My Heartsongs

Cancer miracles to vending machines to combat overdoses, to novel forms of mosquito control to influence rates of disease. Mental health techniques to combat insomnia, and steps to create a healthy GI flora to decrease depression and anxiety. Modern medicine – despite its faults – keeps on coming up with puissant marvels to improve the health and wellbeing of many.

The gap between our collective aspirations to alter the present course of planetary destruction and the reality of the on the ground efforts required to make it so is enormous. Will magical yet-undeveloped new technologies save us? Perhaps, but right now it seems our best bet is persistent concerted individual and collective positive action.

In the 2016 book, Half Earth, Edward O. Watson makes a compelling case for us humans ­– for the sake of our own survival if nothing else – to agree to protect what remains of the intact systems that hold the planet in a steady state, on both land and sea, with critical goals for 2030.  Half of the planet protected by 2050, reserved for natural systems and the biodiversity and processes that basically support the rest of the world.

I like to connect the dots to two other solutions, both of which in hidden ways contribute to preserving habitat. Waste less food: I hate that horrible statistic that 1/3 of US food production goes uneaten. Use products for longer and re-use materials—remember this is the flea market king speaking to you. Buying less stuff and wasting less food puts less pressure on claiming/destroying even more natural habitats. A key question is this: Is it possible to reduce emissions and preserve biodiversity, yet maintain our lovable creature comforts?

Uncertainty certainly fosters fears and revitalizes regrets. Being comfortable with it allows me to greet my circumstances with curiosity rather than constriction, openness rather than anxiety. Dealing with all the painful uncertainty is clearly a bit of a spiritual strip search: rooting out any ego vanity projects, arrogance around needing to be right, and fear based futile attempts to remain “in control.”

The Caring Bridge Link is:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/victorlacerva

There is good data to suggest that teens spend half of their waking hours on their smartphones. Feelings of loneliness and sadness are rampant, and teens across the board are getting less sleep and spending less in-person time socializing. Cyberbullying is a common destructive phenomenon. 

A sampling of my personal beatitudes: 1. Blessed are those who are easily satisfied and have few expectations, for they shall rarely want or be disappointed. 2. Blessed are those who take anything anyone says as a compliment, for they shall always have friends. 3. Blessed are those who are flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape. . 4. Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. 5. Blessed are those who are slightly cracked, for only they can truly let in the light.

It intuitively feels right to explore these elements in terms of surrendering, centering, blending and transforming the war within: thoughtstream shift, allow my inner sage some time on the podium, acknowledge & turn the volume down on my current competing desires, and get outside to let it all percolate.

No discussion of the art of peace would be complete without at least a brief mention of four of my personal heroes: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. In the tohubohu that is often the state of our present world, I may not make a huge difference on a planetary, national, state or even community level. Yet I do believe that any peaceful actions I create have their own vibrations throughout those larger spheres. Let peace begin with me.

We all, at various times, experience off the rails miscommunication, feeling attacked, challenging moments. Imagine a partner, family member or co-worker confronting or complaining about you, or what you perceive initially as assaulting or ambushing you verbally. What to do?