Remembering The Earth Lives Within Us
From Separation To Conscious Union
On This Earth Day I’d love to invite us to reflect on our relationship with the Earth.
The Earth sustains us. The Earth is within us.
I’m looking at my breakfast bowl and all I see is fruits of the Earth. I realise that the planet is constantly producing fruits, vegetables, ancient grains, live stocks for us to eat and that anything that was at some point manufactured, man-made has turned into a health deteriorating substance. For the most part, I’m referring to the food industry here and the extra processed ready made meals that on some levels have allowed more people to have access to a wider variety of food but has also disconnected most from raw ingredients, turning these latter into more exclusive resources. In a way it’s made the whole process of cooking faster, allowing us to spend more time on the hamster wheel, quick midday sandwich or ready made lasagne heated up in the microwave and eaten mindlessly whilst sitting in front of a screen… working.
This is not an accusation, just an observation.
We feel the scarcity when thinking of income, taxes, bank account balances, and then when I look around I see abundance… our water kefir grains are constantly growing, multiplying to the point that my housemate says “we can throw some extra away you know” but to me it feels like throwing away the small coins that you don’t know how to spend. It’s sacrilege, blasphemy, rejecting the very abundance gifted by Nature.
We’ve evolved in a world that has led us to believe that we are separate from Nature. But we are nature.
Maybe we’ve built houses of concrete and roofs that allow us to shelter from the somewhat aggressive elements, the winds, the rains, the cold, the heat, the tornados, the tsunamis… And in doing this we’ve forgotten that some of our most regulating tools are also in nature.
I had a dream the other night that if we all lived in trees or had trees as central features of our homes we would live longer and in better harmony with nature and its cycles.
But the fact is we’ve cut down trees to make space for homes, shopping centers, restaurants roads… and we cut down trees every season to make wood timber to burn over winter.
We’re cutting down trees… daily. And we’re working out solutions to reduce the temperature on the surface of the Earth by dimming sunlight… our free source of energy, the very source that allows trees to produce oxygen via photosynthesis.
Again this is not an accusation, it is an observation.
Once one becomes conscious of their impact on the ecosystem, it’s hard to return to a carefree way of living. By being alive, we are breathing, we are consuming, we are polluting but I also believe our inner world of bacteria is contributing to the ecosystem. And our conscious activism can support a better relationship with it.
How do we limit the damage? How do we turn this symbiotic relationship we have with the Earth into a conscious one? How do we keep living without being riddled by guilt for every plastic packaging that makes its way into the house?
There are far better content writers that will create guides on how to do this, going to a shop that sells grains, dry foods and household products for BYO refillable packaging, there are local farm to home delivery boxes and coop where you actually pick them up yourself, there are many ways of eating and living consciously. Of course it also begins with accepting less comfort, if I want to order a certain feature for the house I need to prioritise buying it in person vs. from Amazon, and what is the impact of pollution of my driving into town and buying separate things from different stores vs. ordering many things online at once? And the key challenge is when you are restricted on time, the ease and convenience of ordering online and going to a supermarket to get it all in one place is a luxury that also supports productivity, whether optimising time for work or play.
On this Earth day, I’m reflecting on my relationship with the Earth. All I feel is immense gratitude.
How grateful I am to this planet for gifting me with breathtaking sunsets almost daily, with waters that hold me safely when I float on the surface of the sea, with fruits vegetables and grains that nourish my body with nutrients and energy, with beautifully scented and coloured flowers to dot my landscapes with beauty and harmony, with animals and bugs accompanying my nature walks and observations, with the fire and light of the sun to wake me up in the morning and fuel me with power, with winds of change and seasons, teaching me the rhythms of every cycle of life and death in my inner and outer worlds…
I believe our duty in these times of major shift in humanity is to remember our intertwinement with nature. We are not separate in fact we are very much an ecosystem that reflects the one we live within. I see a risk on the horizon, where we let go of our humanity, our divinity, our inner power, where we forget our inner nature, our connection to our body and its own intelligence, where we outsource all control and lifeforce to machines and systems outside of us. It may seem dystopian and yet I feel it is already here.
When I look at the body transformation so many are undergoing, disrupting the natural cycles of aging and change their bodies are undergoing, when I look at the volume of people who are self medicated as a way of cutting our appetite for food, for life. How it creates a rupture with our central lifeforce energy, source of pleasure and creation, and those of us who are numbing our emotions because the world we live in fails to equip us with the tools required to feel, process, and let these emotions flow through us.
Again this is not an accusation, just an observation.
Is there a way to empower ourselves? My own way is limiting exposure to anything that disconnects me from my body and to prioritise everything that reminds me of that the elements of nature around us also exist within us.
AI may help you find solutions but taking a walk in nature and observing its many teachers, from the plant to the animal and insect worlds, I find far more many solutions, downloads, and inspirations for what is to come next.
Maybe the answer is how do we leverage advanced technology without forgetting the simple nature of our existence?
I’m still working with AI of course. This is written by me.
Happy Earth Day. A reminder that Earth is not separate from us.
