Photo by Jason Schuller on Unsplash
The LA Times article shows a beautiful super-bloom and mentions folks trampling the flowers, out of ignorance, which seems to describe the general state we humans have evolved to in separating ourselves from nature. We are pretty much unaware of the individual life each organic thing has, and as a result lack respect, and yes reverence we would normally give another organic being like ourselves.
Reading the latest book by Charles Eisenstein, "Climate A New Story" I am made sensitive to the view that Eisenstein develops. The old story is that climate change needs to be met with keeping the fuels in the ground, reducing harmful gases, and becoming more involved with hundreds of projects like not using straws, and preserving water that falls from the sky. Important as these may be, they do not address the primary cause of these injuries to our planet. How we deal with that is the new story.
In Eisenstein’s previous book, "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible", that beautiful world is outlined as the new story. As the chapters unfold, the author invites us to look at our "old ways" of thinking, such as the notion of scarcity, and how that influences decision making. Or, that growth is necessary. In fact, climate warming started many centuries ago, and our views are desperately in need of change. The resolution is as simple to describe as it is complex and difficult to fulfill.
First, I need to recognize my being as an inter-being, not just an agent, but an actual part, one of many vital organs within this enormously complex cosmic system. How that is done is the hard part. I must look within, and I must be honest. I have to accept as the way - or ways - a lifetime of habits has taken me. Once seen, and the views between old versus new stories are clear, new points of view start unfolding, mercifully, since relying on old ways of thinking are going to produce the same old ways of doing. Each of us homo sapiens possesses a higher intelligence that sees and knows. We need only sweep away the dross of habit and allow it to function.
We - most of us who are not indigenous, and have not been raised to care for nature - lack the teaching and discipline to respect and honor nature as interrelated, as inter-being. The damage done to one part of nature effects all of nature, just as an injured kidney affects the whole body. Also, thankfully, the health administered to one part affects the health of the whole. That is the new story we must take. Be an agent of nature, not simply a participant following prescribed remedies. My individual acts are vital to the whole.
I am nature, in every respect as much as a sunflower is, and as the fog is that quenches the thirsty throats of Coastal Redwoods, and blankets hillsides with glorious colors of orange and gold.
LA Times article:
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?pnum=10&edid=da89cd4c-108a-470f-819c-b5a0c5ebcc86
-----Greg Marquez
The LA Times article shows a beautiful super-bloom and mentions folks trampling the flowers, out of ignorance, which seems to describe the general state we humans have evolved to in separating ourselves from nature. We are pretty much unaware of the individual life each organic thing has, and as a result lack respect, and yes reverence we would normally give another organic being like ourselves.
Reading the latest book by Charles Eisenstein, "Climate A New Story" I am made sensitive to the view that Eisenstein develops. The old story is that climate change needs to be met with keeping the fuels in the ground, reducing harmful gases, and becoming more involved with hundreds of projects like not using straws, and preserving water that falls from the sky. Important as these may be, they do not address the primary cause of these injuries to our planet. How we deal with that is the new story.
In Eisenstein’s previous book, "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible", that beautiful world is outlined as the new story. As the chapters unfold, the author invites us to look at our "old ways" of thinking, such as the notion of scarcity, and how that influences decision making. Or, that growth is necessary. In fact, climate warming started many centuries ago, and our views are desperately in need of change. The resolution is as simple to describe as it is complex and difficult to fulfill.
First, I need to recognize my being as an inter-being, not just an agent, but an actual part, one of many vital organs within this enormously complex cosmic system. How that is done is the hard part. I must look within, and I must be honest. I have to accept as the way - or ways - a lifetime of habits has taken me. Once seen, and the views between old versus new stories are clear, new points of view start unfolding, mercifully, since relying on old ways of thinking are going to produce the same old ways of doing. Each of us homo sapiens possesses a higher intelligence that sees and knows. We need only sweep away the dross of habit and allow it to function.
We - most of us who are not indigenous, and have not been raised to care for nature - lack the teaching and discipline to respect and honor nature as interrelated, as inter-being. The damage done to one part of nature effects all of nature, just as an injured kidney affects the whole body. Also, thankfully, the health administered to one part affects the health of the whole. That is the new story we must take. Be an agent of nature, not simply a participant following prescribed remedies. My individual acts are vital to the whole.
I am nature, in every respect as much as a sunflower is, and as the fog is that quenches the thirsty throats of Coastal Redwoods, and blankets hillsides with glorious colors of orange and gold.
LA Times article:
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?pnum=10&edid=da89cd4c-108a-470f-819c-b5a0c5ebcc86
-----Greg Marquez
