Pollinator bees, polar bears, pheasantshell mussels, North American bats, cod, and the list of dying species goes on and on. There are, of course, those species we are not even aware of and the ones that have already become extinct. All of this carnage due to human activity. We are parasites inflated with hubris, hollow of spiritual integrity, flexing our intellectual muscles to ravage and desecrate our neighbors indiscriminately.
Well, we have made our beds and we will, inevitably, sleep in them. We (industrialized cultures) have failed to appreciate and respect the complex, intricate interconnectedness of the web that we are a part of. We have, despite the warnings (of indigenous peoples, scientists, and earth herself), continued to rape and pillage the hands that feed us. As the ocean temperatures rise causing oxygen levels to decrease, large fish species are unable to survive. But, the jelly fish are able to survive and they are paving the way for the ocean to turn into the primordial blob it started out as. Yes, life is regressing. We are losing complex species to more primitive species. And, this is how we will die off. How mother nature will rid herself of her most ungrateful spawn. Because parasites eventually kill their host and, in doing so, die themselves. We are the worst thing that has happened to earth and it likely has something to do with the fact that we thought we were the best thing. If every single human disappeared tomorrow, with the exception of our pets, every single species and ecosystem would start to recuperate. Mother nature does not need us. We do not contribute to the web in any meaningful way, we just leech from it. Climate change, extinction of species, etc. all of this saddens me so deeply. At the same time, I recognize that this is the only way for her to rid herself of us. As we have less land available for industrialized agriculture and large scale food shortages become the norm, as the oceans swallow islands and coastal cities, as we have less clean water available to sustain us, the earth will not be able to sustain us and we too will die. And, our death is what will save our Earth
And ever has it been that love knows not it's own depth until the hour of separation ~Kahlil Gibran~
Sunday, December 08, 2019
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Today's musings ...
If our relationship to death was healthy we wouldn't see it as the "bad" that it isn't, we would see it as the natural that it is.
Death is the intimate partner, the twin flame of life. Death is to life, what night is to day. Life flows into death, which flows into life, which flows into death and on and on and on. Without death there is no life.
From the very minute we are life, we embark on the journey to death.
So then, how did we arrive at this place in our culture that death, and by proxy aging, are feared, hated, fought against tooth and nail instead of accepted, even embraced, as the natural course of life that has always been and always will be?
Today, I saw a 17 year old female patient who is neurologically devastated. She had cardiopulmonary arrest 2 months ago and required intubation and chest compressions to keep her "alive."
She cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot eat from her mouth, and is entirely dependent on her parents for every single aspect of her care, from eating to toileting. She is not my child. I don't know what that feels like or what I would do if I was the parent of a child like her.
I know that I am in a place of deep privilege: this is a theoretical scenario for me, not a real one. I'd like to think that what I would do is relinquish the steering wheel to the wisdom of life-universe-creator.
Sometimes, life is telling us it is time to die. I hope for a cultural paradigm shift in which we are reacquainted with the voice of life-universe-creator and trust in it's infinite wisdom, which is much deeper, wider, and knowing than we will ever be.
Death is not bad. It is all around us. Leaves are dying and turning into humus for new life to feed on. The old of all species (trees, tigers, fish, algae) are dying and making room for the new, who will also become old and repeat this cycle over and over and over. Mountains and rock, as indomitable and permanent as they seem, even they through their love affair with wind and water, soften into rounded hills then sand. Even the mighty, seemingly invincible, stars are dying, and one day our sun will too.
Death is not the opposite of Life. Death is the infinite partner of Life. It is ying/yang, low tide/high tide, night/day, hot/cold, pain/joy, matter/anti-matter, light/dark.
Death is the intimate partner, the twin flame of life. Death is to life, what night is to day. Life flows into death, which flows into life, which flows into death and on and on and on. Without death there is no life.
From the very minute we are life, we embark on the journey to death.
So then, how did we arrive at this place in our culture that death, and by proxy aging, are feared, hated, fought against tooth and nail instead of accepted, even embraced, as the natural course of life that has always been and always will be?
Today, I saw a 17 year old female patient who is neurologically devastated. She had cardiopulmonary arrest 2 months ago and required intubation and chest compressions to keep her "alive."
She cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot eat from her mouth, and is entirely dependent on her parents for every single aspect of her care, from eating to toileting. She is not my child. I don't know what that feels like or what I would do if I was the parent of a child like her.
I know that I am in a place of deep privilege: this is a theoretical scenario for me, not a real one. I'd like to think that what I would do is relinquish the steering wheel to the wisdom of life-universe-creator.
Sometimes, life is telling us it is time to die. I hope for a cultural paradigm shift in which we are reacquainted with the voice of life-universe-creator and trust in it's infinite wisdom, which is much deeper, wider, and knowing than we will ever be.
Death is not bad. It is all around us. Leaves are dying and turning into humus for new life to feed on. The old of all species (trees, tigers, fish, algae) are dying and making room for the new, who will also become old and repeat this cycle over and over and over. Mountains and rock, as indomitable and permanent as they seem, even they through their love affair with wind and water, soften into rounded hills then sand. Even the mighty, seemingly invincible, stars are dying, and one day our sun will too.
Death is not the opposite of Life. Death is the infinite partner of Life. It is ying/yang, low tide/high tide, night/day, hot/cold, pain/joy, matter/anti-matter, light/dark.
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