It is a very historically recent event that human beings feel that they are seperate from nature or the world and can somehow control it.  That they have the right to safety and peace in their lives and that anything disturbing this is an intrusion or an assault.  But this is all an illusion.  We are embodied beings created from matter, existing in matter, effecting matter, and in the end our bodies will continue the journey that all matter takes from one state to the next to the next.  In the meantime we live not in a state of war between human life and natural life, but an interrelated life of continuous interaction and conversation with everything around and everything that is not.

Today in my area it is raining.  Where I live that is not unusual, in fact we’re known for it.  However, it is raining harder and in more volume than normal.  This has caused everyone in my geographical area to become conscious of what rain and water can do/is doing/has done to each and every one of us.  The rain isn’t wrath from some vengeful spirit and it isn’t out to target specific people, but it does become part of the Universe that we are currently inhabiting.  It raises rivers and creeks which people have built homes nearby.  It causes water to flood over roadways making driving difficult and dangerous.  It softens land and allows it to move of it’s own accord and change into new shapes and configurations.  It merges with structures causing what we humans would see as damage, but what is actually a normal process of evolution.  It supports all kinds of vegetation, cleans surfaces, fills resevoirs, and continues an ongoing process that is part of the life of the Universe.

We are part of the water’s journey as well.  Every time we walk in the rain we interact with it and change it in some infinitessimal way.  It mingles with the detritus on the bottoms of our shoes, carries away stray strands of hair, washes off lint from our coat.  All of which is carried somewhere else to become something else.  When we drive through a puddle we move the water and mixe whatever is on our tires with it.  These are just a few examples of our connection with just one aspect of all that is.  Everything is interconnected and that is what creates the symphony that is the conversation between everything and everything else.  The Universe is around us, but it also IS us.  What kind of universe are you?