Prayer for Kinship with All Life

Hear me, four quarters of the world--a relative am I!
Give me the strength to walk the soft earth,
a relative to all that is!
Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand
that I may be like you . . .
Great Spirit, Great Spirit, My Grandfather,
all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike.
With tenderness have these come up out of the ground.
Look upon these faces of children without number
and with children in their arms
that they may face the winds and walk the good road
to the day of quiet.

-- Black Elk