From Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe
(In Response to an offer from President Franklin Pierce in 1853 to purchase 2 million acres of land)
Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore,
every mist in the dark woods,
every clearing and humming insect is holy ...
This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water,
but the blood of our ancestors ...
If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred,
And you must teach your children that it is sacred ...
If we sell you our land,
you must remember and teach your children
that the rivers are our brothers, and yours,
and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness
you would give my brother. |
Dear Friends,
I’ve been thinking about prosperity lately. And wealth. And abundance. I’ve been thinking about what those words mean, and I’ve been thinking about how corrupted they have become in our culture. For example, I am struck by how many people, in America, the wealthiest country of the 21st century, are working on abundance or prosperity consciousness. And I am chewing on that as, I, too, wish to open to abundance in my life. But what does that mean?
Until five years ago, the tallest buildings in America were the World Trade Center 
Twin Towers . If the tallest building in a culture represents that which is most valued, respected and worshipped (which I believe), than perhaps America is a culture whose most treasured resource is money. (I think of it as The Church of the Holy Dollar). Only … uh-oh … something happened after 9/11. We went from a burgeoning economy to one in trouble. We were hit hard in a place that many in this culture worship. And now, many people are working on abundance. Hmmmm…it makes me wonder.
I’m wondering these things: First of all, what is abundance, prosperity or wealth? I looked it up. The first definition of wealth in the Encarta Dictionary is a “large amount of money.” The second is a “state of having much money.” When we get down to the fifth, the last in the list, the definition of wealth shifts to “well-being.” I find it interesting that well-being is at the bottom of the list. And I find it sad. Though there are many, many, many of us out there in the world working for change, working to make room for our lives to be devoted to the well-being of our own souls and the souls around us, the status quo in American culture is that well-being is at the bottom of the list in defining wealth. Why not define wealth in terms of creativity? What about joy, relationship, love, or laughter? Why mainly, money?
I recognize that money is an important aspect of life, but I wonder whether it truly is the main measure of wealth, at least for me. I have certainly been known to define my success by how much money I make. And I have measured myself against an image of wealth defined in American culture -- by how big the house is, how grand the vacation, or how chi-chi the spa. Yet, as I spend more and more time in the natural world, I find that none of these things actually define wealth or success for me. This gets me thinking: In nature, prosperity simply ‘is’. There is no work involved; simply opening. All one need do is look around to see the wealth and abundance of nature. It’s a feast for the eyes! And for the heart. So the thought of working on prosperity becomes an oxymoron.
When I spend time living in nature (as in personal camping or leading a retreat out on the land) I find myself completely satisfied with very little in the realm of accoutrements. It’s a relief, in fact, to get out from underneath all the stuff of life and to live, for a time, free of the encumbrances of all that. Along with the freedom, I notice that I feel full. I feel abundant. I feel wealthy – rich in spirit and joy – something money has never given me directly.
I ask myself how to integrate the sense of abundance I experience in the wild within a culture that values money above all else. And, how do I live in a culture that honors finances over resources? I find that merging the fullness of nature with the consumptive quality of modern life is a big challenge. Natural systems balance themselves in order to create a harmonious ecosystem, but in the modern world the human factor impacts the natural order, creating a precarious balance of great extremes and polarizations. Here in American culture, ‘the air we breathe’, carries values such as money over people, oil over water, rich over poor, economy over education, profits over resources, and consumer-culture over indigenous-culture. Whether or not we are aware of it, and whether or not we agree with it, we all breathe this ‘air.’
Here’s what I am thinking about that: If we are unconsciously bound by the mindset of our culture – one that supports and encourages us to believe that “Whoever dies with the most toys, wins,” – then perhaps our attempt to develop wealth will mistakenly be applied to aspects of life that do not truly create a wealthy state of body, mind, or spirit. I am thinking that in order to fully accept our prosperity, it is up to each of us to live, through both word and deed, in ways that honor the wealth and abundance given by the earth. I am thinking that cultural change occurs through personal change, one person at a time, until there is enough consciousness to turn the tide, and I am hoping that, regarding the state of our planet, this occurs before it is too late.
Though I have been conservation-minded since the very first Earth Day, in the 1970’s, I have recently been compelled to step up my preservation practices through new actions. Clean, running tap water is a privilege I no longer take for granted, though it is easy to do here in America. To change this attitude, I have given myself a practice: every single time that I turn on the tap and receive clean water, I offer gratitude. When I wash the dishes (at least once a day) I turn off the faucet when I am not directly using the water coming out of it. I soap all my dishes first, and then I rinse them. I keep the stopper in the sink and keep track of how much water I am using. I make a game of it, competing against myself. The less water I accumulate, the greater my ‘score!’ (I don’t really keep score, but the idea of it makes the practice more fun for me!)
