There are five movements to the Spiritual Journey and you can find them in BOLD PRINT right below.  This is a copy of page 13 from my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH.  Like you, I'm concerned with the health of our environment, and I'm committed to growing spiritually.  Each integrates with the other throughout all five movements.  Take a look and move toward being an Enlightened Lover.

Page 11 of my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH, can be found below.  The big message is this: the more maturely we love her, the more likely will it be that she will NOT expel us from the planet.  We must, all of us - we must convince her that we are worth keeping around or else it will be curtains for our species and so many others.  And in spite of Elon Musk's efforts to get us to Mars, there will never be a Planet B that will be sufficient for all of us.  This is it, folks.  We have to make it here because there is nowhere else.

Here is page 11 from LOVING MOTHER EARTH.

Below you will find page 10 from my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality.  ​You can grab a copy on Amazon by following the link.

HOPE will suck the very life out of you if all you do is HOPE.  What is needed is a dream, and then the actions that will make that dream come true.  We choose actions that we HOPE will make our dreams come true.  HOPE is the energy that calls us forward.  HOPE alone, without action, is wasted energy.

And there  is much that we can do, much action that we can take, that will convert our HOPE into dreams that come true.  Yes, we can do much to grow spiritually while working to save our environment.  It is a dream worth actively working towards, HOPING along the way that our actions will make our dreams come true.

Here is page 10 from LOVING MOTHER EARTH.

So reads page 9 of my book LOVING MOTHER EARTH which is available through Amazon.  We all seem to have some idea about what it is to be an engaged environmentalist.  I'll be unpacking that more as I blog on Bill Gates' new book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, a book in which he does not address the heart and mind of change.  Surprise, surprise!  Gates' book is focused on what we can do, but not so much on who we are as evolving spiritual change agents.

Spirituality is both a high level of consciously engaging any domain of life, and a separate domain in itself.  It could be said, for example, that the tool and die maker with whom I spoke this morning, does his work at a spiritual level of consciousness.  He is not a reactive business owner. He is far more creative as he works to integrate his tasks with the souls of those who are his stakeholders.  That's him engaging his domain of life from a spiritual level of consciousness. 

​Then there are those who focus most especially on  the domain of life that is called "spiritual".  My wife is one of those, and so is our daughter.

Grow spiritually and you will come to LOVE MOTHER EARTH.  And as you grow as an environmentalist you will come to be a more loving human being.

​One integrates with the other.

"I must confess that I have been a lazy environmentalist for most of my adult life."  So begins my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH. Yes, I have been a part of the boomer generation that has brought us to the brink of disaster.  But if there is HOPE for me, there is HOPE for you and HOPE everyone else.

Facing reality is the first step. The truth is this: we are in a Global Environmental Emergency of our own making.  

​You will approach our Emergency from your perspective, as I am from mine.  Take a look at Page 8 in my book to learn more. 

On April 15, 2019, the Cathedral at Notre Dame burned.  Building it began in the year 1163, and rebuilding it is under way today.  The immediate response from the French government was "we will rebuild it in a year."  Prior to even assessing the amount of damage, the human cry was "rebuild it!"  

Open my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH, and you will see the page below - a quote from Greta Thunberg.  The seemingly impossible task of saving our Environment while growing Spiritually will take "cathedral thinking."  Our best is no longer good enough.  It will take more than that.  There is hope if we do more than our best.

It will take both a selfless commitment to evolving our consciousness while pressing forth with changes in our behavior.  Both.  Read the quote below and WAKE UP so the changes that are required will, in truth, become a reality.

U.S.A. Greenhouse Gas Emissions are at their lowest in 30 years. We are driving less given Covid.  I know that is true from my own experience.  And so the question is: How wise is it to drive my 12 year old truck into the ground, waiting for a new, affordable mid-size electric truck to emerge?

I have a great mechanic who has kept my 2007 Honda Ridgeline running for 220,000 miles. Each of the last two summers I've done some bodywork on the running boards and that has helped to keep it looking new.  Inside is clean and still looks new, except for the crushed leather seats where I get in and out all the time.  It is an AWD truck, which really helps during the winter, especially when it comes to getting away to our cabin up north.  I love the utility of having something that I can drive safely to Chicago to visit the grandkids, or out to Cape Cod where my family yet remains.  A mid-size truck really comes in handy, especially given that it seats five.

However, the mileage I get, which was just fine in 2007, is pretty low by today's standards. Can I really get 300,000 miles out of it? My guess is that it will take another 4 years to get there.  And on those long trips out to the East Coast, will I run into mechanical problems? Tires are new, and they are rated for 60,000 miles.  If I sold it, someone else would buy it and run it into the ground, but they wouldn't take care of it as I have, or would over its lifetime. And then, there isn't a comparable electric truck on the market yet.  My hope is that there will be by 2016 and I can afford one.

Cost/Benefit Analysis.  We all have to do it.  Repair, or Replace?

What is the best way to LOVE MOTHER EARTH?  The more spiritually evolved we are, the more we struggle with such questions, and that's okay.  Struggle on.  

We find HOPE when confronting our Environmental Emergency as we move from living separately to living in community with all of creation.  Albert Einstein wrote of this with clarity and eloquence.  Here are his words.

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. (Albert Einstein, condolence letter to Norman Salit, March 4, 1950. Reprinted in The New York Times, March 29, 1972.)

As I say in my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH, we live in a "holonic world" where everything is apart from, and a part of everything in creation.  Fact.  You are you, but you are a part of your family, community, country, world.  Same with butterflies, rocks, ideas... everything is apart from, and a part of the Universe. Note Einsteins use of a capital U.  You, too.

​Photo by Tomáš Malík from Pexels