Yesterday was the March against Monsanto. Not as many people showed as last year, but the ones that did show were passionate, caring and inspiring. It made me rethink one of my core philosophies.
I agreed with Mother Theresa about protest. I don’t have the exact quote but it was about standing up for peace instead of protesting against war.
Quantum physics tells us that energy goes where attention goes, so I’ve always felt that my energy was best used to build something good to replace what I felt wasn’t working. It seemed more effective to stand for something I believed in rather than stand up against something I didn’t. But I learned something last night. We need both.
The language of it all fascinates me. Stand up for what you believe in. Don’t stand for that. I can’t stand that. Take a stand. The last stand. Or sometimes we march. If we can’t stand it, we have a sit-in. It made me rethink the energetics of it all. Of course, being me, I have to equate it to nature.
A stand of trees: is a contiguous community of trees sufficiently uniform in composition, structure, age and size class distribution, spatial arrangement, site quality, condition, or location to distinguish it from adjacent communities.(Wikipedia)
Those of us standing up for the planet are like a stand of trees. We are deeply rooted in our beliefs and although we may not be standing next to one another, we know each other by our commonalities. Our roots intertwine although we may not be aware of it.
In the forest, the underground mycorrhizal network transports information and resources intelligently so that the entire system stays balanced and healthy. In nature, communication and sharing of information is vital to the system. It’s how it all works. But sometimes, things need to be put back towards balance.
Balance has its own energetics. When something is radically out of balance, it takes radical opposition to correct it. Forest fires are a good example of this. Or, when the population of one animal gets too large, nature might create disease, famine or increase the predator population. Nature recognizes the value of burning something down so that the system can find the healthy balance again.
To be clear, I’m not advocating that we burn anything down. What I do believe is that passionate, peaceful resistance and clear opposition to those things that don’t benefit the system are a necessary part of keeping the system in balance.
In nature, everything is a valuable part of the whole, from the smallest microbe to the tallest tree. All are necessary, and it is sometimes the smallest microbe that plays the most vital role. The trees don’t take arbitrary action that would benefit them over the microbes. Every part of the system works for the health of the system, not the individual.
Humans haven’t gotten to the place where we understand our place in the system. The hive mind has eluded us, and we still come from a place of thinking that we can somehow operate outside of the system, or worse, create something that we have the hubris to think is better than the natural system that we have yet to fully understand. (like GMO’s)
Protesting against those things that have the potential to destabilize the system upon which we all depend on is important. As we work to build our own intelligent system, using the internet to nurture the emergence of the collective consciousness and finding our way to our own understanding of how we need to nourish our system for the good of all, we also need to stand against that which would hinder or harm our ability to do so.
Trish Sheldon, Carrie Mintz , Bruce Stanley and Nicole Sauvegeau did an amazing job of creating awareness, and a stellar event that brought us together to recognize both what we stand for and what we WON’T stand for. They inspired this blog and sent great nourishment into our local stand of plant lovers. Now it’s up to us to be the mycorrhizal network that spreads this nourishment throughout. Join www.growsoc.com and stand up in whatever way works for you, or reach out to March Against Monsanto at GMOFreeFlorida
This is what standing up looks like for me:
S- Simplifying. – keeping a low footprint and being happy with what I have
T- Trusting. – Knowing that if I feed the system, the system feeds me
A- Applying – Applying the principals of living within the limits of the planetary system
N-Nurturing – Nurturing the planet and giving back where I can
D- Demonstrating – Living in a way that demonstrates the principals of planetary abundance for all within the limits of the system. What does it look like for you?
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