What is it that connects us with certain people? Is it chance? is it destiny? Certain people come into our lives unexpectedly and shake everything up. They topple our barriers and enter our minds effortlessly, without ever asking for permission. There is something that sparks when the right two people meet each other. I don’t know what it is but once ignited, this invisible, magical force starts acting between the two, mysteriously connecting them together. This force draws them together exerting its power trough distance and time. Believe that chance encounters happen for a reason.
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Es lindo creer que los encuentros inesperados tienen sentido. Que es eso que nos conecta con ciertas personas? Es casualidad? es destino? Hay ciertas personas que entran inesperadamente en nuestras vidas y revuelven todo. Derrumban nuestras barreras y se meten en nuestras cabezas con facilidad y sin pedir permiso. No se lo que es, pero hay algo que enciende cuando nos encontramos con la persona indicada. Una vez encendida esta fuerza mágica e invisible arranca a actuar entre los dos y los conecta misteriosamente. Esta fuerza los atrae y ejerce su poder a través del tiempo y la distancia.
“Now is the moment to do what you most want. Don’t wait until monday, don’t wait until tomorrow. Don’t allow your caravan of stomped on dreams to keep growing. Don’t wait any longer, don’t suppress because of fear or cowardice. Don’t postpone life with more death and don’t expect anything from luck, for there is nothing more than your tenacity and your energy. Give shape to your dream like the wind that lives and transforms itself. And for everything to turn out the way you want, recite to yourself your standard and turn your fall into spring. “- E.J Malinowski
“So it’s not about fame, and fortune
It’s about believing and believing in yourself
And understanding that this life is life
It’s liberty and the pursuit of happiness
And happiness isn’t about getting what you want all the time
It’s about loving what you have
So get ready it’s a new day” -Asher Roth
One of my favorite performances of all time is of Jeff Buckley. He sings with his heart and passion flows out in every note. Great music has the power to make us truly feel, embarking us on a roller-coaster of emotions. This song is sad and melancholic, it’s beautiful and inspiring, and his performance gives me the chills. The outpouring of his soul into the music warms the heart and soothes the spirit. Thank you Jeff
Dogma
We can’t be trapped by old and outdated ways of thinking, it is time for us to grow and evolve. LIke Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” The problem is that everybody wants change, but nobody wants to change. We all preach change but are we willing to sacrifice for it? Are we willing to change ourselves in order to implement the broader changes we want to see in the world? We will all have to make radical changes in our lives if we wish to bring about the radical changes that humanity needs. If we can adapt to a new way of living our species will not only survive, but thrive. Time will tell. We’ll have to wait and see.
Destroying Our Gift
We need to understand the seriousness of the situation we are facing and once we do we can’t simply complain about our situation, we need to be stirred to action and make the changes we need, turn dreams to reality, and cross the bridge from crisis to sustainability. Regardless of what we each experience in our lives, we are all truly blessed to be alive. Throughout the ages humanity revered and stood in awe to “gods” of all different types whose powers created miracles but we sometimes forget that we are a miracle, Life is a miracle. We can’t let the despair of our situation consume us, like Robert Jay Lifton said, “if one does not look into the abyss, one is being wishful by simply not confronting the truth… On the other hand, it is imperative that one not get stuck in the abyss.” It is easy to fall into despair given our situation but this helps no one and solves nothing and despite the seriousness of our situation not all is doom and gloom, Life is still fun and amazing. We are here on earth to live and we need to enjoy all the wonderful thing that this life has to offer: love, family, friends, happiness, parenthood, nature. But we need to be mindful of our actions and aware of the situation which humanity is facing. Like Darrick Hensen said, “I am a complex enough being that I can hold in my heart the understanding that we are really, really fucked, and at the same time that life is really, really good. I am full of rage, sorrow, joy, love, hate, despair, happiness, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and a thousand other feelings. We are really fucked. Life is still really good.” I hope that no one is depressed by my words, i don’t want to cause apathy in anyone but rather the contrary, I want to motivate you and stir you to action. I want you to LIVE. I want everyone to understand to the depths of their being that we are all blessed to be alive. When you consider the immensity of the Universe, it is truly a miracle that we are alive. We have to cherish and enjoy this gift we have been given. Go on adventures, experience life, have fun, exercise, dance, dare to chase your dreams, celebrate your life in the world and the world in your life and do all you can to make life on this planet a better, nicer, more awesome experience for us all.
