as Earth bathes Her Northern Self in sunlight. Do we tire of all the news? Do we tire of this fire? Do we rush to return to our “normal” lives? Or, like the Beings of the desert, do we begin (or continue) the deep inner work necessary for survival? Let this day be for you a day where you too begin to (or continue to) unearth those rotting roots of separation, conquest, and racism. Let them wither and die in the blazing solstice sun. What other roots might grow in their place?
