Several people have asked me how I can ‘be still’ when the world is hurtling toward the greatest climate disaster we can imagine. Don’t we need to act? To stop it? To do something? Won’t simply being in stillness allow us to be defeated by the energies of selfishness and greed that are creating this disaster? But being still doesn’t mean we don’t act and help and do whatever we can to stand up for what is healing and good in our world! I’m not advocating retreating to a cave for forty years in order to receive enlightenment. Stillness is not about that. When we’re still, we’re able to experience ourselves, each other, and our planet as a unified whole. We become aware of our interconnectedness. In the same way that our bodies are made up of intricate cells with their own purpose and function, but create one being, so our natural world is intricately part of us and we are part of it. Our climate crisis belongs to all of us. It’s a disease that we need to address holistically, lovingly, energetically, and organically. Being still makes us hyper-aware of that. Every small or large action we take makes a difference—even every conscious thought that reminds us and our planet that we care and love is significant. We can feel grief about the deadly pollutants in the ocean and we can feel outrage and actively try to do something about it (activism, research, philanthropy, avoid plastic, etc) and we can connect with the consciousness of water through mindfulness when we drink of it, reassuring it, loving it, blessing it … if we did all those things, big changes would happen. Through stillness we gain a deeper understanding of our interdependence on all-that-is. Through stillness we remember that our despair and outrage is actually founded in love for all-that-is. Every breath we take can be a testament to that love and a small step toward greater healing.
