Last year I met up with Dreaming Bear, and we went for a journey out to the Applegate River area in Southern Oregon for an afternoon spent by the river. There he told me about the word 'Aina'. He explained to me that 'Aina' is the Hawaiian word for the Land, and for the spirit of the Land and Nature. It was so lovely to finally have a word for something that I've always felt, but never had a name for in our American linguistics. I love the word Aina, as it gives a name for the energy of the land, and by giving it a name - it is as though consciousness is breathed into it. I spent that afternoon by the river, meditating upon boulders, bathing in the cold, clear waters and contemplating the nature of Aina; the great web of life interconnecting reality in what we know as ecosystems, small and large.