Sustainability: Environmental Sustainability, Global Sustainabiity, Sustainability Report,

Why reconnect?

Our disconnection and lack of sustainability causes our planet pain and us.

It is hard to believe that something so natural is so uncommon. The average person is separated from nature over 95% of their lives. We get up, get ready for work, slurp down some coffee or if we are lucky some breakfast, Run to our cars, many parked in our garages, drive to work, jump out of our cars and rush to our cubicles. At the end of the day we rush back home, pick up our children, make dinner, watch a little TV and get ready for bed.

We are so disconnected that over 88% of the time even if we are in nature we are so distracted we remain disconnected.

We further foster this disconnection by mandating our children spend over 18,000 hours of their most formative years in cut off from nature, and their source. Is it any wonder that child obesity, ADD, Stress and drug and alcohol abuse are all becoming serious issues. Due to our own disconnection, we treat our children with more drugs.

Once we separate ourselves from nature we are open to the stories of separation.

We have sequestered ourselves away from the very force that feeds us, nurtures us and sustains us. We listen to stories that tell us Nature is dangerous and we must protect ourselves from it. We fill our children's heads with stories of separation. We are told our dreams of a clean environment are impossible because it will cost too much, will destroy our economy. We must continue to burn coal and fossil fuels, build inefficient cars and generally abuse the very sources that sustain us because, we all know, that if we mandate thee things our economy will collapse.

In 1940 we produced over 500,000 tons of chemicals. In 1990 we produced over 200 million tons of chemicals. Many of these have gone into our air, our water and our soil to a point where we have changed the very chemical make up of our planet.

Our planet is evolving at a rate we haven't seen in over 65 million years. We are loosing species at an alarming rate. Unlike previous times, our evolution this time is not from natural disasters or cosmic event but the direct result of what we as a species cognitively pursue. WE have the power to change the very direction and make up of our planer and in doing so we hold in our hands today the recipe for what it is that we intend.

The path back to sanity
Thomas Barry, noted Scholar, theologian, and lover of the earth says we are on a cusp in our evolution. We can either evolve into a Technozoiac era marked by continued use of our natural resources and build more and more things. As we deplete our resources, we can replace them with technological inventions to cleanse and purify the air and water. We can develop special strains of seeds to be grown in a man made soup of chemicals to feed ourselves and build vast structures to house us and protect us from the very environment that once sustained us.
Or we can choose to evolve into an Ecozoaic era where we live in harmony with nature. Learn from its wisdom and use our technology to protect and enhance our connection with the planet.
I believe there are two steps we must take if we are to reconnect to our source and have a chance to evolve into an Ecozoiac era and away from the Technoziac path we have been on for some time.

1)    We must reconnect with Nature
2)    We must re-frame and retell our stories.

To Reconnect with Nature
1)    Go outside to a natural area or if necessary even to a potted plant
2)    Nature is all based on the natural law of attraction, so move to an area that seems attractive to you.
3)    Once there ask the area for permission to be there and to interact with it.
4)    Then be there and be aware.
a)    If it feels uncomfortable be responsive and move on to another place. Nature may be telling you that this is not a place you should be right now.
5)    Once you have received permission and you will know. Suspend all your current beliefs and stories and let nature teach you again.
6)    Don't discount the feelings, they are real and powerful reminders of our connection.
7)    Take time to absorb what you have experienced
8)    Then write down your experience
Once we take time to reconnect with nature, we will see that we hare all created and sustained by the same force. Call it God, Sensory wisdom or love. There is a web of life that connects us to each other and all that is. The Web's strength is its diversity.

Felt so much more whole:

This exercise came at a time when it was important and very valuable to take a nature break from the mechanical/electronic problems confronting my sensibiliities. It was a great thing to take off on an aggressive hike into the beautiful hills here to burn off some aggravation and reconnect with peace, natural beauty and self.

The magic of nature never fails. I found an attractive spot off trail under a Bay Tree with a wide variety of plants all around - not a typical December scene at all.

The sun angled through the surrounding trees and on the hills in a beautiful way. It was a welcoming and comfortable area and I sat with my back against the tree and settled within, seeking and receiving confirmation for the purposes of this chapter. I sat and surveyed the area attempting to connect language with what it was that I found attractive. Not easily arrived at( a worthy challenge!) I wrote

Section 1: "I am attracted to this area of Oak and Bay studded hills covered with a wide variety of plants because it offers peace and a soft, reassuring and inviting energy."

and then, though it was a little difficult to actually say it was also fun and surprisingly true to write

Section 2: "I like myself because I offer peace and a soft, reassuring and inviting energy."

I would never have thought of saying something like this but it is true that these are qualities of mine that I like and value and that others also like and value. Friends have told me they appreciate my calm, non-reactive, non-judgmental perspectives. This was a very valuable exercise and I appreciate the confirming and supportive energy it provided.

It was challenging to come to a place of acceptance when I tried the sentence "It is this webstring in me that found this webstring in nature attractive in the first place" since I have always thought that the reason I was able to provide this for others was because of my strong connection to nature, that I had learned it there. Seeing it as a resonance however, allowed me to see that it is,in fact, a mutual attraction. I am attracted to these qualities in nature because I value them and believe in their "rightness."

I definitely agree that just as nature is most commonly overlooked and discounted for it's ability to provide essential and significant value to people, so to are people that believe in and profess nature's ability in these regards. And as a result, I, like everyone in this class I imagine, came to believe that my true, inner nature does not hold much if any value to the society, culture and world that I live in and have repressed it. But the truth outlives the fiction and so I completely agree with summary, "It is reasonable to unashamedly have our sense of reason, language and consciousness validate our hidden webstring connections with nature and enjoy the responsible rewards this whole brain connection provides." What a great and affirming statement!

I really appreciate the affirming, connecting, self and nature valuing aspects of this chapter and think the linguistic turn-around from what we say we are attracted to in nature to what we are attracted to in ourselves is both really clever and great fun. I felt so much more whole after doing this exercise and reading the supportive material than when I started it. Awesome.