Endigo’s Herbals & Organics
Land Acknowledgement & Blessing
Land Acknowledgement
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We acknowledge that the land we are on, at Endigo’s Herbals & Organics, is the ancestral territory of the Hopewell people, who have been known to live here for thousands of years. We acknowledge the history of dispossession of this land from these inhabitants today and every day. Colonialism is a current ongoing process and not limited to the confines of history. Today, Indigenous peoples continue to protect and remain in relationship with this land and will do so for all eternity. It is vital to honor these beginnings and recognize the ongoing dedication and importance of Indigenous culture within our communities and within the land that we gather, live, learn, and work on. Endigo’s Herbals & Organics Farm is committed to ongoing partnerships to engage in up lifting and supporting the work of Black, Indigenous and People of Color in our community and beyond. Our land acknowledgment is intended to be a small part of a larger commitment to bring awareness to the history of trauma and abuse to our people.
Blessing of the Land
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Land and life go hand in hand. Our daily bread comes from land as well as much else that sustains us. The land is beautiful for its mountains and plains; its beauty resounds in the canyons and draws. Its goodness thrives in the forests and fields; every plant emerges from it.
Do we take for granted how precious and fragile the land is? How grateful we should be! Only in rich soil do roots grow deep; if we deplete the soil, we risk everything. Our lives and the great variety of life on the earth depend upon the land and its vitality.
Let us thank God the Creator: He shares this land with us as a promise of His goodness, now and for eternity.
Opening Prayer Loving Creator, show us how to be good stewards of the land; give your blessing on every part of it — the soil, waterways, and landscape. Together these contain the elements of life entrusted by You to our care.
Remind us of your constant love. Bless us with favorable weather, abundant crops, and a vigorous community of life around us in all directions: East, West, North and South.
Loving Creator, we give thanks for the blessings of birth, for the gift of rain to sprout the seeds, for the dawn that brings each day, for the wisdom that guides us. Loving Creator, we give thanks for the blessings of life: the abundance of green growth and of summer life. We give thanks for the medicines that heal our bodies, and for mothers who bring forth the gift of new life. Loving Creator, we give thanks for our diverse cultures and common heritage, for these sustain us as much as food and water. We give Thanks for death itself, when life and light leave us as does the sun at the end of each day. Death is the companion of all creatures and the door through which you lead us to new life.
We give thanks for the mothers and fathers who face harsh winds and trials to provide for their families. We promise to respect all living things, and to care for your precious gift of land and life.
We ask this through Christ, Amen.
- https://catholicrurallife.org/
Native American Prayer
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Great Spirit,
Give us hearts to understand
Never to take from creation’s beauty more than we give,
Never to destroy want only for the furtherance of greed,
Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth’s beauty,
Never to take from her what we cannot use.
Give us hearts to understand
That to destroy earth’s music is to create confusion,
That to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty,
That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench,
That as we care for her, she will care for us.
Give us hearts to understand
We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.
We have abused our power.
Great Spirit,
Whose dry lands thirst,
Help us to find the way to refresh your lands.
Great Spirit,
Whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,
Help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.
Great Spirit,
Whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse,
Help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.
Great Spirit,
Whose creatures are being destroyed,
Help us to find a way to replenish them
Great Spirit,
whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption,
Help us to find the way to restore our humanity.
— Author Unknown
