What is preventing us from soothing Mother Earth's pain?
The vicious cycle of living separately and competing greedily.
Page 53 - The Vicious Cycle of Life. When our ego is in control it is concerned only about itself. Me. My. Mine. This is the original sin - living separately. Add the illusion of our separateness to greed and you have the perfect formula for disaster. Cancer in our body lives separately and greedily, and just as a cancer can be devastating to a body, so can a corporation that acts separately and greedily be devastating to MOTHER EARTH. Here in the USA we are in a period of enormous transition. This is likely the case all over the world. Modernity, which started back during the Enlightenment, has focused on individual freedoms over community rights and responsibilities. This has happened on an individual basis, and a collective basis. We have separated us from them. We have worked hard to be energy independent, all the while consuming 20% of the world's oil. Clearly this is out of whack given that we are only 4.25% of the world's population. I had a business owner once say to me, "Greed wrecks the deal every time." He was right. There is an amplifying feedback loop at play as well. The more separate we are, the more greedy we become, which leads to more separation, which leads to more greed... and on it goes. Our focus on individual freedom is giving way, ever so slowly, to a focus on communal living. We are in this together. Our Global Environmental Emergency is the great equalizer, the great unifier, the ultimate shared experience. What I do impacts the whole system, and what happens to the whole system impacts me. The Vicious Cycle is living separately and greedily. Receive this message and reflect on it. Then change. One last thought. We humans are the only creatures that consume more than we need to survive. It is our ego that is greedy. Maturing spiritually decreases the ego's hunger for more, and more.
Page 55 - The Kin-dom of God. I was on a 24 hour retreat with my dear friend Peter, when this thought arrived - the Kingdom of God is too hierarchical and too masculine. Rather, we live in a Kin-dom of God where everything, not just humans, but where everything in all of creation is kin with everything else. The origin of the word kin goes back to the old English. Kin. We tend to think of our blood family as our kin. I'm inviting you to think of it this way - you and I are kin. We come from the same source. In fact, everything in creation is our kin. We are all from the same family. How differently would be our political climate today if we all realized our shared kinship? I can appreciate the origin of "Kingdom of God" in the Hebrew scriptures, which referred to "his kingdom". Jesus was the one who expanded that to Kingdom of God. If you Google "Kin-dom of God" you will see that others are also using the term. We are kin. Put that on and see how well it fits. Look at those around you, and say to yourself, "we are kin." Look at all of creation, and say to yourself, "we are kin."
Page 56 - Here is an interesting 5th Grade assignment from the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning. You can find some interesting statistics and homework right here. Good for you, and good for your kids. Take a look.
Page 58 - Think globally, and act locally. The origin comes from a Scottish city planner back in 1915 when he wrote his book Cities in Evolution. The phrase is commonly used around the globe.