We Are Burning - Literally and Soul-ishly!
Here in the Pacific Northwest of the United States we are breathing smoke, ash, and debris. The west coast of the U.S. is on fire! Although that is somewhat of a natural cycle, the combination of human activity contributing to global warming and weather changes as well as care-less or purposeful choices that ignite the fires, has made the struggles of 2020 MUCH worse. The virus holds us hostage and the fires threaten the essential air that literally breathes life into each and every animal and consumes animals and plants in its march forward. What have we done!? Dear God, what have we done?
Perhaps the way of the ancient Celts, Christian traditions across history, and the guidance of many spiritual paths throughout human existence and across the globe provide the beginnings of the way of change. Confess! We must admit that we are not innocent in all of these matters. NONE of us are innocent, especially those of us who are in “developed” cultures (which is a term that deserves severe critique at this point). We have used up resources, burned Nature’s energy provisions to extreme excess and thus produced extreme amounts of residual material (carbon dioxide), and created conditions that leave Nature wounded and vulnerable so that she can’t take care of the normal cycles and rhythms of life. Fires and viruses are normal parts of natural cycles, but human activity, horrific egotistic decisions, and ravenous consumptive habits have injected Mother Nature with deadly dis-ease.
I suppose it’s possible that we are slowly erasing ourselves from the planet along with billions of other plants and animals. We are murderous in our complacency and greed. As I say “we”, I mean it wholeheartedly. All of us who have used up, hoarded, consumed, demanded comfort, oppressed people and the environment, and discarded life in the name of our own ego are culpable. We are guilty! We must confess and fall upon the ultimate offer that Mother Earth and the Creator are slow to anger and profoundly forgiving, but we must also accept that consequences are not erased. We must face the results of our behavior and choices. We are forgiven and free, but in our freedom will we love and heal or destroy and hate?
That choice is profoundly important. NOW!