Islands in the Sky
by Mary Harper Bellis
Psychotherapist
Our hearts can be in the right place and our thinking can be called reasonable, yet, within all of us is another factor that sometimes can bring us all to our knees.
As a Healer and student of the Medicine Wheels, Psychotherapist and wife to my husband I have endeavored to understand many of the more pressing problems we are confronted with on an everyday basis.
As we approach the new millennium, many people are becoming concerned with our environment and our disappearing plant and animal species. These vital questions are very important issues and how we solve our problems concerns us all. Yet, many of the solutions being pursued I think will not succeed.
How we approach these issues is the vital question. I asked Hyemeyohsts Storm about how he would approach some of the more serious aspects of our global environmental problems and his answer came as some what of a surprise to me.
He said: "Strangely enough, the "population problem" (as incredibly great as it is) will not be "solved" with "control" -- especially when this connotes race, sex, politics or religion. The questions of environment will try to be solved with control -- instead of changing our thinking about our Living Planet".
Hyemeyohsts Storm is a man dedicated to Life and Balance. These were the traits that sent me a signal that I needed to comprehend in what way he approached the question of HOW. Most people of the world have been culturally taught to ask WHAT instead of HOW. We are involved in a question of HOW to replace Sacred Life back into the equation of Life itself.
As an example of how the heart and the head can collide on issues -- consider a rescue facility for wolves and wolf dogs that have been held as pets. The project began as a program of supporting the wolf release projects, and taking wolf ambassadors to schools, prisons and other places so that people could learn of the reality of wolves.
Over five hundred people joined the foundation to help to support the animals in rescue and the hoped for teaching work. The members are concerned, responsible people who genuinely love the wolves and want, more than anything, to see them in the wild places that are still left in North America.
There are other groups and foundations also devoted to rescuing and caring for lions, tigers, eagles, rhinoceros, elephants. You name it and you'll find a group devoted to saving it. Not only are there rescue and rehab facilities for an amazing array of different animals, there are whole tracts of land that have been spared from development.
Due in a very large part to these caring and hard working people, many various species have been saved and cared for in their own environment.
Examples of this are the Pygmy Owl, the Red Squirrel, the Sonoran Darter Fish.
However, lurking in the background of all these efforts is the question of what are we accomplishing? Are we inventing a new kind of zoo? A zoo where animals are protected because they need protecting? Are these facilities a new kind of animal museum?
We presently have museums for trees, as the Sahuaro National Monument. Is this the future for all wild things? We now have flower museums like the Botanical Gardens around the world, is this the fate of all "wild species"?
(Special thanks to Greenpeace for this photograph)Saving a few hundred wolves is not an answer to the very large question that faces everyone. Our situation is not that we are loosing the wolves, our situation is that we are loosing everything and soon everyone.
There is no solution in saving a few individuals from each species. I no longer believe this. If there is no future for us, how can there be a future for our animal and plant museums?
In our service to keep animals alive, are we building medium security prisons for animals. I have seen how psychotic imprisoned animals can become.
I do not think that reminding ourselves of what we have lost is a very positive way to think about our environment. Aren't all these answers just another way of maintaining "control". I will repeat what Hyemeyohsts had to say: "Strangely enough, the "population problem" (as incredibly great as it is) will not be "solved" with "control" -- especially when this connotes race, sex, politics or religion. The questions of environment will try to be solved with control -- instead of changing our thinking about our Living Planet".
Are our reclamation projects dedicated to Life and Balance? I do not think so. I think they are dedicated to finding methods of "control".
We all need to find a way to approach the questions of HOW we are going to consider Life as an important factor in our lives. Yes, we have been culturally trained to ask WHAT instead of HOW, but we can learn to ask HOW. We need to involve ourselves with the question of HOW to recognize Sacred Life once again.
All of us need to re - learn how to live in Balance with our Earth. When we strive for this we will be recognizing our need to appreciate Life and our beautiful Planet -- Mother Earth.
The concept of Balance means that wolves are not more important than mice or wildflowers or the millions of human children who starve to death every year.
I walk around Wolfsong Ranch, the rescue prison for hundreds of wolves and dog-wolves, and I cannot help but see the way the delicate desert floor has been devastated by the trapped animals. We have saved the wolves and in doing so have killed many acres of wild grasses.
The wild trees are gnawed by the wolves and every blade of grass is gone. The imprisoned wolves are psychotic because they live behind bars. All the true wild things exist outside of their prison compound.
The wolves see the wild flowers beyond their chain fences and can only wish for escape.
The wolves live only because they are imprisoned. It is said that they have been made "safe" this way. Why, you ask? Well it is said that this is the "only way they can survive". In the making of the wolf prisons we have made CONTROL decisions, that say safety is more important than freedom.
Have we made these kinds of decisions in our cities? In the making of cities, have they become our prisons? Will we continue to make our cities a prison because we need CONTROL? Are these the decisions that say "safety" is more important than our freedom?
Isle Royale, an island in Lake Superior, has supported a healthy pack of wolves for decades, perhaps even centuries. On Baffin Island in Hudson Bay, the wolves' dens have been dug into solid granite. Certainly those animals are living in Balance in their world. It has been proposed that a network of "Sky Islands" be established throughout the western United States as a sanctuary for the wild animals.
We humans need protection right along with the wild wolves. Shouldn't we have our Sky Islands too? Where will our human made "Sky Islands" be? And if we should "develop" Sky Islands for we humans, shouldn't we be serious about protecting them from us? Should we build chain link fences around our human made Sky Islands?
No -- I have decided to try to live in balance with my Life Giving Planet and look toward Nature for better answers, instead of more control. I hope that you join in the effort toward a new understanding of Life and Balance. This is going to be our answer, our environmental answer for all Life.
Mary Harper-Bellis is a writer, healer and psychotherapist. For the past twenty-five years she has incorporated the ancient wisdom of the Medicine Wheels into her work. If you have utilized this vital information in your work, she would like to hear from you. Contact her by email at wolfsong@vtc.net or write to her: HCR 2 Box 3465, Willcox, Az. 85643, USA.
She wrote also Defining Space and Time in the American West
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