Everything is a Miracle

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what motivates people to change, to – in the parlance – "go green." In our upcoming 4-part teleclass, "Your EcoBlueprint: Three Keys to Transforming Your Life and Work ," we will be exploring this in depth.

A compelling, inspired vision is the first step towards mapping out strategies that matter the most to us. Vision and a good map also help to sort through the mind-boggling amount of information, opinions, lists, and tools that have come along on the last few years. This class will provide a framework to craft a clear path for ourselves.

One important thing to keep in mind is that it’s not about being green or not-green. Our motivation comes from a much deeper place – the need to heal our separation, to reconnect in all ways – to ourselves, to our communities, to nature. Our sense of separation keeps us anxious, fearful, lonely.

When we seek to reconnect, we are butting up against centuries of worldview that humans are separate from, and superior to, nature. This notion has threaded through a great deal of recent human history, leading to domination, exploitation, and degradation. It has caused potentially irreversible damage to our planet’s climate, to ecosystems, to biodiversity. Ironically, it also keeps us from taking our place in the community of living things. Being awake to the havoc we have wreaked causes great suffering and guilt. It’s hard not to come away concluding that we are a bad species, in the words of Paul Stamets, that faces "the possibility of being rejected by the biosphere as a virulent organism." (Mycelium Running , p.1)

Yet, many of us have the intuition that a deeply satisfying life can heal our relationships with ourselves, our neighbors, and the planet. When we celebrate our creativity, our bounty, and our goodness, we are also helping the earth. So, why is this so difficult to put into practice? One reason is that our media is full of messages about how bad things are, about what a mess we’ve made of things. And, on the other hand, are those messages that the only way to feel better is to buy more stuff.

Well, it’s time to set that worry aside and stride forward with a positive energy. There are signs all around us that invite us to make this decision. You are invited to three free calls in the coming weeks that will explore aspects of this transformation. The first, "Cultivating a Sense of Awe and Wonder ," gives us ways to cut through the noise by tapping into our creativity. This call will profoundly shift your perspective about the relationship between culture and nature, from doom-and-gloom to wonder and awe. Guest artists Sheila Finkelstein and Sarah Sloboda will take us through a vision-expanding creative exercise.

The second call, "Sustainability from a Sacred Place ," will explore the ways that the earth is calling to us to heal ourselves on a deeply spiritual level. Everything is energy: singing, kindness, gratitude, as well as suffering, anger, and fear. Our daily lives – no matter where we live – are filled with opportunities to connect with healing energy. Guest Mare Cromwell and I have been cohorts for years, originally connecting via the Natural Step sustainability framework.

The third call will be announced later this week, so stay tuned to our Programs page for more information. Register for any or all of these calls there. Even if you can’t make the time, you can sign up and we will email a recording link to you afterwards.

In closing, Einstein’s words perfectly sum up the place from which these teleclasses come: "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

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