Tag Archives: caring

Listen to EcoHeart Calling

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Our time of using Earth resources without thinking and without consequence is over. The only effective way to bring everyone together in aware and responsible Earth stewardship is to change how we think about each other, our responsibility to each other, and our responsibility to Earth herself.

Many of us think of Earth and all that lives on Earth as being something out there, extrinsic to us. We feel we live in here. In here is that undefined place that is not out there. This disconnect from the Earth has brought us to where we now are. I do not need to provide examples of what is wrong with our world. We each have our individual ideas of what needs fixing and what does not. We are well aware of what is not working for us.

What we do not share with each other is being part of the Earth instead of living in isolation. Until enough people feel they are an integral part of the earth instead of living separately from Earth, our Earth will continue to change away from conditions we need to survive and thrive.

One way or another Earth will continue on. The existence and quality of life of yet unborn generations of Human Beings depend on what we do. If we continue to live in our isolated world of one, it is probable we will cease to exist as a life form on Earth.

If we choose to adopt a better way to view our Earth. A way of living in which we are part of the Earth and not living in individual bubbles, we can start to undo our damage to our Earth. We will feel the urge to make a difference. We will start the cycle of changing the world back into a place we can all live in and enjoy.

It is not comforting for many of us to think we and the Earth are a package deal. We would like to think if we cease to exist all life and the Earth will cease to exist. Discoveries of life thriving where we could not possibly survive, and what we know of extinct species which did not survive when their world changed prove this is not true.

We are not a package deal with the Earth. We are one species among thousands and thousands of life forms on Earth. We can kill our selves off and become extinct. The Earth will continue without us.

It is time to pull ourselves out of the bubble separating ‘Me’ from Earth and all life. It is time live in a more responsible way. It is time to set our sense of ‘Me’ aside and do what needs to be done for the good of all, not for the good of a few. How do we do that?

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Misunderstood Roadblock to Growing 2

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Then one day we suddenly have a need to improve our spiritual self.

We start out in our Mothers body growing from a tiny piece of flesh waiting to being born in what will be our vehicle for this life. We grow into childhood, teenage years, adulthood, old age, and eventually we die, unless our life is cut short by an accident or other cause. It is an automatic process, and whether we want it to happen or not, whether we appreciate it happening, or hate the fact we get older, it happens. This is our physical body as it conforms to the concept of time, and the wear and tear we place on our physical self.

Our non-physical self, no matter what you choose to call it, and please call it whatever you are comfortable calling this part of you, does not have a need to change with the years. Almost all of us have certain behaviors we use that we learned and used as toddlers. If a behavior works, why bother changing it? So we do not change certain behaviors because they have worked – more or less – since we were toddlers.

Then comes a day when for some nagging yet vague reason, we start out on our journey of  spiritual growth. We want to become more than we are. At first with the help of books and copying successful behaviors, we find we are very successful. In fact, we find it amazing how much easier life has become since we started out on our path.

We are not satisfied of course, because it has been pretty easy up until this moment. If it is this easy getting here, why stop now? That is how I felt, and I bet this is how you feel if you want to grow even more. Next, we go out and find books, articles, and people who use all these jumbled words I mentioned in part one. We try our best at doing what we understand those words and phrases to mean, but nothing really happens.

We do not seem to be making progress, and our development, growth, path, whatever you choose to call it, grinds to a halt. “What in the heck are they talking about and why isn’t it working for me?”, you find yourself asking in your head, in a hundred different ways.

If you want to further personal growth, you can not grow much further only reading books, listening to someone talk, or sitting at your computer. You may not be able to grow because of the life style you have, or the career you are in. You may not be able to grow because of how you choose to live your life. You may not be ready to hear the truth. Truth and direction does not arrive until you are ready.

If you want to change and grow beyond where you are now, it is not easy. Here is a start of what you need to do. You must to develop real and true empathy and compassion for all people. Step out of the center of the circle, and know there is no circle with you in the center.

Find a way to care for people around you. Help them in and with their struggles, but let them do the struggling. Know you are in each and every person, and they are in you. You need to drop, “me” from your thinking and your speech. Learn, know, and believe that you are part of everything and everything is part of you.

Until you can do these things, you may as well go back to what you were doing before you came to the spot on the path you are now on. There is no other way of finding and understanding what all those words and ideas mean otherwise.

This is why a few people have found their way, while so many remain stuck. This is how your new spiritual growth, path, journey, whatever you choose to name it will progress. None of us may ever make it as far as we want to go along our path, though we all need to keep growing.  My best to you on your path.

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The little things make a difference

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When I was about eight years old I was ran over by a car – actually having a large ‘N’ of tire tread scabs on my back from my lower left to my upper right shoulder. I only had some bruises as a result. This happened in the sixties when cars were large and heavy.

In my rather short career as a sailor I had bets placed on my life in South Chicago as to whether I would make it back to the boat alive. Once there was a bet on whether I would survive one eight hour night on a dock in Ohio without being stabbed and robbed while I worked.

I survived not drowning on the Edmund Fitzgerald because I made a rash decision not to go winter sailing because a friend was not going. I once had a disagreement with some gang members and had a pistol stuck in my face a year or so later. I swore I could have walked down the barrel of the pistol with my arms outspread and not touched either side of the barrel.

There were the inevitable Friday or Saturday nights out on the town, when some redneck did not like long hair, wild ways, clothes, or something else about me…and wanted to fight me.

Those are just highlights of some almost times when my earthly existence could have ended. Because of my good fortune I started to believe I was here for something special. I was going to accomplish something very big. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was going to happen.

If that big event ever happened, I missed it…. As far as I know that big thing never happened. Life went on, and of course both myself and the world slowly changed. Whatever my big moment was I either never showed up, or it came and went, and I never noticed.

Something did happen, and it took a long time before I was aware of it happening, but happen it did. One way or another circumstances created situations where I did something good for someone. It was never any big event that took place. Being at the right place at the right time with a willingness to listen, or simply being there – giving someone a chance to talk and change their mind. Things as simple lending or giving someone a few dollars when they were broke. Sharing a different perspective on what looked like a desperate situation. I found myself adding my (tongue in cheek here) sage advice when an important decision was made.

I imagine about now you are thinking this is a pretty self centered focused post on me. I would if I were reading it for the first time. What it is really about is what I never noticed during those years. What I never noticed were those people who appeared in my life and gave me a nudge changing my life course ever so slightly.

Without allowing people help me, I would probably still be angry at the world, standing on wayside, waiting for the world to conform to me. I would be living my life trying to overcome one problem at a time. I would ponder where the wonder was to my life, and what purpose I had in being here.

I have learned over the years, is that changing the world rarely happens with a bold sweep of the painters brush on the canvas of the world. Rather changing the world happens by changing the hues in the life of one or maybe a few people at a time. Over a lifetime I think we will discover that all those little things that seemed so innocent have in fact changed the world in ways we can never imagine.

I bet you are one of those people? Maybe you never entered my life and said or did something that changed the course of my life forever, but I bet you entered someone’s life? Because I know you are one of these people, I want you to take some time today and acknowledge yourself for the good you have done. Also while you are reminding yourself of the good you have done, think about the changes in the world you still have to make.

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