Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change

 I'm excited to be participating in BAD again this year, though eking in my submission SO very last minute.

Given that I'm currently immersed in a course that, while deceptively about business, has really everything to do with relationship...

... my perspective is that this seems to be a question about the state of our relationship to our environment.

Ancient Asian medicine recognized that humankind is not exempt from nature. We live and die between heaven and earth, and our internal climate exists in direct relationship to and is affected by the external climate.

Optimal health was achieved by maintaining a balance between the two, and when the balance was disrupted, food, herbs and manual stimulation were applied accordingly to heal the relationship, bringing the body back into harmony.

Specifically, the variations in geographical climate: high windy mountains, salty sea air, low desert plains.. whatever it may be.. affected the populations who lived in these places, and offered upsustenance that would best nourish the bodies of those climates. For a person who lived in a damp, cool climate to eat hot, spicy foods regularly (most available in a hot country) would be inappropriate, as this would eventually throw their internal climate out of whack, and would manifest as illness.

We're spending a lot of time these days, witnessing the effects of global climate change... talking about who and what is to blame - in some cases, whether it really exists - and how to slow it down. Like most of our attempts to effect change on the larger external factors, this feels overwhelming, and for some, possibly hopeless.

And like in any other area that we hope to make change, especially relationships, we overlook shifting our focus inward. So, to pose a question, how then do we heal our relationship with the environment? How do we heal our relationship with that which sustains us, and which we rely on for our very survival?

I see our relationship, in more recent times, as though we were a small child. We've taken what the earth has provided us, without any concern of how we came by it, and always hungry for more.

We've developed technology to ensure a steady stream of food to all, going beyond basic necessity to indulging our tastes for foods that only grow hundreds or thousands of miles away, or are out of season. Not only has this served to have a huge impact on the environment, but also estranged us from the essential relationship with our only support system... in body and mind.

Healthy relationships require maturity. And awareness. Particularly self-awareness. Willingness to take responsbility for our part in the way things are. Ability to be adaptable. The question facing us is quickly becoming less of how can keep the earth in the state that we are accustomed to, and more about what changes do we have to make in order to live optimally within the environment we are moving into?

I love how this is coming together in my world. That the solutions I need to heal my own personal life, also apply to the world at large... and that the work that I do grows directly out of an age-old philosophy of regaining balance. 

Chinese medicine is about identifying the 'patterns of disharmony' afflicting a person... shiatsu addresses the imbalance of relationship between the meridians... and then, using the larger context in which the person lives, bringing them back into harmony. It's telling that many patterns of disharmony use weather-related terms in description: Heat, Damp, Cold, Wind, and even the meridians have elemental associations.

Whether climate change is man-made or part of the earth's natural cycle, one thing is sure... adaptability is the key for us.  Repositioning ourselves to be in better harmony through what we eat, how we live, how we care for our own beings will go a long way to being able to weather (haha) the changes to come. Taking responsibility for ourselves is a huge step in furthering a mature relationship, no matter who or what it is with. Our relationship with ourselves is representative of our relationship with everything, including the earth.

Where to start?

• Can you take some time to imagine your own body as a human being you are in relationship with? Like a friend? A parent? A total stranger?
• Sinking into your heart, can you imagine what the quality of that relationship is? What is their part in it? What is yours? Do you feel love? Compassion? Indifference? Impatience?Frustration? What comes up for you?
  
• What would you like the quality to be? Can you feel it?
• What would be the next steps to take that would bring you closer to truly embodying that quality?
• And now, try this using the earth as a being you are in relationship with.

Feel free to share in the comments below what your experience is.

And to see more participants in Blog Action Day, be sure to go to blogactionday.org!

Blog Action Day: Poverty

"You lift me, and I'll lift thee, and we'll ascend together." ~ Quaker saying

Today is Blog Action Day, with the topic being poverty.

I volunteered to participate in this action without a clue as to what I would say. I have a platform, and therefore, I imagine, a responsibility, and I figured the right words would come.

For inspiration, I turned to Wikipedia for a precise defintion:

"Poverty is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens."

I have never had to face conditions such as these... and by the grace of god or whatever, I hope I, and my loved ones, never will. And yet, how often have I felt personally so strapped for time, money, resources, energy, joy, love, that I believed I had nothing to give to another person in need? Too often. And I know I'm not alone.

There is abject, debilitating, hard-core poverty that all too many humans on this planet have to suffer with. And there is a perceived poverty that many of the rest of us fall prey to, a poverty of spirit from which we operate... holding back our gifts out of greed, judgment, fear, scarcity mentality, or a belief that we have nothing of value to offer. That our small contribution couldn't possibly make a dent in in the suffering of the world. Besides, we can't help everybody.

Perhaps not.

But is that the point? We don't all live in poverty, but we all suffer in some way. And I believe that if there is some greater reason why we are are here, bottom line, it is to relieve the suffering of another.

For those with the wherewithal to read these words, you are probably aware that greater numbers of us are facing challenging times. The specter of poverty looms larger in our faces for many of us now more than ever before. Ironically, at a time when taking care of ourselves and our own security seems paramount, I would say that now is perhaps the best time to learn and practice generosity.  While we have food, shelter, money, time, breath in our bodies, we have something to share. And whatever the act or gift is, no matter how small, it will only ripple outward. That's the beauty of it.

Look at your life right now. From right where you are standing. What can you do in the next five minutes to relieve the suffering of another human being?

Some links:

http://www.one.org/
http://www.heifer.org
http://www.kiva.org
http://www.endpoverty.org
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