It seems appropriate to post this song in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Also, my newspaper column this week has a First Nations Focus: Even the Rocks Remember, the Soil Rich with Life

Earth Country

(tune: Sounds of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel; lyrics: Highland)

Hello Nature our old friend, We’ve come to learn from you again. . .
Because the image of the Earth our Home, a micro-cosmos we can see and know;
Is an image. . . to see and hear and feel, so very real;
One nation of all species.

And in the bright and clearing light, we see no need for fear or flight;
We wander out into the flowering field, we hear the birds and in the dirt we kneel;
Now our minds are lit. . . with a thought so briefly caught, a lesson taught;
We know we can’t be separate.

We saw people bow and pray, in a super-natural way;
We could smile and accept their choice, but we answered with a different voice;
We sang out. . . with the wolf and the hawk and whale, a wilder tale;
A song of earth, our country.

Many tell us we must choose, one land, religion, or we’ll lose;
Yet our reason speaks another way, a wiser choice and a lighter day;
We look up. . . to the trees and moon and sun, a roof that’s one;
Countless stars we’re made of.

There is one community, between the mountains and the sea;
Lakes and rivers, forests, glacier snows; the air around us, in our breath it flows;
A world of beauty. . .spinning on through the great expanse, atoms’ dance;
Evolution, our common story.

Chris Highland, 2014

(photo: 400-year-old “Angel Oak,” Johns Island, SC)