Today was about the environment on my tools day.
Our responsibility to the environment.
I wanted to add something. As I've said many times in my blog, nature is somewhere I go to rejuvenate, feel peaceful, feel connected to something greater than myself, be healed, contemplate, share with others, feel the pulse of the world even....
And now LIVE right by the sea, and am fortunate to live in a country that abounds with the beauty of nature- eerything on my doorstep!! I choose to work and live and play to keep it that way.
I am working as a researcher/scientist currently, and my area of study is broadly speaking, the connection between our well-being, our communities and the environment. For me personally, and as is being revealed by research (and of course echoes the wisdom of the ages!) with communities here in New Zealand, these things are intertwined and interconnected. That is, what happens in our communities affects our lives, our environment and back the other way. I think we live in a world that believes the illusion that we are somehow able to separate ourselves from each other and the environment. I believe that is one of the reasons we have so much unhappiness and unwellness in our world- we keep acting as if what we do only affects ourselves. So untrue!
The positive spin I put on this is: what I do to look after myself affects positively my communities and my environment. And what I do that is loving and positive to care for others and the environment positively affects my life. Simple huh? So why do we need to make it seem so hard and so complicated? Perhaps the thing I love the most about tools is that it isn't about BIG things, it is about what we can do, right here and right now to work towards the life (and the world and community) we say we want.
As Mother Theresa said: 'We cannot do great things, only small things with GREAT love'
I guess my relationship to the environment is one of great love. For me, the environment IS my family, the earth IS my mother- she nourishes and protects. Look at how we treat our mother! I choose to treat her with respect, to walk carefully on her body, and to be grateful for all she provides for me- and one day, I will gratefully return to her.
I urge everyone to spend some time out in nature, even if it is only 5 minutes at the local park, to develop that personal relationship- because how can we possibly treat badly something we love?
I hope everyone is having a great day! I am off to work in my garden and plant some food for me and my family and friends to eat!
Blessings!
Pip
PS the title comes from a Dr Seuss book. It is a children's book, but for me it so cleverly contains all we need to know about what happens if we don't look after the environment, and only keep an eye on what material wealth we can accumulate... Go on! Have a read! :-)
comments
This is very insightful
Pip - You are indeed lucky to live in the environment that you do and I think that brings you so much closer to understanding it in every way.
We just need to get the city folk to re-discover some of these things and perhaps we can all move faster towards saving the planet and ourselves.
Have a beautiful day! Angie