Renewing ancient covenants

I miss my life as a herder and wanderer of these lands. It is, in your way of marking time, the year 9724 BC. My people do not mark time in the way you do - we measure the seasons, the cycles, generations - and we celebrate those things. Before I came to the settlement of my ancestors, my brother and I were goat herders. We moved our goats from the mountain to the valley, near the river and far away, depending on the season. I loved that life, the freedom of it, even if it was a hard life. But what seems like a lifetime ago (only 6 of your years though), being heavily pregnant, I could not continue to herd up the mountains, so I came to the settlement where my grandmother lives. My pati, what you call husband, and our two children, live with me in our small house of clay and reeds. He still hunts and fishes with others in our tribe, and my beautiful children help me to plant wheat and a few vegetables, although we still forage for much of our food. 

It is after the big frost, when the tiny yellow and white flowers are starting to bloom, filling the valley with color once again. Using digging sticks and stone tools, my pati and my pa break up the rich, fertile soil near our house. Our children love seeing their little plants grow now, and they help to scatter seeds and chase away birds. We are careful never to take too many berries when we forage, and we never disturb the bird nests, but the children find it joyful to chase the birds near the seeds and I do not scold them for this. We gather water from the river, which we call Uma. It means mother, because the river provides nourishment and life to us.

We belong to this land and we are bonded to it. When we grow from children to adults there is a ceremony where we create a special bond, a covenant, with the land and its guardians. The land speaks to us because we believe in it, in its spirits. Without these beliefs, we would be but empty shells. 

Our elders perform rituals and ask the spirits of the land to protect and heal us. Our relationship with the spirits helps us to maintain harmony and ensures the survival of everyone. There is a council of elders between our settlement and four nearby settlements that help to manage conflicts. We also trade, share some of our resources, and help other settlements in times of struggle. This way we can have a more peaceful and cooperative existence, although there are sometimes violent confrontations, our elders strive to maintain a balance. 

I have seen some settlements increasing in size, and In the years to come, our tribe will be in danger from these larger settlements - attacked because of our strategic position along the river bank, our crops or our livestock. Eventually these settlements will grow to become what you call cities, and I fear that day arriving too soon.

Over time the covenants we have with this land will be forgotten. Man will begin to abuse the land, taking without giving, poisoning the Earth, saturating the soil with the blood of perceived enemies. Any remaining tribes like ours, those who still live by the original covenants, will be ostracized at best, demonized at worst. Cities will wage wars on each other in an effort to prove that only their spirits, their “gods” are real and true, and everyone else’s are false. When our elders try to tell them the truth - that their beliefs all stem from the same root - they will be declared heretics and persecuted. New covenants will be  formed one day, between their “one God” and man, covenants that are absolute and non-negotiable. 

The poisoning of the land and taking all of the resources will cause much harm and suffering to man. Food and water will bring disease, the skies will become dark and toxic, man will lose his way and become very sick - and the land will also be sick. But these things can be healed.

People like you, who care about the land and want to heal it, will come together. You will see that the spirit of the land is also tied to stewardship of the land. There is a responsibility to the land, and to the guardians of the land, that you need to uphold. You will fight to save the skies, the oceans and rivers, and animals and trees, and look to renew our ancient covenants, to renew the relationship with the land, for the wellbeing of all. 

Many people living in your cities will become disillusioned with life, their spirits long denied the connection with nature, with the land. Artists will sing about a world in pain, and the way to move forward and honour the spirit of nature. Nature will be seen again as something sacred. 

There will be those who have lost their way, who have gone too far from spirit, and they may be violent and combative. Greed will corrupt their spirits, their hunger for power will grow too strong, and they will lose sight of what is really important in this world. You may be able to reach them with great effort, but it is just as likely that they would rather perish as they fight to hold onto the illusion of power, for it is an illusion. 

The threads that connect us to the land and its guardian spirits are still there, we only need to be open to connecting with them. It is still possible to heal your world, all is not yet lost.