Life Force of the YOU-Niverse
I can think all the thoughts and write all the words I know to try to express and describe this, but i can’t really explain to you what, or who it is, that makes our hearts beat, that makes the ocean waves continually crash on the shores, that makes the sun shine, that makes flower bloom. But what I do know is that who/ever or whatever is responsible for all this is also responsible for you and I. The force that gives life to the planet also gives life to every single one of us. This life force is what gives power to every living thing and also what powers our minds and drives our imaginations. It is a mysterious and magical force way beyond our understanding. It has countless of names and faces, some call it mother earth, some call it Pacha Mama, some call it universe, some call it god. I think its all of them, in essence we are all describing the same thing. Maybe our role isn’t to understand but to appreciate, we don’t need to know exactly what it is as long as we realize that we are part of something much, much, much bigger than ourselves. We can live without having all the answers as long as we appreciate and understand that it is out there, in everything, and also within us.
“All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it’s the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet–at least everybody who seems to be concerned about the fate of the world, the fate of this planet.”
-Wangar Maathai, In Context
Life is our planet’s most precious jewel and quite possibly the most important thing in the Cosmos. Our planet is a spark of light in the vast, pitch-blackness of the Universe. We are a candle trying to stay lit on a windy night and we can’t let the fire go out. Every single one of us is a breathing, walking, chest pumping miracle and It’s about time we start acting like we are alive, experiencing the greatest treasure in the Universe as far as my little mind can conceive. We need to show appreciation by enjoying and living lives with purpose and also most importantly by preserving life, the essence of it all.
Finale
As the system of economic,political, and military power continues to unravel the powerful will become increasingly oppressive and brutal to maintain a strong hold and avoid losing control. We have to stand up against the forces that control us, rebel against the masters, and build a new world with communities of our making. We are all powerful beyond measure and it is “We the people” who hold the real power, we just have to find it and unleash it. So find the spark of enlightenment within you, feed its fire and watch it grow. We can change the world as long as we change ourselves first. Like Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We have to fix ourselves before we try to fix the world because by fixing ourselves, we are doing our part to change the world. At the end of the day we are all accountable for the breath of the human tribe, the life of our family. We must develop a new understanding of the true purpose of our existence on the earth. We have to establish healthy, real, fulfilling relationships amongst ourselves and with the planet.
“The Great Turning begins with a cultural and spiritual awakening–a turning in cultural values form money and material excess to life and spiritual fulfillment, from a belief in our limitations to a belief in our possibilities, and from fearing our differences to rejoicing in our diversity. It requires reframing the cultural stories by which we define our human nature, purpose, and possibilities”
-David Korten, The Great Turning.
Just because we inherited a beat up world due the the mistreatment of past generations doesn’t meant we have to do the same for the generations to come. We can get our shit together and become responsible. Let’s try to project into the future and think about the kind of world we would like to leave our children, great children, great-great grandchildren and all the generations to follow. Our generation will decide in which direction we want to take humanity, Will we rise up and meet our challenges? Or will we crumble and fall under their weight? One thing is for certain, if we want to succeed we have to re-invent our world and do it quickly. We ALL need to wake up and do something or we will ALL perish. I think we have the technical know how, the intelligence, the courage, and most importantly the love needed to remake our cities, our societies, and our world. We can build long-term sustainable communities in accordance with nature and create environments were health, happiness and joy are abundant. This isn’t a Utopian fantasy, we have the capacity to turn our planet into the garden of eve for everyone, building a healthy and sustainable world where humanity can thrive, grow, and flourish deep into the future. They say home is where your heart is. Well, we need to realize earth is our one and only home, so let’s put our hearts into making it a place that sustain life for eternity.
Regardless of how we react to our current situation a new world is coming and one thing is for certain, it will be different that the world of today. Wether we make it a beautiful and joyous world or a shitty one, a heaven or hell, is up to us. The birth of a new world is almost here. If you listen closely you can hear its pulse and on a quiet day you will hear its breathing.
Like Always, keep growing, in the Light direction.
Juani Z
Final statements from the 2001 & 2002 World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil:
“We are women and men, farmers, workers, unemployed, professionals, students, blacks and indigenous peoples, coming from the South and from the North, committed to struggler for people’s rights, freedom, security, employment and education. We are fighting against the hegemony of finance, the destruction of our cultures, the monopolization of knowledge, mass media, and communications, the degradation of nature, and the destruction of the quality of life by multinational corporations and antidemocratic policies. Participative democratic experiences–like that of Porto Alegre–show us that a concrete alternative is possible. We reaffirm the supremacy of human, ecological and social rights over the demands of finance and investors.”
“In the face of continuing deterioration in the living conditions of people, we, social movements from all around the world, have come together in the tens of thousands at the second World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. We are here in spite of the attempts to break our solidarity. We come together again to continue our struggles against neoliberalism and war, to confirm the agreements of the last Forum and to reaffirm that another world is possible.
“We are a global solidarity movement, united in our determination to fight against the concentration of wealth, the proliferation of poverty and inequalities, and the destruction of our earth. We are living and constructing alternative systems, and using creative ways to promote them. We are building a large alliance from our struggles and resistance against a system based on sexism, racism and violence, which privileges the interests of capital and patriarchy over the needs and aspirations of people.
