“If the Earth were a few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it. People would walk around it marveling as its big pools of water, its little pools and the water flowing between. People would marvel at the bumps on it and the holes in it. They would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around on the surface of the ball, and at the creatures in the water. The people would declare it as sacred because it was the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt…”  Joe Miller

AN OUTRAGEOUSLY SIMPLISTIC SUMMARY
OF WHERE WE ARE NOW

We are living in interesting times. Much is uncertain as our world changes with increasing rapidity. Wars rage around the globe, either fought by soldiers from the United States or fueled in part by weapons exported from the United States. Meanwhile we talk about terrorism and aggression as if both were foreign to our own natures.

We of the industrialized world, in particular the United States, have pushed planetary ecosystems beyond sustainable limits. Because of this, three grave issues are converging; climate change, peak oil and global resource depletion.

According to the International Forum on Globalization (www.ifg.org), all three demand the same actions of us. These include eliminating carbon based energy systems and replacing them with renewables; consuming fewer resources, materials and products; and replacing our relentless thrust toward globalization with local actions. We need to “power down” all our economic activity, as corporations, as smaller businesses, as groups and as individuals. If we do not, the consequences will be dire.

There is another issue, the rapidly expanding human population. Because of political, ethnic and religious sensitivities, this problem is mentioned less often, but it drives the other issues. Although beyond the scope of this article to address, the population explosion must be considered because, very simply, at the rate we humans are increasing the planet cannot support us all.

According to both ancient wisdom and to more recent “systems theory”, all these issues are interconnected. They are increasing in seriousness, not in a linear way, but geometrically. If we do nothing, or do too little too late, there will come a point when the planetary system, made up as it is of many inter-locking smaller systems, will reach its tipping point. That is, it will go beyond a point at which it can be repaired. If that happens, it then will be too late for us to rally round and make last minute corrections. To understand this, think of a fire in a building as it approaches flash point. The fire spreads slowly from room to room, the temperature rises. When the flash point temperature is reached, the entire building is hot enough to burn and suddenly, within seconds, it ignites and everything is in flames. 

THIS IS UNSETTLING.

What offers some hope is the growing number of NGOs, groups, individuals, organized indigenous peoples, businesses and even small countries working cooperatively for positive change. In many of these groups, whether we are communicating with each other or not, certain similar themes seem to be emerging, as if our global situation is engendering certain responses from us. We hear coming back to us many of the same ideas, even variations of some of the same solutions, we’ve considered in our own discussion circles even though we have never talked directly to these other people about what our thinking is. We hear descriptions of hopes, dreams and ideas coming from people all around the planet and their hopes are so close to being the same as our own we feel in loving, supportive relationship with them.

In a metaphysical sense, we believe this supports the idea of “mind” or “intelligence” as an evolving non-local field existing beyond the physical confines of the brain. It appears that this field is both aware of and in relationship with our more physical surroundings.

WHAT’S NEXT?

So our planetary situation is serious. What can we do?

Gandhi advised us to “be the change we wish to see in the world” and encouraged us that it is possible for individuals to live the way of life of the future, saying that “No one need wait for anyone else to adopt a humane and enlightened course of action.”

We believe there are certain over-arching patterns governing our global situation and its resolution, and within those patterns, countless “mini-solutions.”

We can acknowledge the impact of the industrial nations (and more importantly, of our own behavior) on our climate, our natural resources and on less industrialized people. We can change the way we live, eliminate our use of pollutants and non-renewable resources, rethink our position as not separate from, but imbedded within, the planetary ecology. As we do this, we believe that the ways we each actually go about changing will display astonishing variation. And that is where the heart stories emerge.

We will probably not rush out to do what we “should” or what we are told is “right.” Instead, as we each come into fuller understanding of our very serious global situation, we will move toward protecting what we love and care about.

In the course of our own explorations, we have found that when asked to describe their ideas of what a “perfect community” might be like, people talk about intangibles. They mention love, respect, caring, laughter, generosity of spirit, sharing what works with each other, interactive and inter-generational learning, hope and acceptance. We can honestly say we have never heard anyone mention the fancy material things advertising would have us believe we need. This is in interesting correlation with studies which indicate that after people rise above a certain level of extreme poverty, contrary to our expectations, increasing our material well-being does not increase either happiness or satisfaction with life.

WHAT IF…

What would happen if we turned away from the incessant advertising that tells us all the countless material things we need to be “good enough," “sexy enough” or “successful enough” and looked past those contrived outward symbols into our own hearts?

What would we find there? And finding it, what if we honored and encouraged it and cared for it?

Doing this, could we collectively create a different world? If we celebrate and nurture and are respectful of what we each love, might our hearts then open a bit more to begin to include the things other people we care about love and cherish? Could we extend that caring to a whole planet? And if we did, how might our lives be different? How might the world be different?

Copyright Pat Foley, 2008

Pat Foley attempts to live a green/sustainable life just outside of Cornish, Maine. She is the owner of Earthrest, a retreat center offering space for groups and individuals. The underlying focus of Earthrest is following Gandhi’s advice to be the change we wish to see in the world. You may cantact Pat at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or (207) 625-4179.