Cultivating a Spring Heart
Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
– Rainer Maria Rilke
From the big budding oak behind my house two boisterous black ravens glide overhead announcing the birth of a new spring. I look up from my small garden plot and smile. In this early morning moment all seems right with the world. I have no thoughts of things to come or what has been. I am at home here on this spinning blue planet. What joy to dig in the earth planting seeds, pulling weeds and humming in harmony with the quail, robins, finch, jays and all manner of geese and water fowl traveling the Pacific Flyway above Grass Valley. I know at this moment without a doubt that I am not above nature, but an integral part of her unfolding.
Kneeling on this earth I am happy, my fear for the future dissolves into hope and then faith. I trust the impulses of the natural world to guide us through these challenging times. We are living at a time in history when we have an opportunity to witness one of the greatest evolutionary transformations that has occurred since Homo sapiens, Latin for “wise humans”, first walked this earth some 200,000 years ago. This is bigger than opposable thumbs, agriculture, the industrial revolution and the information age. If we don’t destroy ourselves in the process, it appears that we are headed towards personal and global illumination or what has been prophesied as “The Golden Age”.
You are all sacred souls and you will have your parts to play in the
unfolding drama of the new Golden Age, which is coming.
– Sri Sathya Sai Baba
So, what is our part in this evolutionary unfolding? This question haunts me day and night. I know it is not to become a better consumer, an angry hate-spewing zealot or to loose myself in the latest TV Sitcom. But, how do I find my soul direction, the path that best expresses and embodies my greatest gifts and capacities? To discover this I know I must come to that still point where I merge into the fullness of the natural world. I go to the Yuba River to flow into that spacious emptiness that lives beyond the mental chatter. An unknown yet familiar voice breaks my solitude, “If we are to enter the golden age we must discover the gold within the human heart!” Sounds good, but when I look at the state of the world I wonder if that is even possible at this juncture in the human experiment?
Human madness has reached epidemic proportions. In the past 2,000 years we have had over 5,000 wars. In the US there has been a documented increase by 244% of angry rightwing radical “patriot” and “hate” groups in the past year, and America has the highest prison and jail population in the world. Political, social and economic separation is fomenting a rude and vitriolic sense of alienation. People are angry and looking for someone or something to blame. This does not sound like a heart-centered world. The real path to planetary peace, economic stability and environmental sustainability seems to be to heal the wounds that alienate, separate and marginalize us from each other. How can we accomplish that? As part of nature, the way we treat each other, is the way we treat ourselves. Perhaps the path to wholeness is to heal our own toxic thoughts.
It is not what we do that changes the world,
it is who we become.
– Sandra Ingerman
So who are we becoming? Not long ago I reached a crisis point in my own life. As a researcher of the social, environmental and spiritual issues of our time I found myself getting more and more angry at the escalating destruction of our environment, the increasing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots”, and the seeming loss of human kindness in our everyday interactions with each other. I tried to put a positive spin on what I saw, but I still found myself alienating people. I felt that people just didn’t want to hear about the very real things that are threatening all life on this planet! Instead of inspiring people to action, I was leaving them in a greater state of denial, frustration and anxiety.
These toxic thoughts and the corresponding actions and conversations I brought into the world were the one thing I clearly had the power to change. They were in opposition to my intention for taking on a life of service. I began to witness how many noxious and negative thoughts were streaming through my moment-to-moment consciousness. It became clear to me that the work I needed to do was not on the world, but on my own thought processes. What began as a longing to live in a world of peace, harmony and celebration towards all life was often perceived as a contaminated and poisonous spill on the pristine canvas of cosmic consciousness and possibility.
Now as never before we must unleash the creative potential of the species and direct it to democratizing our cultures and institutions and bringing ourselves into balance with one another and Earth.
– David Korten
I guess what I’ve learned in this self-reflective process is that I need to first become aware of my own unhealthy thoughts and then transform them through paying attention to what comes goes into my head and out of my mouth. We are the creators of our own reality. Nature is programmed to thrive, just look around, we live in the Garden of Eden. Spending time in the natural world and finding stillness in our lives is essential to being a purveyor of planetary peace. To be a part of nature, means to be kind to ourselves and recognize our profound interconnectedness with all life. Mostly I have found that my soul’s purpose and direction is to love. What else would be at the heart of bringing forth a Golden Age, but to tend to the garden of the heart?
Thank you for joining me on this amazing journey of the heart. May each day bring renewal, restoration and rebirth as you cultivate peace and understanding in the garden of your heart…
In Love and Celebration,
michael
Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.
– The Earth Charter
