The smell of sweetgrass on this mountain is addictive. Nearly every time I come home from somewhere else and get out of the car, the smell nearly knocks me down, it is so intoxicating. I live in this heavenly fragrance, but notice it more after I’ve been gone. It is for me now the smell of home and mother.

I have recently been with a dear friend who just gave birth. The sight of the milk running from her breast as she changes the baby from one side to the other is what comes to mind as I think of Earth Day. We are all born of this one womb and fed from the same flowing breast. To war with each other makes no more sense than siblings warring, though that story is as old as time. I wish for us to recognize our interdependence, to love and take care of the body of the mother who feeds us and to find a way to sincerely love who we are related to – which is every one and everything. It should be so simple and so obvious, but somehow isn’t.

I love my Mother, the physical one who gave me birth and has loved me fiercely every day of my life. And I love my Mother, the ground that holds and feeds me and all of my relatives. We are a diverse bunch, but no matter how we try to deny it we are one family born of the same flesh. My prayer today is that we can work it out, and love together the source that binds us and gives us life.