Hope Beneath Our Feet_ Restoring Our Place in the Natural World - Martin Keogh [85]
Attentive witnessing during a political demonstration is nothing less than a transformative act. Hiking or writing or meditating with an awareness of how the personal is political is equally transformative. All connect us to the edge of life in its moment of unfolding and position us as an active participant. Actions carried out with vigilance root us in ourselves, affecting, too, those who meet us or encounter our work. These actions bring us one step closer to a more sustainable world.
Setting an intention to bring about a more peaceful world helps us recognize opportunities and take them one step at a time. The collection of small and large steps makes a difference; taking no step at all contributes to failure.
Another recent article from Malaysia reports that the hairy rhino is not extinct, though its numbers are precariously meager, with only about thirty animals found on Sabah, an island of Malaysia. In response, a group of people formed a conservation organization devoted exclusively to the survival of these rhinos.
In what ways do you dwell within the body of your self and the body of this earth? If we take no action, the hairy rhino succumbs to our misdeeds. One gesture or a series of small steps contributes significantly to its recovery and to the balance of our world.
Writer, dancer, and university professor Cheryl Pallant is the author of several poetry books—Morphs, her most recent, as well as three chapbooks—and a nonfiction book on dance. Her short stories, articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in several anthologies and in numerous print and online journals. She has lived and taught at universities in Malaysia, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the U.S. Visit her online at www.cherylpallant.com
The World Doesn’t Need to Be Saved
BYRON KATIE
I have looked down the barrel of a gun pointed at me, and never for an instant was I afraid. Fear is the story of a future. How could I know that he would pull the trigger? How can I know that an environmental catastrophe will happen or, if it does happen, that it will be a bad thing for me, for you, for the planet? Once you understand this, and begin to live in reality, not in your unquestioned thoughts about reality, life becomes fearless, loving, and filled with adventure and gratitude, whatever the nonexistent future may bring.
Fear is not possible when you’ve questioned your mind; it can be experienced only when the mind projects a story into the future. The story of an unquestioned past is what we continue to project as a future. If we weren’t attached to the story of a past, we would notice that we’re already living in the future, and that it’s always now, and now is always good.
The war with God—which is another name for reality—always sees catastrophes looming, whether these are planetary or personal. It’s a very painful way to live. But when you question your mind, thoughts flow in and out and don’t cause any stress, because you no longer believe them. And you instantly realize that their opposites could be just as true, or even truer. Reality shows you, in that peace of mind, that there are no problems, only solutions. You know, to your very depths, that whatever happens is what should be happening and you know what to do. If I lose my life or my children or the whole planet, I lose what wasn’t mine in the first place. It’s a good thing. Either that, or God is a sadist, and that’s not my experience.
In the meantime, I go about my business as if there were no life and no death (and there isn’t). My home is powered by the sun, my Segway is powered by my home, the car I drive is a Prius, I’m careful about recycling, I vote for people who say they are concerned about global warming and have a record to prove it, I give money to environmental causes. I am fearless, worry-free, and I do whatever makes sense to me for my good, which is for the good of the whole. “Get solar panels,” the mind says, and there is no possible reason not to do it, since all thoughts have been tested by inquiry. “I can’t afford to do it”? “I can’t afford not to do it