“The system produces a daily drama of women, children, and the elderly dying because of hunger, lack of health care and preventable diseases. Families are forced to leave their homes because of wars, the impact of ‘big development,’ landlessness and environmental disasters, unemployment, attacks on public services and the destruction of social solidarity. Both in the South and in the North, vibrant struggles and resistance to uphold the dignity of life are flourishing.”
“Un ser humano es parte de un todo, llamado por nosotros universo, una parte limitada en el tiempo y el espacio. Se experimenta a sí mismo, sus pensamientos y sentimientos como algo separado del resto… algo así como una ilusión óptica de su conciencia. Esta falsa ilusión es para nosotros como una prisión que nos restringe a nuestros deseos personales y al afecto que profesamos a las pocas personas que nos rodean. Nuestra tarea debe ser el liberarnos de esta cárcel ampliando nuestro círculo de compasión para abarcar a todas las criaturas vivas y a la naturaleza en conjunto en toda su belleza.”
(PART 3)
Bright Minds Agree
Global Warming acts on the planet like a cigarrete does to the human body. Each cigarette poisons the body a bit more, slowly and gradually destroying our system. Global warming is a cancer to the body of the planet whose effects are gradual and cumulative, slowly spreading like an infection until some system starts to fail.
At the end of the day you can listen and believe to whoever or whatever you want. You can believe, like some do, that this is all a big hoax or a natural cycle that the planet is going through, but this isn’t the most intelligent of decisions. I think it’s wiser to listen to science and rationality instead. Listen to the words of the wisest and brightest minds of our time, listen to the words of the world’s best scientists. They all agree; on our current path, global warming is irreversible–and getting worse. In 1994, fifteen hundred of the world’s top scientists, including a majority of living Nobel Prize winners, issued a plea regarding environmental problems: “The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluents is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. Moreover, we are fast approaching many of the earth’s limits. current economic practices that damage the environment, in both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued with the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond repair.” That was almost 20 years ago and what has changed? Sadly, almost nothing. We need to see, hear, and listen to the warning calls and signals which are all around us. Record breaking freak storms that are growing in size and strength. Increased flooding in some areas, and periods of extreme droughts and wild fires at others. Tsunamis, earthquakes, tornados, all with increased power and ferocity leading to ever increasing levels of destruction. How far do we want to take this? You want to wait to act until it is your family’s livelihood who is threatened?
Look at all those devastated by Katrina In New Orleans, by Hurricane sandy in the north, by the tsunami in Indonesia. Those left in ashes and ruin due to wild fires in the West Coast of the United States and in Australia. Those devastated by the latest tragedy that was Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. And also the millions across the globe who are suffering the effects of climate change, in myriads of ways, who never make it into the nighttime news and we never hear about them. Feel their suffering and understand that it could be you who’s hit next. If we don’t do something the chaos and devastation caused by global warming ,fueled by modern industrial civilization, will eventually come knocking at our doors. There is nothing natural about what is going on. We pride ourselves on being the consumers but if we are not careful. it will be nature who consumes us. It’s time to Wake Up.
Other’s Suffering And Empathy
We have to use the powerful tool called empathy. We have to put ourselves in the shoes of those who suffer today from climate change and in the shoes of the future generations who are sure to suffer as well. Watch and try to feel the suffering of the millions of Philippino families whose lives have been devastated by the Haiyan Typhoon. But don’t just follow this tragedy on the news and think ‘what a bummer’ and feel sad for the 2 minutes of footage you might watch on TV. I know it might be hard, especially if your watching the chaos and destruction through a T.V screen inside the comfort of your home hundreds of miles away, but try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to realize that it could be you and your family one the other side of the television screen experiencing the suffering. After feeling their pain you might be stirred to do something about it and help in any way you can to fix our world in crisis. In the Mayan language when greeting one another Mayans would say “In laakech,” which means “I am you,” and were answered with the words “A laaken,” which means “You are me.” Realizing that the so called “other” is also “me” and utilizing our power to empathize is crucial for the health and survival of our species.
“Many of our deepest thinkers and many of those most familiar with the scale of the challenges we face have concluded that the transitions required can be achieved only in the context of what I will call the rise of a new consciousness. For some, it is a spiritual awakening–a transformation of the human heart. For others it is a more intellectual process of coming to see the world anew and deeply embracing the emerging ethic of the environment and the old ethic of what it means to love thy neighbor as thyself. But for all it involves major cultural change and a reorientation of what society values and prizes most highly.”
