I have recently returned home after being on the road, vacationing and working, for almost six weeks. It was wonderful being away but I sure did miss my home, garden and beloved kitty (I don’t miss the chickens so much as they are not so cuddly!). And given the huge fires that hit our area earlier this month, it was really scary to think we might lose our beloved home and sanctuary we have created here. Many friends who were really close to the burning wildfires had to evacuate their homes. 7,000,000 acres have burned in California alone this summer.
It is really hitting home now—literally—that we are in the midst of the worst drought ever, and that climate change is happening. We are seeing the effects of it everywhere and especially here in California. As we lose the snow pack (and with it the summer run off we depend on), as the seasons get hotter and drier and water becomes more of a limited resource, I am filled with the poignancy of the preciousness of life as we know it on earth, and how very fragile is the ecosystem that sustains us.
Living with my beloved hubby, who has his nose in the sustainability facts, it is hard to deny the dangerous times we are living in. I am reading a book right now called This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein. It is a stark and shocking wake up call for us all: that we have very little time to get things right on the planet. The scientists are saying that if we go beyond a global temperature increase of two degrees Centigrade (as a result of our greenhouse gas emissions), we will be heading unavoidably for a planet that is mostly unfit to live on, as we will have destroyed the life systems that sustain us. This will bring with it all kinds of chaos and social upheaval.
We cannot go on sleeping any longer. I myself notice that I am either dancing in denial and distraction, or I am freaking out and furious that we have made such a royal mess of this beautiful web of life on Planet Earth. Our Mother is in dire distress. This truly does change everything for me, as I connect the dots to how my actions or lack of action are affecting the whole.
This is why I am filled with blessed unrest and deeply passionate about our upcoming retreat, Becoming WHoly Human, Sept 11-13th. It will be a deep dive into where we are at this time on the planet, and the call to awaken and evolve into our most Divine Human selves, that we were designed and destined to be. It will be about deeply connecting with the Divine and asking for help from the Great Mystery to help us be the heart, hands, and voice of the One. It will be about calming our minds and resourcing our nervous systems, and offering ourselves in deep trust and surrender to become the WHoly Human Beings that we truly are, in service to the Earth and all sentient beings, and at one with the Divine.