In 2017, the United Nations declared 16 May the International Day of Living Together in Peace and as they put it: this day is all about accepting differences and diversity and having the ability to listen to, recognize, respect and appreciate others, as well as living in a peaceful and united way.
To frith keepers, we should be living in peace not only with other human beings, but with all our relatives, because we are all part of the living web of life. We need to reclaim our relationship with the earth and reconnect with her and all things in creation which we share our existence with. To refer to other living beings, including rocks, mountains, plains, lakes, rivers, oceans and so on, as ‘all our relatives’ we own our gratitude to indigenous peoples.
We need to reclaim power and our responsibility and confront ourselves with the grief and fear we feel. Grief for what we have done and do to the earth and fear for what it is causing, for what we are losing. We face overwhelming social and ecological crises, to name only a few:
A state of emergency is declared in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia due to deadly wildfires.
The major part of Andalucia in Spain has been declared to be in a state of exceptional drought.
Month’s of life-threatening heat waves in India.
War in Ukraine and the threat of a third world war.
Drought in the Horn of Africa putting 20 million people at risk and a multiple thereof of loss of wildlife.
We need to believe another world is possible and rise up!
As frith keepers we rise up in payer to promote peace and to raise ecological awareness!
Deep interconnected web of life:
things come and go
yet they could not do so
without each other.
Rivers and rills are our relatives,
Forests and fields our kith and kin.
Holy and honeysuckle are our clan,
Snakes and squirrels our siblings.
Ancestors teach us the language of old,
so we may learn to listen to all our relatives.
Hail to all our kith and kin! Hail to Mother Earth!