There is a simple but profound Lakota prayer: Mitakuye Oyasin.

These two words mean All My Relations or We are All Related.

To pray this prayer is to petition wankan tonka (great spirit) on behalf of everyone and everything on Earth.

Mitakuye Oyasin honors the sacredness of each person's individual spiritual path, acknowledges the sacredness of all life (human, animal, plant, rock and river.) and creates an energy of awareness which strengthens not only the person who prays but the entire planet.

Soon after I first learned this prayer, I saw that it represented all that needed to be said. It was a prayer of respect, honor and love for all of mankind, and for the Earth. It was a prayer that said "I wish goodness and peace for all. I would leave no one out. I pray for all." It was a prayer that crossed the barriers of religion and could be prayed by one of any faith. It was a prayer that united, instead of dividing. It was an amazing prayer.

There has been a growing awareness, among those of every major faith, of the common elements within religions. Over the next few years, we will see increasing overlaps of creed and ritual as people of every faith sense a need to embrace new ways of relating, outside the structure of their own faith to embrace the Godness in others, regardless of the differences in dogma or religious law. There will be less and less need to convert or convince and more willingness to learn from one another. A combining of traditions, and a reaching out beyond the boundaries of divided faith, will result in a focus on common truth, tolerance, acceptance, and Oneness.

In todays society too many feel alone or only connected to a small group or family, but in reality all things are connected all things are one and related, you lose your sense of being alone and separate in the world when you feel connected and related to everything and everyone, the air you breathe the water you bathe in the birds singing in the trees all are brothers sisters in fact one with you a part of you.

There is a great awakening taking place. more and more people are realizing the interconnection of all things. for some this takes on profound meaning as they feel at one with all that is, for others its more the fact they start to realize the effect they have on the earth and peoples so far away.

Critical Mass has been reached. The hundredth monkey has rinsed his food, and a new core knowledge of Oneness is being born. Aho. Mitakuye Oyasin.