The Breath of Life
No one understands what the breath of life really is. It’s the ultimate mystery. Unlockable. Unknowable. No matter how much you murder it or suppress it, life just keeps coming back. It finds cracks in any concrete monolith, it generates solutions to any imbalance. Sometimes the solutions are gentle, sometimes violent. But life always makes it. Whatever the force that flows through our planet, it is smart, far smarter than one species such as homo sapiens. It will outlive each and every one of us. It may even outlive the planet herself.
There's much talk of our destroying the planet. But such a thing is not so easy, because this incredible ball of mud and magic we call home has seen far more calamitous forces than ours. That's not to say nothing atrocious is happening, and we can just sit around watching Netflix. While the planet will live a long long time, our survival and that of our fellow creatures is a lot less secure. Yet in truth, despite all the wailing about collapse, humans have only been living a kind of half life anyway. There is a very good reason many people feel more horror when they see an orangutan orphaned than a human. The orangutan is our link to what we've lost. Our honest, raw wild self.
It's a long time since we humans completely embodied the wonder, beauty and astounding intelligence of the Earth eco-system that we are part of. What we still don’t seem to understand is that ultimately we are not French or British or Indian or American, nor socialist nor neo-liberal nor conservative, we are not Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Buddhist or Hindu. First and foremost, along with every other entity on the planet from ant to ape, we are Gaian.
We inhabit an interesting time. No one has the answers to the plethora of crisis’ around us, (though there's plenty of hot air and machismo claiming they do). One reason for this is we still haven't stepped beyond the problem/solution mindset. We are still obsessed with results and destinations while completely ignoring the journey. You cannot create a beautiful world if every step you take toward it is filled with anger, hate and fear. The end does not justify the means ever. Because in the real world outside the human mind, there is no end, no finishing line of life. And all you are left with is your means.
It's a long time since we humans completely embodied the wonder, beauty and astounding intelligence of the Earth eco-system that we are part of. What we still don’t seem to understand is that ultimately we are not French or British or Indian or American, nor socialist nor neo-liberal nor conservative, we are not Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Buddhist or Hindu. First and foremost, along with every other entity on the planet from ant to ape, we are Gaian.
We inhabit an interesting time. No one has the answers to the plethora of crisis’ around us, (though there's plenty of hot air and machismo claiming they do). One reason for this is we still haven't stepped beyond the problem/solution mindset. We are still obsessed with results and destinations while completely ignoring the journey. You cannot create a beautiful world if every step you take toward it is filled with anger, hate and fear. The end does not justify the means ever. Because in the real world outside the human mind, there is no end, no finishing line of life. And all you are left with is your means.
The Other Earth
Having spent so much time alone in nature, I have witnessed there is another ancient Earth hiding beneath the modern human one we usually perceive. It's a place where the breath of life is sending messages and inspiration through the very dirt itself, a terrain where anything is possible, even the impossible. Because when we reconnect with the planet’s pool of intelligence, everything changes. We sense just where to step and when. We see things that were previously invisible to us. We are no longer a lost little soul battling the outside world. We are a unique and valuable participant in an extraordinary Gaian wave.
Gaia's Mind
The collective intelligence of all earth systems is a psyche, and it rides on the back of life itself. We contribute to this planetary psyche, and if we open our minds a little, we too can be privy to its secrets and wonders, inspiration and information. We shift into Gaian consciousness when we step beyond the 'me first' or 'my group first' mindset, and into the whole world beyond. It's a gift, and once tasted, the slow mechanics of standard analytical thought feel horribly limiting; like using an abacus to do calculus instead of a scientific calculator.
When it comes to sensing when an earthquake is about to happen, discovering a healing plant in a forest, negotiating with a wolf, finding meaning, plucking inspirational ideas out of the sky, or simply being happy and fulfilled, logic alone doesn’t cut it. Tech doesn’t cut it either. Competition and war actively thwart it. The challenges faced by our species can neither be solved by reductive logic, nor by adversarial debate, nor by some people ‘winning’ and others ‘losing’. The for and against struggle between ‘two sides’ is a problem-solving approach so outworn, it can't even hold nation states together anymore. It's way past time to evolve.
Evolutions require integrating the entire past and present of our beings and taking an enormous leap beyond them. We have to be able not only to analyse but to intuit, and to embody individual, local, and planetary awareness simultaneously. To hear the earth whisper inside us.
We are not going to save the planet, because the planet doesn't need saving. What we are going to do is both rediscover and develop some earth awareness. Because if we don't, the breath of life will find a more suitable host, and train of Gaia will move on.
When it comes to sensing when an earthquake is about to happen, discovering a healing plant in a forest, negotiating with a wolf, finding meaning, plucking inspirational ideas out of the sky, or simply being happy and fulfilled, logic alone doesn’t cut it. Tech doesn’t cut it either. Competition and war actively thwart it. The challenges faced by our species can neither be solved by reductive logic, nor by adversarial debate, nor by some people ‘winning’ and others ‘losing’. The for and against struggle between ‘two sides’ is a problem-solving approach so outworn, it can't even hold nation states together anymore. It's way past time to evolve.
Evolutions require integrating the entire past and present of our beings and taking an enormous leap beyond them. We have to be able not only to analyse but to intuit, and to embody individual, local, and planetary awareness simultaneously. To hear the earth whisper inside us.
We are not going to save the planet, because the planet doesn't need saving. What we are going to do is both rediscover and develop some earth awareness. Because if we don't, the breath of life will find a more suitable host, and train of Gaia will move on.
