It’s Christmas day, and I’m reflecting on where I was this time last year: holed-up in a bungalow for 24-hours preparing for an arduous 6-hour trek up the virtical grades of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Columbia. Tears collect like pools in my eyes as I remember the message of Mama Ramon; a message that echoed the four other Mama’s I met on that trip, about the future of the planet, and our task as Human Beings. That message is sealed on video, untranslated, and no one but myself has witnessed it. It waits with the rest of my my documentary footage, focused on ancient prophecies, and modern-day seers warning of a grim future for the planet, and us as a species. I realize I put the project down because it became too disheartening, and I too identified. I had begun to wear the content of the film like a mantle, and lost my vision. I recognize all too easily the precariousness of the planet, and the responsibility we humans must accept for treading more carefully, yet one cannot “do” anything, and in the same breath if one does not take personal responsibility for what one can, who will?

In rare video footage of these Columbian Wisdom-Keepers who call themselves “Big Brother,” they speak out in the hopes of sending a message to “Younger Brother” (the rest of humanity), if we do not take care it may already be too late. I have great doubt I am able to tell the story well, yet here in Auroville on Christmas day my vision is renewed to honor their gift, and complete the film. Auroville, and the many smaller village farms we have seen along this journey throughout India, are living examples of those who have heard the Mama’s message without ever hearing it directly as I have: the message is in their hearts where it resides for so many others the world-over, and their lives lived in harmony with the natural world are examples of that fact.

We are a unique species we humans, filled with hubris we have lost sight of a larger perspective, and our own dignity errodes. It may have to get worse before it gets better, but for now all I can do is take care in this moment, and use what ever gift I’ve been given to tell the story of those that are a living example for us!

Bruce Weaver on the eco-trail!