Earth Day 2013
I wanted to pass along some of my own thoughts on Earth Day. For me, the secret sauce of this day and of so many approaches to life is a change of consciousness. This is especially true in light of the rapidly accelerating upheaval of change that has left so many bewildered and wondering what is going down in their world.
Listening to internet radio this past weekend and reading the words of some of our most evolved voices of change it re-enforced my feeling that real change and real improvement in the human condition begins on the inside. I appreciate (and thank) those groups and individuals who take a macro view in nursing our ailing planet back to health. Clean air, clean water, sustainable living models and respect for all sentient beings deserve our top of mind attention. In these pages and on each episode of Chi For Yourself for that matter I’ve chosen to work ‘from the inside out’, as I like to call it. I think it’s important for us to change the conversation we have with ourselves. Changing our concepts can affect the inner universe and radiate outward to touch those around us and onward into the world. Think the ‘butterfly effect’, based on the theory that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world might ultimately cause a hurricane in another part of the world.
Speaking of consciousness, here’s a good Earth Day offering from rappler.com:
MANILA, Philippines – Today, April 22, is Earth Day. Leadership and personal and organizational speaker Ken O’Donnell offers some penetrating insights on the global ecological problems that we now face:
- “Our true work goes way beyond the cost-benefit discussion of environmental programs. It also goes beyond the discussion about the needs of other living beings or the debate about what sustainable development really means.”
- “Our capacity to change ecosystems is proportional to our capacity to change our own consciousness.” Read more..
And, this from the Huffington Post:
Recent droughts, hurricanes and floods have made us more and more aware of the reality of climate change, and the disastrous environmental effect of our industrialized, materialistic civilization. As our world stumbles to the brink of ecological collapse — the “tipping point” of irreversible climate change — sustainability has become a vital issue. But before we can respond we need to recognize what Earth we are trying to help, what ecosystem we are working to sustain. Read more..
And, from the Scranton, Pennsylvania Times-Tribune:
Today we dwell on energy efficiency, flood and drought, carbon emissions, local food, collapsing colonies of bees and bats and the need to do things differently.
Local educators who guide people toward living sustainably teach those Earth Day lessons every day in classrooms, worship spaces and community gardens. The idea is to make environmental consciousness a daily habit, inseparable from consciousness.
“If the environment is this vague external concept that’s somewhere else, you’re not going to try to take those baby steps,” said Rabbi Daniel Swartz, the spiritual leader of Temple Hesed, who incorporates environmental lessons into this religious teaching. Read more..
Happy Earth Day!
John K 4/22/2013
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