Being the Change
In the past weeks we have referenced Yogi Bhajan's words on the fragility of life on this planet, the rule of the rich, how ecology begins in our bodies, the unsustainable "game" of accumulating personal wealth at the expense of everyone else, and the many ways America's claim to be a world leader no longer hold up.
This is not a time to be discouraged however. Look around. Good things are happening every day. There are friends to be made. Causes to be joined. Inspiring words waiting to be spoken - perhaps by you.
Just in the last seven days, Nobel Prize winner and former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited the infamous Tar Sands in northern Alberta and strongly spoke out on behalf of the human rights of First Nations people living nearby and against the greed that underlies that massive wound inflicted on Mother Earth (link to article). In New York, Bloomberg Businessweek did a great cover featuring Thomas Piketty, the French economist who has through his extensive research shown that indeed the rich are getting very much richer at everybody else's expense and unless something is done, the rest of us are just going to get poorer and poorer (link to article). Just a few days later, the US President did what many of us had waited six years for him to do: using his executive powers to skirt around the dysfunctional Congress, he made a major commitment to reduce green house gases in his country. (link to article) In Beijing, the Chinese government was not far behind with an announcement the next day that their country would be limiting their carbon emissions. This all in one week! (link to article)
We know a lot. Now is the time to put our knowledge into action. Here are a few ideas of how to help keep us all healthy on a living planet with a friendly and relatively predictable climate.
1) Stay informed.
2) Talk about climate change.
3) Don't be shy to identify yourself to others as an "Earth hugger."
4) Vote as though the fate of the planet depended on it. It does.
5) Get the little things right.
Love to all! Peace to all! Life to all!
In the Name of the Cosmos which prevails through everyBODY, and the Holy Nam that holds the world,
Humbly yours,
Guru Fatha Singh Khalsa in Toronto
Here are links to more articles on this site: Time to Stop Fiddling, The Path of Spiritual and Political Engagement, Yogi Bhajan on America's Defective Democracy, Ecology Begins Within, The Great Game, "We're Number One! Uh-oh..."