Menu

Naturally Peaceful

Your DIY Guide to Changing Times

Be KInd/PLay Fair

  

            Throughout history, people of all stripes and colors have come up with variations on the ethic of reciprocity. Many of us grew up with the Golden Rule:  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

  Likewise, Buddhist texts say: "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself find hurtful."

The Old Testament tells Christians and Jews alike: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Muhammad, the Islamic Prophet said: None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.

 Hindus are taught: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.

Five hundred years before Christ, Confucius counseled: Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence."

 

                                           

                                           It's plain old commonsense. You don't have to believe in God to know it's true.      

Loving kindness is the grease that helps keep things moving smoothly.
If we truly live by the golden rule, we are kind and considerate with all people, not just
our home boys or political party, our bowling league or church congregation.
When we embrace the ethic of reciprocity, the notion of "US and THEM" falls away.
 
 In these changing times we could certainly use some big doses of love, tolerance, and care ... in our families and communities, and in executive boardrooms, and the halls of Congress as well. "What would it take for Republicans and Democrats and Greens and Libertarians to work together on the urgent issue of corporate power? To move outside of our comfort zones and realize how much we have in common." (Localfutures.org)   What laws would a truly altruistic legislature pass?
          What would greater love & charity look like in our neighborhoods?
  What would corporate kindness feel like?
 
Unfortunately, much of our nation's businesses and governing bodies are acting as if the laws of reciprocity don't apply to them. They cleft to the law of tooth and claw ... a ruthless, competitive scramble to the top. But that's just crazy-making nonsense.


          
Universal laws, like the Golden Rule, bind us all. Every last one of us.
     "What we do to everything, we do to ourselves." - Black Elk 
                          
Karma is not just a philosophical construct.
                    We cannot escape the consequences of bad behavior.  
 
     Nor can you separate out the ends from the means.
And any belief system - religious, corporate or governmental - that would lead us to think otherwise, is corrupt and a sham.
 
On the other hand, good results spring naturally from good efforts.

If we're going to move beyond "business as usual", we'll need to take personal and cultural risks.

Systems are breaking down and some of our old, well established norms are just not working.

                                                  Things are going to look different.

                                                  Old familiar ways will be tested.                                                                      

It's going to take lots of experimentation and playful creativity to navigate through troubled waters.

 
                                                          Leaps of thought and behavior.  Lifestyle changes.
                                                                     
                                                                                 Don't worry. The tried and true will stand.

So hey, let's be tolerant of odd and curious behaviors we might experience around us, OK?

        
     

How about those folks down the way ... building a small house out of mud and straw?! Well, cob building has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It's low tech, easy to learn, durable and organic. And can be quite charming really.

                                                      

What about those neighbors who grow veggies and fruit trees where there used to be lawn?

Jungles of corn, beans and squash.    Arbors laden with juicy grapes.           

They've got the right idea.

As we reject systems of commerce that rely heavily on fossil fuels to ship food vast distances around the globe, we'll simultaneously be working to recreate our local food systems. We can supplement our traditional farms, by growing food most anywhere and everywhere  ... in abandoned lots, public spaces, school grounds and front yards.

       More & more of us will be growing food right where we live.
              Even the White House got in on the act.


      So, dare to be your True and Authentic Self
     There's no shame in being different.

    

 "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind
     don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."  Dr. Seuss

          Go ahead and trust your experiences, your knowledge and inner guidance.
           Ground yourself in peace, truth and justice. Act with courage and conviction.

                     Get together with others who share a  similar vision.                                                                 

                Who knows where our passions will lead us if we follow the music in our hearts.          

As we become our unique and balanced selves, we enhance the whole.
          We become Peace.   

 

Unfortunately ...   

  "We live in a kind of dark age, craftily lit with synthetic light, so that no one can tell how dark it has really gotten. But our exiled spirits can tell. Deep in our bones resides an ancient singing couple who just won't give up making their beautiful, wild noise. The world won't end if we can find them." Martin Prechtel  (contemporary pan American shaman)

Well, sometimes the search to find that ancient singing couple can get a bit weird, eh?

Because we're talking about radiant inner beauty .... ALIVE ... passionate ... natural.

Seems like we could all use more of that WILD THING ! 

                       

                                                            
       So be kind ... to yourself ... to others.  Accepting.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Take a deep breath. Go for it.

       What matters is that we move forward together, cooperatively.

                         

           We are all a part of the solution, no one more important than another.


      Working together for the common good is fun.... it's satisfying.

 But being jumbled together in a wave of change can be messy.
And plenty of people will continue to suffer.
Everywhere you look, there are people in need. We can all help out. One way or another.
We'll stumble on this new path again and again. And we'll pick ourselves up once again, as we learn to live in better harmony with the Planet and each other.

 

                         As we extend our care and love out to all people, let's remember that along with the "love your neighbor" version of the Golden Rule, there's an expanded one as well.

                 Surely we must apply the ethic of reciprocity to all of creation.     
                                        
                                                                   Because we all breathe the same air:
 The winged ones, the four legged, the crawlers - the lives of others are at stake here as well.
The creeks, the rivers, the bays, the oceans - all the waterways we so dearly depend on - they are all connected.
  The forests, mountain, meadow and  desert communities, they share our fate.
 
 
   EVERYTHING on the planet deserves to be treated kindly and respectfully.
 
This belief is at the heart of the teachings of land based, Earth-honoring peoples everywhere.
   Chief Seattle (Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes, wisely spoke: 
            "Teach your children that the earth is our mother.
 Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.      
                                                                    We did not weave the web; we are merely a strand in it.                                                                                         Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves."
                                                       

                  
               Day in, day out, we'll learn to be kinder to this great planet we all share.

 

"To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny." (from the preamble of The Earth Charter) 

 

Time to Get Rooted