Peter Adair
The Earth we belong to
Peter Adair is the author of the books Sacred Universe and Sacred Earth.
The mystery in the miracle
Earth creates the miracle of life with a particular evolutionary trajectory. In our own conception and birth, we embody this unfolding mystery.
Peter Adair ([email protected]) is the creator of the stations of "Elemental Elders" (earth, water, life, air, fire) in the Sanctuary Garden. WESTMINSTER WEST-Thich Nhat Hahn, a revered Thai Buddhist monk and teacher, wrote, "The true miracle is not walking on water or walking in the air, but simply walking...
The story of Earth
‘As Earth unfolds, each primary element arises from a preceding one, much as a maturing organism passes through life stages. Earth’s elemental stages constitute worlds that have shaped its physical and psychic dynamism.’
Thomas Berry, cultural historian and Earth “geologian,” wrote: “In the known universe, Earth is more alive, more intelligent, more beautiful, more sensitive, and more complex than any other galaxy or star or planet we have examined. Earth then can be considered the primary revelation of what the universe is...
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The wonder of it all
Let us consider Earth and the community of planets as seeds broadcast into a field - in this case, a solar field. Just as plant seeds can find themselves in locations that are too dry or too hot or too cold for sprouting, so most of the planets in the solar field landed in conditions not favorable for growth. Only Earth was in a promising situation for germination. The Earth-seed, a living planet, began to blossom. * * * The...
Becoming indigenous to Earth
Take a deep breath. Most of the oxygen filling your lungs and energizing your body is produced by microorganisms - cyanobacteria - in Earth's oceans. The same nourishing air forms a protective membrane around the planet, shielding Earth from the cold vacuum of space. Have some food. Broken down into fats and sugars, these nutrients are not used by our distinctly human cells. They are ingested by non-human units within our cells called mitochondria. Ancestors of these mitochondria, formerly free-living...
The primary movement
I am surprised frequently when Republicans decry cooperative and supportive government as a “nanny state” and Democrats do not respond with resonant language. This has not always been the case. Theodore Roosevelt was unafraid to call out captains of capitalism as “malefactors of great wealth,” and his cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, lambasted the “economic royalists” of his day. It would be fair to say the ideal of our Republican brethren today is a “predatory society.” The economic guiding principle of...
How does Earth gift us? Let us count the ways.
Just 22 miles straight up - the distance from Brattleboro, Vt. to Greenfield, Mass. - we see our sun not in a beautiful blue sky but as a churning star in the vast black of space. Earth, our cozy home, is insulated from the harshness of space by a thin blanket of atmosphere - the equivalent thickness of an apple skin around a large apple. Plants, and microorganisms in the oceans, daily replenish the oxygen supply of our nourishing and...