[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “Awakening to Gaia” by Bart Everson

To awaken to Gaia is to recognize our interconnectedness, our radical interdependence, our participation in the web of life. To awaken to Gaia is to recognize other animals and plants as our distant cousins, to recognize that our kinship extends even to rocks, to the sea, to the atmosphere. To awaken to Gaia is to recognize these realities, to become more fully alive, alert, aware, involved, and mindful. To awaken to Gaia is to wake up from the zombiefied slumber of American-style consumerism, to come alive to what it means to be a social primate in the 21st century. Awakening to Gaia means awakening to oneself, to one’s own potential, to one’s own responsibilities.