Though I have no way of truly tracking how much water I conserve, I have found that this practice gives me much joy, and through that I experience wealth. And this practice 'keeps me honest' and impacts my relationship to my body and the body of the earth, from which I am born. It connects me to that which I most value. This is true wealth of soul and spirit to me! Honoring the life-giving, abundant resources of the earth through conservation and care is a constant reminder of my responsibility to tend for the earth, and of my gratitude to her for the abundance, wealth, life, sustanance, and nourishment given to us by her. For me, conserving water is an act of personal revolution. It is a conscious, stepped up practice which I perfom as a stance in renovation of the status quo. I no longer treat clean running water as a 'given.'
This practice is actually terribly inconvenient when compared to the simplicity of just running the water and using it unconsciously. To be completely honest, sometimes I find it quite annoying. That’s when I remind myself how annoying and inconvenient it would be not to have clean running water at all!! I remind myself that there actually is a possibility that this could happen within the next 50 years. That’s when I start talking to myself, reminding me that taking a few extra minutes of dishwashing time, to contribute to the well-being (or wealth) of the planet, and consequently to my own wealth and well-being, is not an inconvenience!
Here are a few other practices that I engage to honor the incredible wealth of this planet and my life. I wash my clothes in cold water except in rare situations. I unplug appliances I am not using. I insulate my attic and put double paned windows into my home. I use the dishwasher minimally. I take loving care of my own body and of the earth's body by eating organically grown food as much as I can. I recycle (here in the Bay Area, that’s a no-brainer!) I pay great attention to how much energy I use to take care of the business of living. I make small changes and sacrifices in the world of fast rushing cars and busy business that honor the wilderness world from which comes great abundances of joy, hope, and fulfillment along with a great wealth of spirit. This is recognizing my wealth. To me, this is the core of social activism; each of us making small changes, one at a time.
I have been remembering a story about Gandhi that I heard a long time ago. A woman came to him with her son, and asked the great man to please tell the boy to stop eating so much sugar! Gandhi sent her away, telling her to come back in two weeks. When she came back in two weeks, Gandhi simply told her son, ‘Stop eating so much sugar.” When the woman asked him why he’d sent her away and why he hadn’t just said those words two weeks ago, Gandhi’s response was simple. He said, “I had to stop eating so much sugar myself, first.”
I have an urgent request for all of you. In order to ask this of you, I have asked myself, first, to become more rigorous in my personal practices related to caring for the earth. As I think about prosperity I recognize with deep gratitude just how prosperous I am, and how prosperous all of us are. To honor that prosperity, everyday I give gratitude for the earth and how she sustains me personally, and all of us, globally. Today, I do not take for granted one drop of clean water that comes from my faucet, and I practice using it wisely. I walk as gently as I can upon the earth, praying that there will still be a wild and free place for the children of my friends and family, and for their children. And I pray that there will be clean water for them to drink.
Today I ask this of you: to pay attention to the wild beauty and the preciousness of the resources our mother earth provides, to become aware of how you use water, and to respect and appreciate the prosperity it represents. I ask you to develop a practice that you can adhere to for a year – a small sacrifice that will be inconvenient, but that will remind you in the midst of your busy life to serve the lives that will come after you. I ask you to make one small choice to do something different to conserve the earth’s resources or to stop contributing to global warming. I ask you to recognize the wealth and abundance that is available to you and to honor it with your care.
I know that there is more that needs to be done to recognize and honor our wealth and to create a culture that honors all levels of prosperity. I need to honor my spirit more, and to conserve more. We all do. I need to be ever mindful of what other changes or challenges are called for from me. We all do. And mostly, I feel how deeply important it is to be grateful for the rich abundance we are all so privileged to receive…I invite you, too, to recognize and give gratitudes for the abundance you already, so effortlessly, receive from this incredible planet.
And, I SO invite you to join me on an Earth Wisdom Retreat in the near future! Please join me in a magnificent canyon or on red rocks … Sink into the grand arms of the mother earth with a circle of fellow soulworkers like yourself. The mystery awaits you! There are two retreats scheduled for 2007 and I look forward to you joining me there. See the calendar below for details…
...And, as always....wherever your path leads you … I wish you well.
Love, Lily
