The phrase Mitakuye Oyasin translates generally as "All are my relations". It is a declaration that we are not only all connected, but related. We are all family. And all means all, -- people, animals and all of nature. The earth is starting to make this brutally obvious to us. We have managed to do enough damage to create a new consciousness.

The fact is -- a polar bear is standing on a melting ice floe that used to be part of a vast ice field. It is dawning on many people that this is not because of the polar bear, or the Arctic. The news is -- what is done in one part of the world can and does effect the entire globe, and al those living on it.

This general principle of Mitakuye Oyasin is not unique to Lakota people, but has its echoes in all major religions -- this clear sense that we are somehow all linked. Yet something so fundamental seems so easy to not live into. It is at once obvious and separate from most western actions. It was almost too remote for us to understand it when we were told about a hole in the ozone layer. But now that we can see a polar bear on an ice floe, the truth is harder to resist. We are all connected. Now, how to convince the world that we people are all related, too, all part of the same thing, all responsible, each for the fate of the other.

The intricacy of the web of relatedness is at once simple and almost impenetrably complex. Trying to draw a line from the head of lettuce that I used today that would show along its length all the people/places/animals/agricultures that this purchase touched would be almost impossible. Yet somewhere on this grand spiderweb of global interrelatedness is my little head of lettuce. It is connected and sending out ripples of impact across the web of life.

Understanding the spirit of this connection is massive. Let's take it down a step and look at our own bodies - even in this area we stumble over the notion that the pieces of us are somehow connected to and impacting the whole. Eat butter, add to the body's fat. Add to the body's fat, risk the ailments associated with that. And that ailment affects all who love you. It affects work you may never get to do, dreams you do not get to fulfill, help you do not get to give -- all those ripples you may have sent out.

Then let's lift the notion to the human community -- the woman raped in Iraq is my sister, your sister. The man who raped her is our brother. This isn't just a national issue. It is a family tragedy.

If such a thing happened in our own blood family, we would understand it differently, take action differently. Why? Because we "get" that these people with our name "belong" to us in some way. We believe that they deserve our care. Our attention. Our correction and our compassion.

Illegal immigrants? What if they had our last name?

The starving baby in the Sudan. What if she had our last name?

Children who cannot read, do not love themselves, raise themselves on the streets, get sold into sex slavery -- what if they were the ones vanishing from our holiday gatherings without a trace?

What would we do then?

They do have our name. So does the polar bear. So does the rainforest. So does the dog in the pen at the shelter. So do the ocean and the icebergs.Mitakuye Oyasin.

I know this feels heavy, ponderous, impossible. But remember the idea in reverse. The good we do ripples out as well. Every act of kindness, of compassion, of understanding --- every extra moment when we "get it" about the world and live with mindfulness and goodness changes the world.

We may never be able to unravel the complexity of inter-relatedness of the universe. But if we just acknowledge it and send what goodness we can into the world, we help heal the wounds.

Try this exercise -- I use it to remind myself of the connectedness that I can easily forget -- the next time you watch the news, imagine everyone they are discussing is related to you. A cousin, an aunt, a parent, a child. Think what you can do to help, then do what you can. Do not imagine that the answer can ever be "there is nothing I can do."

Send a helping organization a check. Love someone more than yesterday. Pray. Do not lose hope. Use less fossil fuels. Help a stranger. Recycle more. Give. Write to Congress or the White House. Organize. Vote. Volunteer. Speak the truth.

Take the power of love seriously. Let your love for the world out, and let it roll into action. You are not alone. What you do touches what we all do, grows, expands, heals. What you do gives me courage, gives everyone you know hope as it gives to the rest of the world. Mitakuye Oyasin

Related Blogs:

Kelly

Denises speaks of the concept of Mitakuye Oyasin in the corporate world. She speaks of the teachings of her mentor, Harley Swiftdeer:

Raised in the old traditional ways that imbued him with rich metaphors, Swiftdeer, who did not hear English spoken until he went to elementary school, use to say, “Our task is to leave only moccasin prints when we walk this earth. And that’s a hard thing to do.”
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By that, Swiftdeer meant that we must do no harm. It is indeed a hard thing to do. Our smallest actions can impact the lives of others in far-reaching and profound ways. Swiftdeer’s view of the earth as sacred mother and its human inhabitants as relatives contrasts sharply with some (fortunately not all) corporate views of the earth as a receptacle of resources and most of its human inhabitants as cheap, disposable labor.
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When I contemplate the moccasin metaphor as an indicator of our actions, values and consciousness, I am aware that I occupy that borderland of being part of the problem and part of the solution. The fact that I own a pair of shoes makes me a wealthy woman compared to most of the inhabitants of third world countries. Yes, my consumption creates jobs. Somewhere in the world someone bought a loaf of bread or a bag of rice because I bought that pair of shoes. However, I don’t always know if the exchange was fair or if I contributed to the abysmal conditions in a sweatshop. I don’t know if I left something more damaging than moccasin prints in the life of that person – a person who is not an “other” but is someone to whom I am related.

Joan, in the blog Global Goodness quotes a speech from over 40 years ago by Martin Luther King which speaks of the interrelatedness of us all.

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.