The state agricultural department instructs us to spray a poison to kill the grass in order to plant a native wildflower garden.
The road department leaves years of trash on the roadside but not the trees or bushes.
We grow crops to feed diet-related disease and sickness.
The government subsidizes foods that kill us.
We spray poison to grow food and food is the poison that poisons us.
We are starving in a economy built and maintained by gluttony and greed.
Like Emerson said “Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess.”
We have stuffed our lives with busyness,
our houses with crap
our bodies with junk
our minds with entertainment
our hearts with information
our spirits with fear
While emptying
our spirits of love
our hearts of compassion
our minds of truth
our bodies of life
our houses of charity
our lives of rest.
We are connected but lonely
Informed but ignorant
Comfortable but restless
Violent but cowards
Right but hypocrites
Alive but dead
Loud but dumb
Watchers but blind
Tuned in but shut off
Always eating but never satisfied
Christian but Christless
Atheist but gods
Aware but apathetic
Speaking truths but living a lie.
“No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
As consumers, we are consuming ourselves, our neighbors and our world to death.
No political party
No technology
No ideology
No philosophy
No information
No formula
No system
No program
No product
No pill
No procedure
No man
Not even you
Can save you from yourself.
We avoid ourselves
to accuse and blame others.
Our problems are complex
The solutions are simple.
To save creation
Stop consuming
Stop wasting
Stop taking advantage
Stop using her as a means to your end.
To save creatures
Love creation.
To save yourself
Stop consuming junk
Stop wasting your time, talents and truth
Stop taking advantage of your gifts
Stop using yourself as a means
To your own ends.
To save others
Love yourself.
Stop asking “What do I do?”
Start asking “How am I designed?”
Individuals are a whole and a part. We must learn to do our whole part to nourish our parts and live as whole people part of a whole world.
You are a holy temple
You are sacred
You are not a sewage container
A fast food restaurant
A junkyard
A machine
A computer
Remember who you are…
You are a gift
Treat yourself accordingly.
We are not designed to be consumers.
We are designed to be givers and receivers
Of life
Of love
Of truth
Of hope
Of joy
Of peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
Faithfulness and self-control.
Who are you?
What do you know about yourself?
What is your story?
What do you do with your anger and sadness?
Who do you thank for the gift of you?
Who do you share this gift of you with?
We have curated lifestyles
to avoid our created life.
We have produced gods
To avoid the Creator God.
We kill life in consuming
We resurrect and restore life by receiving and giving love.
The answer to climate change…
Is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
The answer to racism…
Is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
The answer to loneliness…
Is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
The answer to diet-related disease and sickness… Is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
The answer to division, hate, meaninglessness, and hopelessness is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
What am I saying?
I don’t believe we love ourselves
How do I know?
Because 88% of us are causing our own physical sickness and disease.
What else are we causing that we cannot see?
Are our contradictions killing us?
If we do not love ourselves
We will not love others.
Our lifestyles are destroying life.
DeeAnn Dean 