-James Gustave Speth
RE-Discovering our Place in Nature
We have slowly lost our connection to nature, the real thing that lies beyond our human made environments. Due to the technological diversions caused by television, video games, i-pads and i-phones children no longer play outdoors and the current generation of children is one of the most disconnected from nature ever in our history. We need to reverse this trend because it is much easier to disregard, disrespect, and abuse that which we feel separated and isolated from. As technology infiltrates deeper into our lives, building a connection with nature becomes essential, this connection is crucial to the health of our planet and the health of our bodies. Techno gadgets will have an increasingly prevalent role in our lives. Technology is here to stay, there is no denying or avoiding this, and it’s more of a reason why building a relationship with nature is so important. This relationship will give us a chance to step away from the onslaught of our computers, tv’s, and smart phones, and give our over stimulated minds a much needed break, a separation, a chance to relax, take a breath of fresh air if you will. We are slowly starting to realize that connecting with nature is a necessity. So go into the mountain, go on hikes, grow a garden, fish, or find any other way you can think off that will grant you a connection with the wilderness and a allow its simple beauty to captivate your senses. It will make you a happier and fuller person and it will improve the quality of your life. There is a bit of nature inside everyone of us and there is a bit of everyone one of us in nature. Returning to Nature feels a lot like returning home.
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
-Albert Einstein
Indigenous World-Views
Indigenous tribes, as backwards and “uncivilized” as you want to see them, understand nature far more deeply than we do and they share a special relationship with it. Long ago, they established a symbiotic relationship with the planet understanding that as long as they took care of the land they lived on, the land would take care of them, providing the sustenance they needed to survive. Indigenous tribes from across the globe have been telling us for centuries that the planet is certainly alive and that we need to respect and protect it because after all we are also a part of it. But save your ignorant savage comments for another time, they were truly on to something. Aside from all the spiritual aspects of it, there is enough verifiable scientific evidence to conclude that we hold an intrinsic and intimate relationship with the planet that cannot be ignored.
Traditional societies possess a vast sea of knowledge that would help modern civilization provide direction and management to natural resources. A report in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development entitled Our Common Future called for recognition of and greater respect for the wisdom inherent in traditional societies:
Their very survival has depended upon their ecological awareness and adaptation…. These communities are the repositories of vast accumulations of traditional knowledge and experience than links humanity with its ancient origins. Their disappearance is a loss for the larger society, which could learn a great deal from their traditional skills in sustainably managing very complex ecological systems. It is a terrible irony that as formal development reaches more deeply into the rainforests, deserts, and other isolated environments, it tends to destroy the only cultures that have proved able to thrive in these environments.
Today, modern science is uncovering the intricate and infinite ways in which we are connected with the planet and all other life forms on earth, yet; we remain largely ignorant about the giant matrix of life which surrounds us and which we are a part off. I’m sure that it was easy at first to dismiss and even ridicule the countless Indigenous tribes who prayed to mother nature, claiming the planet was alive and that it had a spirit, and essence, which flowed through the body of the earth. They claimed that this spirit also flowed through the human body and every other living entity, connecting us all. We need to learn from these wise humans who have co-existed with nature for thousands of years, way longer than our modern day civilization. Indigenous people understood how to live within the boundaries of nature and they knew how to survive and sustain their people through long periods of time and this is exactly what we must learn to do. Let’s listen and learn from the wisdom of the indigenous people, combine it with our modern technical minds, mix it with creativity, imagination, and the dynamic human spirit and what we could achieve is unthinkable. Insisting that we protect the earth, our planet, our home, can no longer be dismissed as Indigenous backwardness or as Hippy mumbo jumbo. Our connection and dependance on the planet exists and the threats from environmental destruction are very real. We are the cause of all our problems but we are also the solutions.
Maintaining a planet in good health is essential for the health of the human body. If we hope to live a life of health and well-being we need healthy, clean, fresh waters and foods. We need to breathe clean, pristine air into our lungs and we need a healthy dose of sunshine and exercise. The human body is a self-sustaining organism and it is designed to keep us healthy, but we need to set up a healthy environment not only within, but also outside, to allow our bodies to work correctly. A human being’s natural condition is to be in a state of good health and we should reap all the benefits of such a state by providing our bodies with the simple but essentials things that it needs. We know how to live healthy lives but we need to reach deep into our beings and allow this ancient knowledge to resurface.
“More and more people sense at some level that there’s a great misdirection of life’s energy. We have channeled our desires, our insecurities, our need to demonstrate our worth and our success, our wanting to fit in and to stand out increasingly into material things–into bigger homes, fancier cars, grander appliances, exotic vacations. But in the background we cannot help but know that ‘the best things in life are free’ and that ‘money can’t buy love.’ We know we’re slighting the precious things that no market can provide–that truly make life worthwhile. We sense that we are hollowing out whole areas of life, of individual and social autonomy, and of nature and that, if we don’t wake up, we will soon lose the chance to return, to reclaim ourselves, our neglected society, our battered world, because if we are not more careful soon, there will be nothing left to reclaim, nothing left to return to.”
-James Gustave Speth
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