Uncomfortable Uncertainty

I have come to realize that my role in this lifetime is to hold the bigger vision. I am an eternal optimist and I can almost always see what is possible. I get excited by ideas and my connections with others feed the vision. Yet, there are days when I too do not feel so inspired and visionary.

In the corner of my mind, I wonder if the outcome of all of our amazing actions will amount to anything at all. I doubt our ability to impact the “super powers” who are the ones controlling our atmosphere, creating wars and supporting our false economy. Our actions or inactions are minute in comparison.

When I think of what the military is spraying in our skies, the micro-chipping of our population and the poisoning of the masses through packaged, processed foods - and the numbers of folks oblivious to it all – I get a bit depressed. Sigh.

In the bigger picture it is almost as if “climate change” is just a tactic to keep us distracted. I just wish that I lived in a time where I knew the net outcome of my efforts so I could best utilize the limited energy and resources I have. How comforting it would be to just know something for sure!

My great-grandparents lived in a time not so long ago and knew that if they planted seeds something was going to grow. In today’s quickly changing world we have no idea the result of our actions - even ten years from now. None of us really know what to expect the world to be like in the decades to come. We can only speculate about what kind of world our children will inherit and the challenges they will face. I wonder things like, will they have water to drink? Will they know how to grow their own food?
This is where the combination of strategy and organization comes in. If we create a plan and lots of us do it then of course we can create change…that’s what the tipping point is all about. But first we need to know what it is we are planning for. That is why it is essential that each of us reach out to one another. We must share what we do know to be true – even if it is in visionary form. And we must all hold each other up on the days where it all feels too big for just one person.

Perspective

It's all in the way we look at things that shapes our paths. I have been thinking a lot lately about the vision behind the co-op we are launching and the impact it will have on the surrounding community. I am also envisioning the kinds of people that will be drawn to the project and what will motivate them to get involved.

There will be obvious benefits from being either a consumer member or business member of our co-op and with the existing economy many folks will be seeking to join in search of savings. But I also think we will be attracting others who are seeking a different way of life. There are those out there much like ourselves who are more willing to pay the price for organic, local foods that are more sustainable - even if it means cutting down in other areas of our lives.

The idea of growing our own local economy and building community is of utmost importance. We are buying into the vision of a different way of life and the cost may have an initial price tag attached. Nnetheless, we beleive that in the long run the benefits reaped will be ultra cost-effective and manifest a better quality of life. The choices we make today will pave the way for future generations to follow.

Those of us who have been paying for organic food all along already have a more realistic price of the true cost of food. For others, the increasing food costs predicted over the course of 2008 and coupled with fuel costs might come as a shock to the budget.

Being that our family spends probably over 50% of our annual budget on food (including supplements, body care & home cleaning products), I have been surprised to discover how little most families actually allocate to this most essential "piece of the pie".

I was skimming a copy of a mainstream magazine that targets a more simplistic way of life and it outlined one moms monthly budget of $7,100. I was astonished to see that the amount spent on food was way less than the cable bill, pampering fees and entertainment costs. That amount excluded the outrageous cost of daycare and au paire services. The main concern for this mom was figuring out how to pay for private schools, and most likely a private school more concerned with what is being put into kids heads - not into their mouths.

I think this is a common theme for most moms today. We have settled for empty, packaged, processed food that is incapable of nourishing both body and soul. Food, the fuel that feeds both the bodies and minds of our growing children, is not valued with utmost importance. Children of today are developing substandard to the children of generations past - during a time where they need more strength than ever before to fast the challenges of the future.

The connection between health and diet is overlooked. Instead our culture connects more with the idea of over-medicating and over-consuming. The same magazine featured an ad by Target now offering color coded medications to help family members identify their personalized perscriptions. How insane is this? Yes, Target, we are a culture on drugs misled by savy marketing tactics like yours to convince the masses whose minds have been numbed that being "drugged" isn't such a bad thing! I say throw away the meds, turn off the tv and feed your children some food with real nutritional value. Now that's simplifying the budget.

Where to next?

No longer are we able to find our own way. In today’s world we rely on technology to show us what we need to know – the computer, the TV, the GPS, the ultrasound…
There are no internal cues to guide us. We have become dependent upon outside sources- dependent on technology to decipher our experiences.

It is a case of the directionless leading the directionless. And as a result, we have a big mess. Generations have become deaf to the non-verbal language of Mother Earth. Our internal compasses have been discarded. We are no longer able to interpret her subtle messages.

We have lost touch with the planet we depend upon. We are unable to recognize signs of fertile soil and toxic wastelands. We are ignorant to the heavy metals sprayed by our own government into our atmosphere that permeate our beings. We are blind to the devastation of our surrounding eco-systems.

We are stuck inside air-conditioned boxes that keep us separated from others plugged into an artificial world that feeds us more and more disillusion. We are sold goods that are deficient in nutrition and are known to be the cause of our suffering. All in the name of profit. We are their guinea pigs!

As women, we have been taught to distrust our bodies. We hand over our power to doctors who can only determine the position and size of a baby with radiation rather than the human hand. We have lost connection not only with ourselves, but to each other. We have carried that disconnection to our children. We parent from a distance and live our lives from a hands-off approach, rather than hands-on and then wonder what happened.

It is time to step outside the “safety” of our boxes and return to living our lives from places of truth. It is time to look to the skies and see what is really going on. It is time to plant our feet in the earth and say no to toxins leaching into our soils. Only when we open our minds to what is going on will we be able to affect real change in our world. We must take back our world before it completely disappears right before our very own eyes.