What's your relationship to the Earth?

This question is really interesting.  At first I thought, "Oh, that's too hard.  I can't answer that."  But those reflection questions stay with me throughout the day, bugging and bugging me.  The question rattles around in my mind.  Hmm.  How would I answer it?  OK, so these thoughts began to coalesce...

Hundredth monkey.  You know the deal... in brief, it was observed that monkeys on a pacific island developed a new behavior--washing their sweet potatoes before they ate them.  This behavior was then taught to other monkeys on the island and their children and so forth, and when enough monkeys (around 100) were regularly washing their food the, one day, a few monkeys on other islands far away, separated by the ocean, began to wash their food too, spontaneously.  The idea is that somehow there is, at some level, a collective consciousness, the effects of which can be observed in behavior.  This phenomenon is also related to drops in crime when large groups in an area do Transcendental Meditation. 

All that helps to explain my relationship to the Earth like this:  Perhaps you've heard of the Gaia hypothesis--the idea that the Earth itself has a consciousness.  Well, if you entertain that point of view, then the 100th Monkey phenomenon fits right in there.  We are all part of a whole consciousness which resides within and creates the living reality of our beautiful planet.  And we humans are an aspect of that consciousness which has emerged rather precociously into the denser aspect of material existence.  I think I'm a set of eyes, ears, nose, etc. of the Earth, which is a jewel of exquisite and delicate manifestation of the higher consciousness of the Universe.  I am a tiny aspect of Consciousness looking at Self and playing.  I am a part of a whole, but most of the time I don't realize it. 

That's why it's good to get out into nature.  The picture above is from my husband's work.  I love his cactus flower pictures!  :)