All Posts Tagged With: "connection"

Wildness reminds us what it what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.  Terry Tempest Williams

World Day of Interconnectedness is September 9.

I’m going to get personal here. Many of you who know my work and teaching will probably not be surprised by this: I am obsessed with connection. My business, fundamentally, is all about discovering, cultivating, and restoring connections at many levels: to the living world, to other people, to communities, to meaning, to the arts, to craft, to great ideas, to myself.

Reflecting on this recently, I saw that one of my ah-ha moments about sustainable design came in 1989, at a lecture by the great Australian architect Glenn Murcutt . His work demonstrates the profound beauty and sense of connection that is possible when you ask the right questions. It is rooted in a deep reverence for and experience of the natural world. People who live in his houses routinely talk about the unique, profound connection they feel to the outdoors, quite unlike other buildings in our modern world.

Aren’t we all, consciously or unconsciously, longing for that deep, peaceful sense of connection? I know I am. It has driven me for the last 20 years, often to unexpected places. That sustainable design and green business is my lens and medium is no mere coincidence. It fits me because it marries meaning with cultural expression, vision with practical action, spirit and matter. It is grounded in the laws of the physical world, its harsh realities AND its sublime truths. A life spent trying to understand and model how nature does it is the most exciting thing I can imagine.

That’s why when announcements like this one come to my inbox, I jump at the chance to spread the word. A World Day of Interconnectedness? Why not!? From the website : "A deep sense of interconnectedness, or oneness, is at the core of decisions and actions that are life affirming and good for the whole. In other words, it will bring forth an environmentally sustainable, fulfilling and socially just human presence."

This is a global 24-hour event with a focus on celebrating interconnectedness. The intent is to manifest and attract more of what we want on a global scale: a greater sense of interconnectedness as a foundation for a world that works for all life.

It’s simple: On 090909 in every country at 9 AM in every time zone (starting in New Zealand), all people who are aware of interconnectedness and who are committed to translate that awareness into action are invited to practice interconnectedness as much as possible throughout that day. There are a bunch of wonderful suggestions of practices you can do in the areas of ecological sustainability, social justice, and spiritual fulfillment. Many of us strive to practice our awareness every day, and usually fall short (speaking for myself). This is a chance to be fully conscious and to tap into the world-wide juice of so many with the same intention.

Please post a comment here about your experience with this. It would be wonderful to hear how it went.

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. Continued