Spiritual respect

I have always treasured the Native American understanding that absolutely everything has a spirit:

My father explained this to me. "All things in this world," he said, "have souls or spirits. The sky has spirit, the clouds have spirits; the sun and moon have spirits; so have animals, trees, grass, water, stars, everything."

-- Edward Goodbird

We would not be so destructive of our fragile earth if we believed this.