It's about love.

It begins in 1997, when I was asked to come to the United Nations to volunteer with a group that was sitting relating to the "Rio Plus Five" international meeting there. All of the nations of the world had agreed to take action regarding climate change in Rio De Janeiro in 1992. Five years passed, and this meeting was called to assess what was happening in this regard.

At this meeting, I first heard about the Kogi indigenous people from the country of Columbia. Their message to the rest of the world, whom they called "little brother" when it came to climate change, was that their mountain was dying, and therefore, the earth was dying. Their story is captured in a BBC documentary called, "From the Heart of the World; the Elder Brothers' Warning."

The "Kogi" name, and the message, stayed with me. It felt important. It related to our personal connection with the earth, to our lack of understanding that the earth is conscious. It is full of "life force energy" that feeds and sustains us. We needed to understand, to treat and honor the earth as Mother.

Many years later, while living in Warrenton, VA, I met an incredible woman who goes by the professional name of Sara Ines Lara. She is also known by her married name of Sara Salaman. She is from the country of Colombia. Her heritage is over half indigenous. A UNESCO honoree, she runs 28 nature reserves in her native country, but does most of this from Warrenton. She travels between the two countries often. When we met, we knew we shared many common interests and desires especially around Mother Earth. Sara started studying with me on a spiritual basis, and has been doing so for five or six years now.

Last October, Sara asked me to come to the El Dorado Reserve on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain for a yoga and meditation retreat. Immediately, "from above," I received the words "Women Ambassadors." In other words, I was to involve the women ambassadors to the USA in some way.

I responded immediately to this out of the blue request. I had some background with the women ambassadors having been scheduled to speak to them in April 2020. COVID intervened and the event, like so many others, was cancelled. But I knew another opportunity would come.

I asked my friend Jan DuPlain to come along to Colombia. She has many strong relationship with women ambassadors, and I knew she could help gain their support. She agreed, and we started to plan the trip.

Yes. Literally. Lightning struck the very building where we planned to me. It destroyed the room of the main building. We thought it would cancel our entire plan. But Sara encouraged us to keep in there, promising the roof would be repaired. 

This gave us more time to engage the women ambassadors, which we continued to do. We also created another event to support our initiative. 

Jan, Sara, and I met with Ambassador Ivonne a-Baki from the country of Ecuador. Ivonne is strong, energized, and genuinely caring for Mother Earth. She is also a key person in the diplomatic community. She graciously agreed to host an event at the Embassy of Ecuador, and to invite the women ambassadors as well as other key people in the environmental arena. 

The event was a great success! We met on April 20th with about 75 people in attendance. Ambassador a-Baki spoke eloquently of her love for Mother Earth. I spoke of this story and our request. Jan and Sara spoke, too, each telling their part of this emerging story. A personal message from the Vatican was read by a young boy. Other speakers gave their personal messages including on related to Airlie, where Earth Day was initially conceived.

The caring for Mother Earth has opened a momentum that wants to continue, in a way that seems to be organic; opening into new areas that we hadn't anticipated.    We'll be continuing our interactions with the women ambassadors, encouraging them to speak more openly about their love for the Sacred in this regard; their personal stories and what they're doing to help.  We anticipate more events, more engagement, including others who are wanting to be involved -- including you!

With love,

Dr. Gerry Eitner

President, Communities of Peace