Global Warming got you down?
I’ve been feeling pretty depressed. You too? If you are even halfway paying attention to the changes occurring around the planet it is just downright tough not to curl up in a fetal position about it all. What’s worse is so many are responding to our “situation” with outright rejection or more simply, closing their eyes and ears to it all…a more passive form of denial. Then the rest of us waver between feeling good about recycling to numb and paralyzed because we can’t see how that is going to make a difference. It’s just overwhelming.
A Sign Post
Then I got an email, an Evite actually, to attend a symposium developed by the Pachamama Alliance called “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream”. I wasn’t sure….3 1/2 hours of kumbaya wasn’t going to make me feel better..in fact it would probably make me mad…I needed something REAL, something to kick start me again, and give me some hope.
I went, looking for “next steps” and found some- bridge building and making connections. I have some Hope.
There were a few little kumbaya moments…but they were subtle, much like the work that is currently being done by over 1 million groups around the planet to improve the state of the environment, social justice, and the human spirit. Having evolved relatively independently, these three fronts of protection for our human experience are now realized as interconnected and aggressive bridge building is taking place. The work is done largely under the radar with no central coordination or leadership. This large social movement seems an intuitive response, like antibodies springing into action against infection. It functions most successfully at the grassroots level, all over the planet, and is gaining momentum. Its sum total amounts to millions of small, individual steps and it is making a difference. You are likely already contributing to this energy.
What follows are useful insights and tools to keep you connected and inspired. Ideally, they will enable you to step up your levels of contributed energy towards positively changing our relationship with the planet. Additionally, you help create a wonderful feedback loop for yourself that self perpetuates and provides positive energy back to you through perceivable differences being made.
The New Dream- http://awakeningthedreamer.org
“The Old Dream is dying. Its demise becomes inevitable as we discover the devastation we’ve caused to our own planet home, as we count the rising cost of our inhumanity to each other and as we see how our current way of living fails to deliver lasting happiness. All of these are the inevitable conclusions of an old dream rooted in acquisition, consumption and putting personal gain above communal good.
The New Dream is emerging! It’s community, collaboration; it’s life-enhancing and earth-honoring; it’s together and for our grand-children, rather than Supersize me Now! So we’re seeing the largest social movement of all time, millions of people and organizations working for environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment, three facets of a new dream for humanity and planet Earth.”
A Beneficial Consideration…
Here is an inspiring exercise: Take a few minutes to create and ponder this scenario…In the future, you are sitting in a circle with your grandchildren or younger generations and they are asking you, “What did you do?”
Close your eyes and imagine the situation- small children crawling on you and into your lap, looking up to you for your response that is part of the story about the creation of their current world. First, how do you envision “their current world”? This is important- Choose the beautiful outcome. Now, what did you do in contribution to achieve their beautiful existence? This isn’t meant as a scorecard. This is meant to focus your mind on a goal, create a strategy of many small steps, give you courage and be infectious to encourage others. Hold that beautiful outcome in your mind despite the overwhelming odds. Know, this is how all great societal change happens. And a change will happen. Our work is to make it a beautiful one.
The Invitation to Engagement
Design practices for yourself that have you “in action”- consistent with creating a sustainable, fulfilling and just human presence on Earth as the guiding principle of our time. The name of the game is: Engage. Small steps are good. Big steps are good. Have it be a practice that delights, satisfies, and inspires you.
Daily Practices-
My Relationship with Earth/Environmental Sustainability
• Identify habits in the way I live that are unsustainable for me or the earth, that I intend to do something about.
• Eat less ______________________________? Eat more _______________________________?
• Carpool, bicycle, take public transportation or walk ____times each week in lieu of driving my own internal combustion vehicle
• Begin to investigate “one-earth” methods of transportation, heating, & refrigeration at home and at work
• Purchase only items whose packaging, ingredients, and methods of production are sustainable and support life (This will
require research!)
• Spend some aware moments outdoors, in nature every single day
• Plant a tree, a garden in your yard, on your balcony, in a public space and care for it.
• Clean up a beach, trail, field, path, roadway
• Pay attention to and track the natural cycles of the moon, sun and it’s light, stars, plants, and animals
My Relationship with Others/Community/Social Justice
• Regularly initiate conversations about a sustainable, socially just and just human presence on the planet with friends,
family, and the world at large
• Contact your local elementary school and investigate opportunities to volunteer (story reading program)
• Go online and investigate 10 “civil society” groups and/or initiatives that intrigue you and join at least one
• Investigate the current topics in our local community with regard to politics and environmental/social issues
• Write/email letters to:
• Buy only what you need (food, medicine) for a specific time period. Invite others to participate
• Notice the times when society/the culture relates to you primarily as a consumer (Do you remember when we were
identified as citizens, not consumers, by our government and the media?)
• Make a microloan to a third world entrepreneur and establish an e-mail relationship with him/her on kiva.org
• Take a workshop on unlearning racism
• Set aside a percentage of your monthly income to support organizations working for social justice
• Open yourself, educate yourself about privilege/oppression
• Stay connected
My Relationship with Self/Spiritual Fulfillment
• Designate a regular daily spiritual practice- meditation/yoga/prayer/other
• Build a fort with blankets
• Investigate and watch for examples of interconnectedness everywhere
• Consider and pay attention to dreams, daydreams and visions as possible messages or sign posts. Let the wisdom of Earth
inform and speak through you
• Manage your conversations- internal and external to be one of possibility and inspiration to yourself and others
• Be compassionate and forgiving with yourself, even when you don’t do everything you think you should
• AS A RADICAL ACT: want less, buy less, use less
• Do nothing for one minute
• Consciously read, listen to, watch and engage with things and individuals that empower, uplift, and/or have you be a more
effective agent for Changing the Dream and waking us out of our current trance/reality
• Read one page of something that inspires you each morning or evening
• Explore what is “enough” for yourself
These practices are meant to create an opening in our habitual way of going through life. They are only guidelines, beacon lights, not sledgehammers. Compassion begins at home. When you notice you have gone to sleep, let go of the self- judgement, awaken, and renew your practice. And find partner(s) to support you in your practice.
Let me know if you are interested in having Sierra Club host an “Awakening the Dreamer Changing the Dream” symposium and I will commit to making this happen.