Page 50 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

Deena Metzger

Becoming Kin—Becoming Elephant

At the center of empathy and compassionate understanding lies the ability to see
the other as true peer, to recognize intelligence and communication in all forms,

no matter how unlike ourselves these forms might be. It is this gift of empathy
and connection, embodied in the relationship between us and other species that

enables us to thrive now and into the future.

Because we share with them the same life force, to know the animal other as
worthy, alive and even as a beloved peer is to be truly in relationship with
powerful forces of creation itself. To acknowledge and even cherish the

intelligence in other forms of life is to sustain our own future. To honor intimacy
across the seeming boundaries of species is to return the sacred to the world.

We are all the same world inside different skins, and with different intelligences.

From the introduction to Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and
Animals, edited by Linda Hogan, Deena Metzger, and Brenda Peterson

The Ambassador 2008 Photo by Cynthia Travis

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