Earth Day + free meditation
In 1970, the US created Earth Day. One day, each year, to remember and celebrate our home and all the myriad life forms that inhabit her. For many this day marks not a celebration but a deepening sadness and feeling of hopelessness that is difficult to shake. For truly, the heavy load of the sheer numbers of humans is taxing us towards a dark vision of a planet that supports virtually no life, at least as we know it.
In my early years as a Yogi, I embraced the turning to acceptance of peace and acceptance which was such a panacea to both my fears and anger. But part of me railed against it, wondering where my wanting to fight for what I believed in fit into this point of view. What, I wondered, do I do with my passions? How do I embrace acceptance and stand up for what I believe in?
Here’s where I have landed: I allow absolute acceptance (as best I can!) in order to see clearly, and invite my honest response to arise without the blinding that anger or despair can create. So when I see clearly that someone or something is being treated unfairly, I accept the misguided and troubled nature of those committing the problems at hand and focus on what I can do to help, to turn it around.
As Yogis, the effort towards supporting Nature is a two-fold gift. First, it asks us to see the unequivocal inter-connectedness of all forms of life, and over time to reject the ego-centric view that humans are more important than other forms: Meditating on Nature brings me to stop identifying with ego. Further, as the spark of life emanating from each and every life form — the acrobatic flights of the swallows, and the dreaded mosquitoes upon which they feed — is felt, our place is made clear: We are (merely) a part of the glorious web of life.
If being knocked off our self-proclaimed throne and the state of our planet has you on edge, take heart. The outcome of each intention and each action we make towards supporting any part of this web, includes uplifting each of us and our loved ones, two-legged, four-legged, winged and gilled. And as we begin to have faith in this inter-connectedness we land at the great promise of Yoga: we know that we — all beings everywhere — are the same.
This essential and life-affirming understanding is the stuff that carries us through, as lovers of nature and activists of our chosen concern. And, on our good days, the knowledge of the ebbs and flows of life and death are balanced by the insight that while each life will end, including our own, life itself will continue.