We all love the gifts of growth and development:
- Longer, healthier lives!
- Surviving kids!
- Food from all over the world, year-round!
- Better, bigger houses with tap water and a washing machine!
- Communication via radio, TV, computer, and mobile phone!
- Travelling across the globe!
- Knowledge and entertainment 24/7!
Who wants to limit any of this for oneself?
Or tell someone else to restrict their life?
Or tell the poor not to dream about it?
Though we know that we can’t have limitless growth on a finite planet, and we consume 1.2 planets today, and the human population is still growing.
The List of Suspects
To handle the downsides of our progress, we have a long list of suspects to blame:
- The rich and the capitalist system.
- Colonialism and Western civilisation.
- Men and the patriarchy.
- The rational mind and technology.
Pointing the finger, not sensing the underlying force in all of us.
The Irrepressible Life Force
Take a deep breath and feel that you are a part of life on Earth, all the way back to the cell that lived around 3,8 billion years ago, from which all life on Earth has sprung, including you. Life on Earth is the story of the irrepressible life force, exploiting every possible niche. Our giant family tree is found in the oceans and lakes, in the air, on the plains, in the mountains, and within hard rocks, chilly ice, and hot springs.
Our family tree has gone through at least five mass extinctions, but it always got back up and formed new species and new diverse and complex ecosystems. Though to recover after a mass extinction event takes five to thirty million years, depending on the scale of the crash. It’s not a quick fix, but a persistent struggle to keep on living and evolving.
Owning it – No Separation
We, as humanity, are the most potent expression of this life force. And there is nothing strong enough to counter-balance us, no outer borders that can hold us. Our mighty strength is also our challenge and our curse.
It’s about time to own the irrepressible life force within myself.
Feel its beauty and strength – It gave birth to me and everything I love.
Feel its limitless growth – It’s destroying me and everything I love.
There is no separation—nothing outside me to point the finger at and blame.
When I am one with our Planetary Life Force, I can start to feel into how I might self-limit, as the Embrace of all of us.
All photos of the same alder tree at Lake Ringsjön in Fulltofta. The tree lives through winter, high water and low water. Notable is also the reed and other plants that have started to grow in the sand due to this summers extream low water. Photos by Stina Deurell.