Greening Our Lives by Barbara Emrys
Go Green! is the popular new slogan for a nation responsible for most of the world’s industry and consumption. This call to consciousness may sound too ironic to work, but Americans can usually get a lot accomplished when we turn a simple human mandate into a craze. So, good for us. Let’s go green and get clean!
If we really want to improve the health of the planet and the species that attends to it, however, we need to make a big effort to change another sort of environment. We need to look inward. We need to improve the climate and correct the imbalances that have already affected our present condition and will surely determine our future. We need to clean up. We need to change our minds.
Let me say it again. We need to change our minds.
Altering the way the mind thinks is a task for rare individuals. It’s quiet, lonely work and it is rarely applauded by society. In fact, its rewards may go unnoticed by everyone but the silently committed. Even so, the rewards are breathtaking. Liberating the mind is a mandate foretold before our births and documented in all heroic storytelling. It starts with the first conscious step most of us take toward the truth and ends with our last great leap into spiritual maturity.
Our planet is a body, full of organs and elements. So is a human. Earth has a nervous system, a method of perception, and ways to process those perceptions. So does a human. Earth is host to numerous life forms and is blessed with a multitude of expressions. So is any human. We are each a universe existing in and around countless other universes, all of which mirror our own basic composition. We feel comfortable calling the planet Mother because, let’s face it, she gave us her genetic material. Her secrets, and the secrets of our outward universe, are buried within a single human cell.
If there is a notable distinction between us, it is in the way we dream ourselves. Like all bodies, celestial or otherwise, each interprets its environment in different and unique ways. The way humans do it is to name a thing, define it, and then attempt to put it into a sentence. This is one way of explaining thought. Our talent for language is awesome. It makes complex communication possible, but at some point we developed a fixation for communicating exclusively with ourselves. We have inward conversations and story narratives that directly affect the body chemistry—and we refuse to notice this or admit accountability.
Neurosis is a popular term that describes the direct results of our thinking. If our thoughts are toxic—angry, guilty or disheartening—conditions turn grim on our personal planet. Body chemistry goes wacky and physical function dysfunctions. The atmosphere turns wretched and our vital force is compromised. That sounds bad enough, but when these toxins escape—when we start talking—we endanger the health of those around us. One thought, one bad idea, spreads like a virus through a network of minds that have no immunities.
What do I mean by immunity? I mean being able to perceive without having to put it all into a sentence. The strength to listen to others without being captivated. The ability to choose and discern when it comes to knowledge. We are immune when we stop believing what we think. The fact is that nothing we think is new—it’s old stuff that cannot be refreshed. Our inner narrative only knows stale stories. Every moment offers us an original perception, and thought doesn’t do justice to true perception. Life is spontaneous and authentic. So, too, should we be. It’s great to recycle our bottles and cans, but not our thoughts. We need to discard our old, familiar ideas and avoid being swayed by the ideas of others. We need to emit no toxic fumes. We need to respect and to engage, but rise above the tempest so that we can create and communicate with authenticity. We need to start seeing—really seeing—as if we were just brought into being and struck dumb with delicious wonder. We need to experience life.
We need to realize that we are life. The evidence lies in every single cell of us. We are not ideas or ideals. We are not the sum total of our knowledge. We are life, and life wants balance. Life wants motion. Life wants more and more life, which is difficult to cultivate when we are so busy being us. It’s difficult to cultivate love, life’s most precious commodity, when we are so busy being right. Let’s stop belittling love by turning into a campaign slogan. Let’s stop wasting words and squandering human energy on divisive opinions. We can stop arguing any time and save energy at once. In doing so, we may save a body other than our own.
The body of Earth will wait. It has waited for billions of years to bring forth a species that is aware of itself and able to put that awareness to constructive use. It has waited for a species that is immune to its own corruption. Integrity is your true north. Value and protect it. Honor your birthright, your destiny, and be a free mind in a true universe.
Yes, we can change the temperature of the ocean. We can clear the air and make life a blessed, joyful venture again. We can open our hearts. We can modify our minds. Yes, we can.
Go Green!
Barbara Emrys is a speaker and writer on the subject of human awareness and personal freedom. She teaches in San Diego and can be contacted online at www.barbaraemrys.com. or www.VisionEmrys.blogspot.com