We are all related.

“Mitakuye Oyás’in” is a Lakota phrase that means “we are all related.” For the Lakota people, this concept reflects a fundamental belief that all life is sacred and interconnected.

All life is sacred. All are related, connected.

The phrase translates in English as a prayer of oneness with all forms of life: other people, animals, birds, insects, plants, rocks, rivers, canyons and mountains, and also the air we breathe.

Look at the two photographs. Look carefully. Both are images of “skeletons.” One is a plant; one is an animal.

We are all related. All life is sacred and interconnected.

Which image is an animal, the “skeleton” of an animal – black coral?

Which image is a plant, the branching “skeleton” of a leafless cottonwood tree?

Plant or animal? Can you tell which is which?

How similarly we are made. (from the same DNA pieces of creation)

We are all connected. What affects one, affects us all.

Indeed, “we are all related,” plants, animals … all of us.

Now, more than ever, may we understand how our individual actions create ripples that continue and touch “all our relations.”