What motivates people to take action with regard to things that matter?

This has been on my mind a lot lately.  Last night, as I was thumbing through the Beltane Papers latest edition, I came across a wonderful question. "Is compassion without  action simply indulgence?" (Amy Martin)  What do you think? Hmmmmm.......

This is a huge question and I don't think there is a right answer to it; however, I would have to say that I think that the time to take compassionate action is now.  Personally, I am opening my heart and acting like never before. I am floating on hope....Who knows where I'll (we'll) end up????

Here's a great song  (and video) about "being the change" from a small-town Alberta band.  Perhaps they'll help inspire the masses to wake up and act???

Enjoy!
Namaste.
S:)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

 

To me,  spiritual and environmental awareness are one in the same.

Because of my awareness that "we are all one", I want to live my life with as much love, compassion and reverence as I can. I love the earth and the animals as I love others of my own species!!!! There really are no "boundaries".......

I believe as Chief seattle says, we, humans,  are mere  "strands in the web" of existence; we need to realign our perspective and relaize that the golden rule applies to the earth as well as people.

I am hopeful that through personal, spiritual awareness many individuals are becoming more environmentally conscious and vice versa. This is a beautiful time of great awakening!! :)

namaste.
s:)

Chief Seattle's Thoughts

from http://www.kyphilom.com/www/seattle.html

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man --- all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children.

So, we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you the land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father's grave behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His father's grave, and his children's birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different than your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of the insect's wings. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around the pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine.

The air is precious to the red man for all things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition - the white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.

I am a savage and do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be made more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children that we have taught our children that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know; the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see. One thing we know which the white man may one day discover; our God is the same God.

You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our land; but you cannot. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white. The earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.

But in your perishing you will shine brightly fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires.

Where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone.

The end of living and the beginning of survival.

True leaders empower others to be their best selves. They "know themselves" and feel  secure enough to allow others to express their true beauty and greatness.

Leadership is not, to me, about force or ego or exerting personal opinions or agendas over anyone. Rather, I see true leadership as the ultimate expression of  compassion, humility and doing good for good's sake... 

Great leaders, like Ghandi or Martin Luther King for example,  lived their truth.  Others  recognized the authenticity of their existence; inspired, they joined them in their struggles for freedom. To my knowledge, neither of these men overly employed fear, guilt or shame as leadership tactics. They succeeded through the use of patience, understanding and great love!! Beautiful!!!

Where are these loving, altrusitic leaders today?? They are most definitely not in power on the world stage. Rather, we see a bunch of scared, ego-driven men (they are mostly men) puffing themselves up, building walls and trying to scare the lights out of those they purport to lead. This is soo sad. These poor, poor guys. Like school yard bullies, they think that they can get people to submit to their ways via force and scare tactics.

True, fear works well initially, but after awhile I think most people get pretty sick of living life this way.  Where is the joy? Where is the beauty? Where is the love? Human beings need these things like we need air to breathe and water to drink.

Soooo...... here's an idea. The time is ripe for a new brand of "enlightened", compassionate leaders to take to the world stage and create a new system of governance and a new way of doing things.

"We are the ones we have been waiting for..." Now is the time to spread our beautiful, butterfly wings and help lead the way to a saner reality....

Paradoxically, the revolution is already underway..... I don't think it is going to look like anything we have ever witnessed before.

There are countless individuals all over the planet who are living their truth and inspiring others. This is having an enormous, underground effect...

True leadership, at a global level, is going to emerge soon.... I can just feel it......

Much love.
Namaste,
S:)

PS Interestingly, this was in my in-box today. David Suzuki is a true leader, in my estimation anyway!!! Enjoy!!!
 

Leaders need a serious reality check

Ever read the newspaper and get the eerie feeling that you've entered the Twilight Zone?

I've been getting that feeling a lot recently. Here's the source of my current frustration: Scientists' warnings about the threats that global warming pose to nature, human health and the world economy have never been more acute, more specific or more worrisome.

Some of the latest stories include the following: The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that this year Arctic sea ice shrank to the smallest area ever recorded in the 30-year history of satellite monitoring. A study from the journal Geophysical Research Letters reports that Greenland is rising by some four centimeters a year due to melting ice - a four-fold increase in just four years. Another article in the same journal reports that new computer models indicate a 90 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will be required if we are to have any hope of preventing dangerous climate change.

Efforts to reduce those emissions aren't going so well, either. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that, in the first six years of this new century, carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) emissions rose more than twice as fast as they did during the 1990s. Not exactly good news. But, the authors report, the earth's natural carbon "sinks" such as forests and oceans that store carbon and buffer us against climate change don't appear to be working as efficiently as they did 50 years ago. In other words, Mother Nature's ability to soak up our greenhouse pollution is weakening - and that threatens to speed up global warming even more.

All of these stories were reported in October. Then, towards the end of the month, Julie Gerberding, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. The Committee was holding its first-ever session on the health impacts of climate change.

And what happened? The White House censored her report. According to an article in the journal Science, her 12-page report was cut in half. Scientists with the CDC said it was "gutted" and sections that talked about some of the health implications of global warming, including the effects of heat waves, increases in infectious diseases and worsening allergic diseases, were entirely removed.

This is where it starts feeling like the Twilight Zone. Like we've gone back in time. Here we have the government of the most powerful nation on Earth still living in denial - in spite of all the evidence. In spite of the empirical data, the computer models, the satellite readings. In spite of the fact that the country's former Vice President and the international scientific body investigating the problem just won a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change. In spite of all that, the White House still continues to censor its own scientists.

What's happening in the U.S. wouldn't be quite as disturbing if our own federal government was actually making headway on the issue. It isn't. Although our prime minister says he takes global warming very seriously, his government has thus far done nothing that will result in significant greenhouse gas reductions.

Here's a message for all leaders: Talk won't solve global warming. Wishful thinking, or "aspirational" targets won't stop global warming. Happy educational programs won't solve global warming. Targets and timelines for substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a carbon-pricing mechanism, protecting our natural carbon sinks and a massive ramp-up of research and development in renewable energy and efficiency, all brought together at an international scale, can. Until that happens, we're just living in the Twilight Zone.

Take the Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

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I had two.

The first was The Little Prince by Antoine St. Exupery

Ostensibly, a children's fable, the book is a beautiful allegory. It is filled with boundless beauty and wisdom. I carry it in my heart always.

The second was the Velveteen Rabbit.

It is lovely and always made me cry buckets!!!!

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

- The Velveteen Rabbit


 Love makes us all real, doesn't it???

Namaste
S:)

Well, it was almost all night.... (I think I pulled in a total of 2 hours sleep!!!).....

About 10 days ago with a croupy little monkey in a steamy bathroom.... ;(

Not exactly glamorous, but such is the life of an earthmama.....

FYI, the little monkey is back to his usual monkey business!! OOh,OOh, Ahh, Ahh.... :)

Namaste
S:)

Here are a couple videos that warm my heart, inspire me and give me goosebumps!!! :)

My kids and I have watched them over and over and over again (we don't have TV, so YouTube is a treat!! LOL :)).

Enjoy!
S:)