April 2016 – An Earth Day Gift
Are you are like me? Overwhelmed by the bad news about our planet? Worried sick about damage created, species disappearing, climate changing? Let me tell you a short story – an Earth Day gift of sorts.
When it rained, my Dad would say playfully “Walk between the drops!” I giggled. It was decades ago but the echo of those words still make me smile. I’ll get back to this in a minute.
Recently one of the authors, Roy Scranton, blew my mind. Not his research or prose. Just that – his words ring true. He says: "Civilizations have throughout history marched blindly toward disaster, because humans are wired to believe that tomorrow will be much like today.”
I set with this for a while, knowing he is right. There is cause and effect. There is a price for being a freeloader on Earth, believing that nature belongs to us. So, without predictable weather, bees, fish, there will be no food, no peace, there might be no “us”. I wish it was different.
Yet, I think that’s not the whole story.
The emphasis might not be on “saving the Earth”. The Earth has been around some billions of years, through ice ages and floods, it probably will be fine – especially without us.
The crisis might not belong to Earth, not even to a climate. It belongs to us. It’s our own battle, our own survival. The priority is for us to evolve, our time to change what we support.
Change is happening. There is a globe of people intertwined like never before in human history. A thinking, sharing, caring net. There is a new generation driven by compassion, interest in common good, caring for better future. Wanting to know who made the products and how.
Crowd funding rose exponentially to $34 billion last year. Think of it - strangers empowering strangers they will never meet. Despite violent media, there is less war than ever and rates of violence are down. Energy solutions are being developed all around the globe, we just need to fund it. We need to change what we support.
If we turn off TV and toss the newspaper, we can see more. Along atrocities and despair, the seeds of new life are sprouting. Despite of forced xenophobia (fear of what is perceived as foreign or strange - “other” religions, “other” thinking), there IS more tolerance for being different than ever. Don’t believe media. There is more quest for understanding and justice than ever. There is more respect for life, including for the first time on this planet, animal life. The small seedlings of thought are easy to dismiss as too insignificant in numbers. I think we need to look harder.
When I did my architect “life”, I calculated walls, roofs and windows. But what I truly designed, is the space between the walls. A space where the light would go in, where life and quarrels and love could occur. Where the true essence lives. The space between the drops.
Look at this bug - you will see the invisible. Dragonfly spends few years underwater as an ugly nymph larvae. When the time comes, it probably feels like the end of the world has come. It crawls out on a reed to die.
Instead, it starts breathing air, grows iridescent wings, travels hundreds of miles. He flies in six different directions. He sees 360 degrees -- he sees the world it never knew existed. His DNA is the same but nothing is the same. A true change happened.
The system starts and ends with us. To see ourselves, not “them” -- that's a true magic.
Monsanto will fall if no single farmer will buy their products, corrupted corporations will fold if nobody works for them. Let's change what we support, what we give life to. Good people, good companies, let's stand behind them. Let’s give them life.
When you pluck the strings of your guitar, sing a tune, read a poem – the heart jumps to a place that has never existed before. By talent, by luck or blessing bestowed upon you, an invisible wave that knows no distance creates more life.
Keep playing the music of life and life will happen. Point out the nature’s miracles and miracles will exist.
Keep making music. Keep walking between the drops.
P.
April 24, 2016
Beautiful message. Thank you!