Читать книгу Time is Cows: Timeless Wisdom of the Maasai - Tanya Pergola Ph.D. - Страница 3

I have a heart for indigenous people. When I meet someone who has a deep connection to her ancestral past and a direct line into the earth, something sparks between us. We connect on an elemental level. The voice of Mother Nature speaks through us, even while we are dressed in human costumes.

On a bright Sunday more than a decade ago, I found myself in a primordial forest at the bottom of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, accompanied by elephants, eagles, and Maasai warriors who have been at home in that remarkable region for many millennia. As I looked at the high canopy of trees surrounding me, their leaves began to shimmer, to sparkle, and an overwhelming sensation came over me. Everything was profoundly alive. And I sensed that I had come to a place on planet earth that could teach me wondrous things.

As a social anthropologist, I was aware, of course, that I was only steps away from Oldapai Gorge—ancient terrain where our human ancestors took their very first steps. Yet something else about that place drew me in as well, pulling at my intellect as well as my soul. My brain twitched. My heart danced. I was filled with delicious anticipation, and I sensed that whatever I was about to learn would be so unique, so important, that I would be compelled to share it with members of my own tribe.

On the crater floor, Ngorongoro, Tanzania

On that singular Sunday, I simply and very powerfully knew that what I would learn there would be a kind of antidote to the stresses, challenges, and many enigmas of our complex contemporary lives. I was about to take an extraordinary journey back to my roots—to the roots of us all. In equatorial Africa, I would re-learn what it means to be human, and would discover a wonderful medicine for healing ourselves and our communities using the eternal forces of nature.

What a journey! And what remarkable lessons I learned beginning that day! I’m eager to share them with you.