We need to stop speeding through life and chasing after that something we can never quite catch. It’s time to slow down to the speed of nature and experience each season in it’s time. At nature’s pace we create a space, allowing our evolution to speed up. We become more aware of our connection to the Earth and the Cosmos. In our early stages of evolution, the Earth is like a parent (a mother), we take our needs from her, without any real thought or compassion towards her, like a newborn baby or very young child, we don’t know any better.
Before we evolve spiritually beyond this level, we do not see the Earth as a sentient being who is evolving along with us, we just see a big blue-green planet hurtling through the Cosmos, that we use to provide all of our perceived needs. Cutting all the trees down to build our McMansions, not even considering that the trees provide the oxygen we need to breathe. We pump our sewage and drain our agricultural wastes into her once pure, clean rivers, not even recognizing we are polluting the water that we need to drink. We drill for offshore oil, polluting and killing the oceans, the heart and circulatory system of our Earth Mother.
We don’t do these things because we’re evil, stupid or selfish. The truth is we don’t even completely understand that what we’re doing is so detrimental to our survival. The status quo even suggests this is progress, and as a society we have not evolved enough to see this startling truth. If we do not evolve quickly enough to understand what we are doing to the Earth, it will be too late! I’m not criticizing, I worked in the Oil & Gas industry for almost 40 years. My job was to design techniques to extract fossil fuels from the Earth as efficiently as possible and I was pretty sure at the time that my endeavor was making life better for mankind. Providing the much needed energy to forge ahead on our grand campaign here on planet Earth.
Sync with Nature
However, when I slowed down a little on my journey and started living more in sync with nature again, I began to grasp the severity of the current paradigm. We are at a critical juncture in our evolution, it is almost as if we’re stuck. I recognize that evolution is not a linear progression. That we advance through a series of stalls and starts, including and spanning all that came before as we increase our spiritual depth, but lately it feels almost as if we’re regressing. Becoming more tribal and less inclusive. I believe by slowing down we can gain a more spiritual perspective, allowing us to see with more clarity and greater awareness. Creating the space we need to evolve.
I remember being with a friend in Utah many years back, exploring some back road in the middle of nowhere, probably 30 miles from the nearest highway, not that it mattered but it symbolized civilization and safety. We got caught in a deluge; an incredibly powerful storm that dumped inches of rain in a very short period. The roads there were a mix of clay and powdery caliche, that when wet became a slippery, sticky and impassable surface. We put the truck in 4WD, but it didn’t really make any difference, the truck just fishtailed back and forth, making little forward progress on the road.
We struggled for awhile, backing up and spinning the wheels faster, trying to build up enough momentum to create forward progress but it just wasn’t going to happen. Finally we realized the insanity of it and both broke out laughing at the same time. We were going nowhere until the road dried out enough to provide a stable surface. There was no value in doing the same thing over and over with the same result. The way forward was not to continue spinning our wheels, sweating and cussing in frustration but to wait for the road to dry up, instead of struggling on towards perceived safety.
Safety is an Illusion
So we backed down the road to a flat spot, where there was a rock outcrop, parked the truck and kicked back and waited. We had camping gear with us, so we set camp, hiked some in the afternoon, photographing and enjoying the scenery. We stayed over night, the stiff breeze that came in behind the storm dried out the roads and the next day we drove right out, with only a few low wet spots creating a problem.
As we struggle towards the perceived safety of civilization, our tribe or cling to our belief system, we expend all of our vital energy going nowhere, just spinning our wheels in the mud, angry and frustrated. Going nowhere with full and complete intent is so much more powerful and enjoyable than to fight with all of our energy against impossible odds. Slowing down a little or even stopping completely for awhile will provide an updated perspective.
Only when we slow down and shine the light of awareness on what we are struggling against do we start making progress in our personal evolution. We need to stop making our struggle our purpose, it is the struggle that hides our purpose and until we quit identifying with it, we will remain stuck. Slow down, quit fighting so hard, take your cues from nature and the Cosmos. We are all in this together, let’s Evolve.
