What Counts
Sacrifice for your Sacred
I don’t watch or listen to the news, but shards of it slice into life through social media, friends, a little radio listening, and a sense in my body. My reasons for not watching are multifold: the bias of its focus, the overwhelm that freezes and exhausts me if I do watch, the grinding down of my spirit, and the oppression of tv.
What counts to me is being able to broaden my awareness without collapse in response to the meta-crises. I listen to Nate Hagens’ intelligent and informative discussions with wise and hopeful people who are making a difference in their actions, attitudes and influence of others. (1)
I hear about the 9 planetary boundaries (2) needed to be adhered to if life for humans and other living organisms is to continue in the long-term future. Why does the news not discuss such important information and changes that are occuring? Why do our political leaders not address the actual urgent matters of life for all?
The nine planetary boundaries identified are:
climate change, such as national environmental footprints and excessive greenhouse gas emissions;
ocean acidification and marine biological systems;
stratospheric ozone depletion;
disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycle;
global water use;
land use change;
erosion of biodiversity;
the increase of aerosols and existing substances in the atmosphere such as synthetic chemicals ;
the introduction of new entities into the biosphere.
( https://greenly.earth/en-gb/blog/ecology-news/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-9-planetary-boundaries)
Sometimes I feel like I am in a macro version of the story of the emperor’s new clothes, where nobody in the public domain can admit the madness of the situation, where most people go along with the crazy acceptance of ways of living that are leading us to a precipice. Voices around are calling out the reality, do we en masse not want to hear, or can’t we recognise something that is so inconvenient to our way of living?
Those at the top of the material hierarchy are trapped by their way of living - if they admit the truth of where we are to themselves, the present lifestyle they lead will have to end….so they talk about scientific inventions that will rescue us at the eleventh hour. I understand it isn’t easy to make radical changes to the way we live. However, I believe that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole - for everyone who makes changes to sacrifice for what they hold sacred - the groundswell of goodness, kindness, reverence, community spirit spreads and like a tidal wave catches others in its force.
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.” (Native American quote)
Let’s not make this quote a prophecy, let’s heed it as a warning.
Take a moment.
How would you feel on a hot day without the welcome shade of a tree?
How would you feel as creatures of this Earth disappear?
How would you respond if the air wasn’t fit to breathe?
What are you willing to sacrifice for that which you hold sacred?
Perhaps you argue, it won’t make a difference….if everyone takes that stance we are not going to make a difference. Wouldn’t you rather have tried?
Those of us born in this age of modernity, have grown up with technology, factories, advertising, consumerism, endless novelty, and more. We are so used to being able to get right now what we think we need, this is a western privileged position to some extent (of course there are exceptions, but many are in the aforementioned position).
My argument is that we need to change how much energy we use, to be mindful of the true cost of products and comforts, to be selective and make considered choices. Bayo Akomalafe, in a course I recently attended with him, mentioned the true cost of our smart phones (children going down mines for the cobalt in the phone) (3) - are you comfortable with that? I’m not. The advertisers and producers of much of what we purchase do not show us the true cost of the product - pollution from flights, cutting down native forests, polluting land and water, animals and birds losing their homes, and so on and so on.
One way we can change is to swap, loan/borrow, share, sell, repair, reuse and up-cycle the things we already have. We have enough clothes made right now to clothe the next 6 generations. (4) Do you really need a new phone? Do you need a big car? Do you even need a car - could you car share? Holidays - is it our right to fly around the world without looking at the true cost? I’m not saying everyone has to make a decision never to fly again (I know some who have made this decision), but can you imagine a holiday abroad once or every couple of years? - imagine how special these events would seem. As consumerism reduces, the producers would have to stop producing, the machine would have to slow down its relentless churning out of unwanted items.
One of my biggest passions is nutrition - with the soil in many countries depleted by modern farming, the choice of organic farming, regenerative methods, permaculture, and small scale growing has to be supported by those of us who want to eat food that has nutrients. The nourishment from high quality food and clean water cannot be underestimated. The correlation of ingesting poor nutrition - highly processed edible substance (not sure I can call it food) and ill health and disease, is too obvious to say it’s chance. Why don’t we spend more money on subsidising quality food for all? - We would save money on hospital bills as people become healthier. Are you going to help break these ludicrous cycles that are hindering a chance of real change starting now?
What Counts? This is where I started. Almost all the things we do with our time are futile if we don’t have clean water, fresh air, good food, warmth and a reason to want to be alive. Even if you don’t think this is an issue in your lifetime - what about your children’s, grandchildren’s, great-grandchildren’s, great-great-grandchildren’s and so forth? Would you miss birdsong (5), how would it be to have a silent spring? Once something is extinct, there is no turning back.
Let’s go back to basics - to what truly counts. From there you can choose with care, thought, and awareness.
Addiction is no small hurdle to scale - addiction to social media, tv, our phones, food, alcohol, drugs, co-dependency, escapism, and so on. All these things seek to fill the abyss that is left inside our soul when life feels meaningless, when life is missing the sacred.
Have you ever had close contact with a wild animal and remembered how you felt?
Or been under a starlit sky and seen a shooting star?
There are so many moments of sublime experience that we are missing in the life of modernity.
Marc Gafni talks of SoulPrint moments, those that impress upon our soul, that are vivid, timeless and unforgettable - the moments that we remember on our deathbed. Do you have any of those when you are deeply sucked into technology?
I’m so grateful to teach Dance Connection(6) (7), as we dance the pathways we are brought into the present moment, to the gift of being alive, of expression, connection, embodiment, music, movement, play, reciprocity, joy, transcendence, and all it is to be human. For millennia humans have sang and danced.
Nature also can be a balm to the soul. The best things in life may be free: the radiating colour of a sunset, the beautification of snow, the sigh of a baby at rest, the look of love in your lover’s eye, the smell of a flower - what are your favourite free things that lift your spirit and fill your soul?
Let’s “Be The Change” that’s needed, to sacrifice something for sacred life, to support the other beings that share this Earth with us - There has never a more prescient time for considered action, or of being (in non-action).
May we be proud that we turned the engines off the relentless onslaught of machines. Let’s pick up a pencil, knitting needle, trowel, dance partner’s hand, spoon, tool, instrument…..
In hope.
(1) https://www.thegreatsimplification.com
(2) https://sustainabilityguide.eu/sustainability/planetary-boundaries/
(3) https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/child-labour-behind-smart-phone-and-electric-car-batteries/
(4) https://www.asustainablelife.co.uk/whats-so-wrong-with-fast-fashion/
(5) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silent-Spring
(6) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silent-Spring
(7) https://www.joysofdance.co.uk