Contemplations on land

I wrote this a few months back as a personal response to all your lovely and moving accounts about land. This great vast earth that we share. I never posted it, and time has passed, the leaves changed colors and fell from the trees. But, even with time, I realize that these words are still accurate. So, here are my thoughts on land.

Thank you all for your words. They moved me so. Reading so many stories and testimonials on land, compelled me to write also. I appreciated so many beautiful, sad, joyful and unique perspectives on what land is to each of us. I found myself going on a mental journey of all the dreamscapes I go, when I go to the thoughts of land.

Soil, dirt, earth. Rivers, seas, mountains. Islands, volcanoes, forests. We are the land. We are born of the land, we die into the land. Our blood, sweat and tears are the elements that connect us to our earth, and our earth to us.

In my thoughts, I went to Cambodia, where many of my friends are fighting for their land, which is being taken from them by the government. So many of them live in small, simple one room houses,that are their homes. And they know it’s only a matter of days or weeks, before they lose their land to developers. I can still see many of the people’s faces at the last eviction I witnessed and protested in early 2009.

I saw their tears, I heard their cries, and witnessed the injustices that have become so prominent in this big, confusing world. Sadness. Yet so many people haven’t lost hope. How they continue to hope is truly a testiment to me. I have so much to learn from my brothers and sisters residing on this earth.

I think of the many places where people are living and dying each moment for their land. War, poverty, famine and disease are the oppressors, and the people are the courageous defenders. Land, earth and soil. Why? Why? Why? Is there an answer to these complex troubles?

I’m torn with sadness and hopefulness. On one continent, a woman gives all the energies of her life, so her child might have a better chance in this dominating world. On another continent, a boy becomes a soldier thinking he is claiming his definition of land, meanwhile he is losing the tenderness that connects him to the humanity. In some pocket of the world, someone gives up hope, in another, someone fights to their death for what has become their passion.

And yet in another land, many don’t even think of the magnificence of freedom and land. In many lands, the soil is destroyed, the water is polluted and the people continue on in their merry oblivious ways. These ‘land minds’ are a constant phenomena in the modern world. It is with the deepest sadness, that I see how imperfect things are, but that they are not hopeless.

And here I am. Sitting at a desk, contemplating the complexities of land. I am beyond blessed with the liberties I have in my life. I have a small apartment, which is my land. My wood floors and glass windows are my acreage. My plants are my garden, my closet is the neighboring hills, and the bathroom is the small body of water to the north. I have found freedom and space in my little land that is my home. I dream of other lands in my little homeland. I honor the grandeur of this world and the many lands that embrace this earth.

I recognize that I will not be able to liberate every woman who is oppressed, I know that I may not see every nation living in peace, and may not see a world with out war. I will not be deterred though, this land is our land, our earth, we must work together to make it better. I have not given up, I will spend the rest of my life raising my voice demanding equality, freedom and universal human rights for all. I will use all the breathe I have to breath words of hope and joy. I will not give up, my land, my voice nor my life pursuit. We are the soil of this earth, we are a rock, we are a tree, we are a river. We are this earth.

Brothers and Sisters, we are this earth, together, we live and die into this earth. Let's make this world a better place for our children. It begins with us.