Kinship Earth: An Important Message About Saving the Planet & Ways We Can Help
Image by Audrey Ancell ©
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
Robert Swan
(polar explorer, environmental leader, renewable energy advocate)
Have you ever noticed how Mother Earth’s initials are ME?
Me!
Well, there’s this rare, magical thing that happens here. It’s so rare that the likelihood of it happening is something like 1 in 400 trillion.
→ Your birth.
To sum it up, the probability of your parents meeting and actually liking each other is an anomaly in itself. Then the chances that they get past second base at the precise time of the month with all the right bells and whistles in place to create the perfect combination of DNA for the exact YOU to exist is nearly impossible ~ slim odds, a freaking miracle by definition, the cow is still moo-ing kind of rare.
Here’s a breakdown of how phenomenal our existence really is.
We are unicorns amongst unicorns, real prodigies, and miracles are happening every second as life is born all over the planet.
Since the chance of us being born is nearly zero, our presence must be on purpose.
We are bonded to this life-giving land, affinity to soil and water, and related by cell and molecule.
Our Kinship to Earth
We may be a different design, but our chemical makeup is alike.
The same phosphorus that stores energy in plants provides energy for our bodies to function. The potassium that helps steady the rhythm of our heart, helps soil absorb water. The calcium and nitrogen that strengthen our bones provide structure and support to plant cell walls.
The sun that nourishes and gifts our bodies the ability to soak up nutrients is the same star that grows wild flowers, oak trees, and vegetables.
Image by Live Love Fruit ©
The rivers are our bloodstreams, tree branches mirror the airways in our lungs, and we share 90% of our genes with house cats.
We have 3 billion base pairs in our DNA, and only a tiny .1% of that is unique to each of us. This means genetically we are 99.9% the same as the person next to us.
There are 10,000 species of organisms that live on our bodies. We are all a mini Earth, home to another life, life to another home.
We are a mountain, weathered and resilient.
Our lives grow and wane like the rhythm of the moon as we shift, mold, and witness the infinite cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. What magic!
Made of the same stardust material, 97% of our atoms are shared with the rest of the entire galaxy.
So yeah, I’d say we’re family ♡
All Things Give, All Things Consume
There's a reciprocal relationship between nature n’ nature, a dance of co-existence.
In one way, where trees give oxygen, humans give carbon dioxide, a simultaneous exchange that neither could live without.
The problem is, the human take has been greater than our give.
Image by Clay Bennett ©
Greed has trumped gratitude. Profit has taken precedence over what’s good for the planet. Convenience often wins over sustainability, cheap over reusable, and flavorful over food that will actually make us feel good.
The biodiversity, freshwater, minerals, and foliage that once flourished are on a scarce decline. Every statistic is warning us that this is a big threat to our survival.
This year, in this particular phase of history, we have an opportunity to recast our future and shape a greater life for all life.
Humans could be the vaccine for climate change.
There’s still time to save the planet! We don’t have to accept the fate of gloom.
According to scientists, we have 11 years to get our shit together before there is irreversible damage. No doubt there is urgency, but I believe there is potential for a world where humans and nature thrive together, one where we can keep all of our fancy things and restore the land at the same time.
Image by @positivity_limitless ©
We have the resources, the intelligence, and heart to do this but it won’t be enough until everyone gets on board.
If we choose, this could be the decade of healing. Each of us are called to be a part of that!
Doing Our Part
It's no secret that change needs to happen on a global level big time, but we are each the seed that will grow new life for present and future generations with small changes we make in our daily habits that have the power to ripple to larger systems.
We won’t be perfect. We will make mistakes, we will still have trash + need transportation + maybe eat meat, but if we can take a look at our consumption on all levels of being and revise how we use things, immense healing is possible both for ourselves and Mother Earth.
One of the most powerful ways we can shift our impact is to get curious about our consumption.
Consumption isn’t just material, it’s the energy we consume in all areas. It’s the things we buy, the television shows we watch, the people we spend our time with, the food we eat, the venting we listen to, the drama we hear on the news ~ these things take up energetic space in our minds, bodies, our nervous systems, psyches, dreams, etc.
Keeping tabs on where we spend our energy will expose what we are aligning ourselves with and help us to recognize where we can lean more into health and wellness. When our vibration is elevated, that energy is infectious and raises the vibration of the planet.
The Little Things Add Up
Every other Thursday I attend a support group with 10 coworkers. Before Covid hit we were having lunch together every other week and ordering take-out from various restaurants around town. At the end of our group, I noticed the trash can and recycling piled up with boxes, plastic cutlery, styrofoam, and paper plates from our catered to-go meals.
It seemed like a lot of waste for just one lunch.
I asked the facilitators what they thought about getting reusable plates and utensils and they said that it was something they had considered, but neither of them were able to commit to doing the dishes afterward so the idea went dormant.
At that moment, I wasn’t sure if I could commit either because as a busy caseworker, my high caseload made every work minute precious.
Yet the knot in my stomach from how much trash we were throwing away was bigger than the one I had about possibly having to do late-night data entry to meet my deadlines in exchange for those 30 minutes of dishes.
So I went back to my desk and rearranged my schedule to include a quick post-clean-up, and I volunteered to take on the chore.
The impact wasn’t just on me, the whole group benefited from this and it became our culture. My group members started telling other groups and even offered to help with the dishes as it evolved into a collective effort.
In just one year, we met 24 times which saved at least 240 plastic forks. I’ll call that a win.
Sometimes it can seem like environmental problems are too massive to do anything about or that it feels hopeless. Which is valid given the poor prognosis we’re up against. However, if all 7 billion of us took on some responsibility to make small changes in our day-to-day habits, we could make a massive difference.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, we just need some momentum in the right direction.
Maybe it’s a simple switch from plastic to bamboo toothbrushes (here’s an electric one). Perhaps it’s keeping a reusable fork in your car/ purse or opting out on the prime rib for dinner. Maybe it’s remembering to bring reusable bags into the grocery store, bringing tupperware to a restaurant for your leftovers, or wearing hemp pants. Whatever it is, chip in where you can, and trust that it is all weaving its way into the greater story of our overall wellbeing.
Every day is a chance to honor the sacredness of this home, expand our appreciation for life, and learn how to give back what we have taken.
Image by Anima Mundi Herbals ©
The greatest gift we can give nature is our attention. The more we pay attention, the more we care. The more we notice, the more the interconnected web of nature will blow us all away.
Want to know how you can help heal the planet?
