Elemental // Earth: A Photo Essay

Earth My Body, Water My Blood

Flakes from an ancient midden pile, Utah desert

Friends—

Today, I’m celebrating Earth. (For Water, see: Elemental // Water: A Photo Essay. Life at the Triple Point)

Terry Tempest Williams wrote, We are animal. We are Earth. We are water. I feel this deeply. Much has been written, sung, spoken, painted about this powerful, innate, profoundly necessary and nourishing, mystical connection to Earth, a connection we all possess. When I asked in a recent piece: What is your Earth Church?, Becca Lawton commented, Today is Sunday, and I choose the planet, third rock from the sun. “On this rock I will build my church.”—Matthew 16:17. I could not have loved her response more, for the whole planet—Planet Earth—is sacred.

Yet, here we are in this modern world of ours, our wellbeing suffering the ills of disconnect. Anxiety, depression, PTSD. Rising blood pressure, increasing substance abuse, widening waistlines. Tattered families, severed relationships, communities at odds. (For more on this, see How to be Well in a Time of Evolutionary Mismatch.)

The levers of capitalism are a powerful force working to drive a wedge between each of us and our innate home: Earth.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Let this be a reminder: You are of the Earth; the Earth is of you. A fast path back to self is to go find her, touch her, breathe her, be with her. Be with Earth.

Magic Magic

First for the magic magic, that which can only be experienced rather than explained.

Songwriters, as a bunch, seem to have a direct line into magic, capturing the ineffable and scribing it as lyrics. In Earth My Body, Maggie Clifford repeats, as if a chant, these words:

Earth, my body, water, my blood

Air, my breath and fire, my spirit

In Here we are…Sean Hayes’ opens with Here we are, all dust, all stars, and follows it with a chorus of:

On and on, all dust, all stars

Shake your thing, man, be who you are

The idea that we are of the Earth, that we are all dust, all stars feels emotionally compelling, mystical even. But the cool thing? It’s not merely metaphorical—science tells us it’s so. More on that, but first…

OF STARS

Inky. Vast. Eternal.

Above. Starry night in a Dark Sky Reserve. Clockwise from top left: Magic of the sun, Idaho; Northern Lights, shipboard, Norway; Lone planet, Utah desert; Neighborhood drama, Idaho.

OF EARTH

Raw. Grounded. Giving.

Above. Eroded skin, Utah desert. Clockwise from top left: Golden hills, Idaho; Desert pavement, Utah; Red rock layer cake, Arizona; Backyard bounty.

OF BODY

Primal. Sensual. Knowing.

Above: Ancient markings, Utah. Clockwise from top left: Water wheel, New Mexico; Mother Earth's curves, Utah; Slot canyon calling; Sierra Nevadas, California.

Practical Magic

Now for the practical magic, the organizing principles provided by science:

We are of the stars.

CHONPS. Carbon : Hydrogen : Oxygen : Nitrogen : Phosphorus : Sulfur. These elements are the building blocks of all life on planet Earth, the building blocks of the human body. And, they were born of the stars—hydrogen as a product of the Big Bang, the others via stellar nucleosynthesis, that is, nuclear fusion reactions in stars.¹ So it’s not hyperbole to say we are of the stars.

We are of the Earth.

Carbon is stored in the lithosphere (the outermost part of the Earth’s crust) as carbonate rocks like limestone and in fossil fuels; in the hydrosphere (primarily as dissolved gas in the ocean); and in the atmosphere (as carbon dioxide).

Hydrogen is primarily bound in water (H₂O), and therefore embedded in the oceans, ice caps, rivers (together the hydrosphere), and the atmosphere. And, as a building block of organic matter, it’s found in hydrocarbons and all living bodies.

Oxygen is the predominant element in the lithosphere, comprising nearly half the Earth’s crust as silicates and oxide minerals.

Nitrogen is overwhelmingly present in the atmosphere, comprising about 78% of the air we breathe (as Nitrogen gas (N₂)).

The main reservoir of Phosphorus is in the lithosphere, where it’s found in phosphate-rich sedimentary rocks and minerals.

The majority of Sulfur is found in the geosphere, locked in the Earth’s core or found in rocks and sediments (like gypsum and pyrite) of the lithosphere.

I love the fact that we are truly all dust, all stars. But, as a wanderer, I love the magic magic—the ineffable—even more.

All dust, all stars,

xo Wendy

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1. Krijt S, Kama M, McClure M, Teske J, Bergin EA, Shorttle O, Walsh KJ, and Raymond SN. 2023. Chemical Habitability: Supply and Retention of Life’s Essential Elements During Planet Formation in Protostars and Planets VII, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Vol. 534.