Joseph Cornell

A teacher in the Southwest told me he once asked the children in his class to draw a picture of themselves. "The American children," he said, "completely covered the paper with a drawing of their body. My Navajo Indian students, however, drew themselves quite differently. Making their bodies much smaller, they also included in their drawings the nearby mountains, canyon walls, and dry, desert washes. Because to the Navajo, the environment is just as much a part of who they are as are their own arms and legs."

The understanding that we are a part of something larger than ourselves, is, I feel, Nature's greatest gift. With it, one's sense of identity expands and, by extension, so does his or her concern for the well being of all. True caring for the environment comes, as Lao Tsu said, "when you love the world as your own self." Whenever we, as nature leaders, point out a bird or flower, aren't we ultimately hoping to encourage this type of loving respect?