In the Spring 2021 Issue of YES! Magazine, Kendra Ward reflects on how our understanding of “intelligence” arises primarily from our biased human-centric worldview.

“Somehow we can only understand intelligence from a certain cognitive ladder that exists to always put humans on top,” writes Ward, who then brings examples of spiders weaving their intricately patterned webs, the way an owl sees a mouse in the dark, the way a squirrel flies from branch to branch. “It seems to me,” she adds, “that there are so many ways of expressing intelligence.” She believes—as do I—that this human-centred view of intelligence lies at the very core of our ecological catastrophe. This is because, such a view conveniently reduces the value of other beings who we then describe as unfeeling, unintelligent, insentient and therefore expendable resources for our use, consumption, and destruction.

While practical actionable changes—such as commuting, farming, shopping and eating sustainably—are clearly essential, without an accompanying change to our psyche, a truly ecological civilization will not succeed.

Ward advises that we begin by confronting entrenched beliefs in human ownership of all places and things; these keep us foreign to the outside of the living world.

“We are not the Earth’s keepers or savers, just as we are not the Earth’s landlords or masters. The Earth provides for and nurtures our very existence—we must stop perpetuating the harmful illusion that we are separate from and superior to nature’s ingenuity. Clearly recognizing this human-nature split within our mindset is the gateway to other beneficial ways of knowing.”

Kendra Ward, YES! Magazine

Ward invites us to legitimize our already existing relationships with some aspect of nature—perhaps the birds we feed, a special tree we visit, or a river we walk along—by openly proclaiming them as valuable and sacred. Forging these connections and valuing them for what they are provide us with the first step to reconciliation with Nature and a genuine participation.

“Beginning with the place where we live, we can practice rousing our fullest attention by learning its Indigenous history…we can study its slow, ever-changing geology, as well as the names of the plants and animals of the place we call home.  We can engage in simple rituals of reciprocity by finding a daily communion with the creatures, waterways, and stars that remind us [that] something vibrantly alive exists beyond our limited knowledge and understanding.”

“…Listening to our quiet biophilic longings, we find that our bodies and spirits are hardwired for wilderness and our cells, our muscles, our lungs have a memory of this: we are more sunflower, more thunder, more ocean tide than we are concrete. We have to rekindle this deep memory or where we come from. We are nature, breathing, moving, trembling in human form.”

Kendra Ward, YES! Magazine