By Sitara Morgenster
Dearest child,
Wherever you are appearing on this earth, you are a wonder.
We don’t know where you came from. And the ultimate source of breath that gives you life until you draw your last is a mystery to all of us, even to the wisest of the wise.
As a family, a society, a culture, a religion and even — these days — as an economy, we claim ownership of you as soon as you come out of your mother’s womb. In most countries, we give you a tax-number straightaway, claiming this is for your benefit. With baby fashion-design, we set out to define and imprint your gender on you. Perhaps more sophisticated than when I was tiny – girl? Pink socks! Boy? Blue socks! – but nevertheless. We look at you with eyes filled with desire of all the things WE are hoping you will fulfil, for us or for yourself, in your lifetime.
Seldom do we look at you as a creature already complete, like a seed containing a tree, imprinted by nature (sourced by God). As Kahlil Gibran put it, you are “the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself”, only for us to nurture, feed, protect and love with open arms, open mind and open heart, while you show us, in your own time, what you have come here to express and gift to the world and others.
Dearest child, forgive us that at this point in time of the history of our species, we expect you to perform in a way already pre-ordained for you. A bit like slavery used to be. We want you to be a productive member of our society. Very, very soon, we will fill your life with things you must do or say and with ways to behave to please or appease others.
We will forget to grow you emotionally strong, because most of us ourselves have not been grown emotionally strong and will not remember how to do this, how to live and “teach” with a profound capacity to feel and intuit this existence from the place prior to thinking and knowing, and thereby interact with others (human, animal or plant) and take action for the wellness of nature and the world. In this way we will rob you of your inherent happiness.
As a result, you will develop an addictive reliance on other people, or acknowledgment and success, or objects, food, substances or activities, to become okay and happy. You will forget that you are already happy and okay and complete. That your mysterious, wonderous birth was IT, and that anything else in word or deed is simply a bonus, a free gift.
Dearest child, forgive us for interfering with you by teaching you swiftly that your behaviour and conduct must be based on outer authorities, be it parents or teachers or religions or governments or even science, as opposed to your own, unique for you, inborn, internal source of wellness and wisdom.
Like the seed containing the tree.
Nature has plans for you, even if that doesn’t fit the current systems, even if those plans are misunderstood or not economically viable.
Dearest child, there’s no doubt that most parents, extended families, teachers and even community, to the best of their abilities, understanding and experience, love you very much and have your best interest at heart. But for thousands of years, your species has been neglecting its obligation to, collectively, become intelligently active in all aspects of human development wherever on this earth.
You will therefore inherit a crisis that will not be solved by more technology or economic growth. The natural world is dying and we are on the verge of human extinction, taking with us species from nature’s cornucopian basket of life. A self-created crisis that will fundamentally confront the minds, perceptions and values of all human beings very soon, if not already.
Dearest child, may you find the strength to cling to your wise inherent knowledge, which feeds your love of life and guards you from all the forces of consumerism and culture that are trying to possess your attention; the realisation of free-feeling existence; the most honourable and most profound and most sacred of all teachings, which is already yours.
This is your nature-given birthright.
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