Why is Mother Earth fed up with us? She feels unloved and unsupported.
Page 45 - Have we abused Mother Earth? Have we treated her like a soulless object? Have we cut her up, sliced and diced her into bits and pieces for our own use with little or no regard for the consequences? I have my answer. What is yours?
Page 45 - The Gaia Theory. Not without its science based detractors, and yet not without its fans. "The Gaia hypothesis/ˈɡaɪ.ə/, also known as the Gaia theory or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet." I confess that I am a fan of systems theory in general, having been trained in family systems theory during and after my graduate school years. Systems have a life of their own, whether they be environmental systems, cultural systems, accounting systems, communication systems, etc. That we don't understand all the rules doesn't mean there aren't rules working the system. For years I studied "systematic theology." Everything had to fit within a system, but it was then a very static system. Robert Persig in his books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into ethics, and then Lila: an inquiry into morality, helped me with a critical distinction between systems with static quality and systems with Dynamic Quality. In sum, here is my position - all of creation, physical and metaphysical, is a integrated system that is evolving toward goodness, truth and beauty. Yes, in fits and starts. There are periods where we fall back. But the long arc of history is toward life sustaining life. We are a part of Mother Earth. She will persist, with us or without us.
Page 46 - The whole of her needs the parts of her, and the parts of her need the whole of her. It was Arthur Koestler in his 1967 book, The Ghost in the Machine, that introduced the concept of "holons". This is a critical concept in my thinking, and a critical part of Integral Theory. Everything is a whole/part. Nothing exists on its own apart from something else. For example, consider your own self. You are a part of a family, that is part of a larger family, which is part of a neighborhood, part of a community, part of a state, part of a country, part of the United Nations. Nested all the way down and in, and all the way up and out. Take a look at this wiki article on Holons.
Page 48 - Mother Earth has a compromised immune system. Here we are, in the middle of a pandemic. Those of us with a compromised immune system are particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. There isn't any good that comes from having a compromised immune system. Mother Earth has an immune system and it is both complex, and simple. For example, consider the oceans as a filtering system. Then consider how polluted our oceans have become such that they are heating up and loosing their ability to sustain necessary life. Plastics are ubiquitous in all oceans, which has led me to be a monthly supporter of 4Ocean.com, a B-Corp that is committed to pulling plastics from the ocean.
Page 49f - Loving Mother Earth begins with Awareness, which triggers Action, which begets Hope. In truth, all three are interconnected. More awareness elevates our hope, which elevates action. Each feeds the others. I've written longer on awareness and hope than on action, and plan on filling that in with the Resources and Tools noted in this website. What I'm trying to do here is encourage you to increase your awareness, to WAKE UP as you become consciously aware of the Oneness of all things physical and metaphysical. Learn about environmental issues that are impacting Mother Earth, near and far. Act boldly. For example, there are 10 recommended actions in the book The Future We Choose, and they can be found in the Resources and Tools section. Engage in regenerating Mother Earth for in doing something, we generate hope. One further comment on action. I recall a lesson learned after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida. It had been common to evacuate people and not to let them return home to clean up until after a certain amount of clearing had been done. It was discovered that people rebounded emotionally with more speed if they got right at the job of cleaning up. Action generated hope and increased resilience. I know this is true from personal experience after a water pipe broke in our own home. For the next 8 weeks I was on site daily, often late into the evening, to keep the rebuilding of our home on track. It was time to move some electric sockets, to take down the bulkhead, to put a sliding door in where there had been a window. I never became despondent, even after living in an apartment rented for us by State Farm Insurance. Only missed a couple of appointments in that whole time. My resilience increased because I got to work on rehabbing our home. Act you way out of depression. Do something to LOVE MOTHER EARTH.