Gratitude to Mother Earth

Prayer for the Great Family

Gratitude to Mother Earth,

sailing through night and day—

and to her soil:

rich, rare and sweet

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants,

the sun-facing,

light-changing

leaf and fine root-hairs;

standing still through wind and rain;

their dance is in the flowering spiral grain

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air,

bearing the soaring Swift and silent Owl at dawn.

Breath of our song clear spirit breeze

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings,

our brothers, teaching secrets, freedoms, and ways;

who share with us their milk;

self-complete, brave and aware

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water:

clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;

holding or releasing; streaming through all our bodies salty seas

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun:

blinding pulsing light through trunks of trees,

through mists, warming caves where bears and snakes sleep

— he who wakes us—

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Great Sky

who holds billions of stars

— and goes yet beyond that—

beyond all powers, and thoughts and yet is within us—

Grandfather Space.

The Mind is his Wife.

so be it.

after a Mohawk prayer
Gary Snyder, Turtle IslandNew Directions, New York, 1974, pp. 24-25