Sydney Grogan - Reading Reflection 2 - Entry 8

Landscapes of the Sacred, reflection from pages (38-93)


As I was skimming back through this selected portion of Landscapes of the Sacred, I stumbled upon one particular passage that stood out to me. It is as follows,

"A consciousness of openness with the world is especially prevalent in the Amerindian notion that all creatures are possessed of language –– the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, the wings of the air, & all green things that live. All of creation lifts its voice in praise. A Stoney Indian from Canada named Walking Buffalo once asked:

Did you know that trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each other, & they'll talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white people don't listen. They never learned to listen to the Indians so I don't suppose they'll listen to other voices in nature. But I have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather, sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit."

This passage stood out to me for a couple of different reasons. Firstly, I love the way that Lane opens up the quote from Walking Buffalo. He discusses how every living thing has their own language, but infers that these languages can be shared by talking about "all of creation" in a really beautiful way. It helps open up Walking Buffalo's quote quite nicely because he is literally talking about talking to trees! Secondly, I love what Walking Buffalo says in this quote. I can understand how some people may find talking to trees absolutely redickulous (hehehe see what I did there?), but on the other hand, I can also understand how others may find this to be a large part of their spirituality and/or connection with nature. 

Although I really do like his message about learning from & communicating with trees & nature, I wish he wouldn't have lumped all white people into not listening, never learning to listen, etc. Don't get me wrong, white people have definitely done some real messed up stuff over the years, but no matter what, there are always going to be good & bad people everywhere. I don't think this took too much away from his message overall, however, so I still really love this passage.

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