I find myself gravitating to certain words at different times in my life....trying them on like coats until I absorb the fullness of their meaning. My word for this new year is synergy. This word stood out like a mantra in one of my latest reads... The Hundred Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald (an absolute must read and one of the most comprehensive books I have read hands down on the subject pertaining to our toxic world).In his book he speaks of the toxic synergy we have infiltrated into our world from the misuse of synthetic chemicals. He defines synergy as "the simultaneous acton of two or more chemicals (or processes) in which the total effect is much greater than the sum of the individual effects." He eloquently points out that we have yet to discover the outcome of this chemical stew we are living in and scarier yet are the unknown affects these chemical combinations (will) have on our overall health and survival as a species.
The body burden of chemicals we each walk around with (over 700 each according to the EPA) has become normalized in today's society. We accept this toxic world as if we have always been a species laden with chemical properties when indeed it has only been 100 years since they were first introduced. This ongoing low exposure to all kinds of chemicals is not well understood, nor safe. Rachel Carson brought to light this exact concern in the 1962 with her book Silent Spring, yet from 1964 to 1992 chemical pesticide use in US agriculture increased 300 percent. What is the effect of just this one chemical spewed out into our air, dumped into our soil (food) and washed into our streams and rivers?
"An important factor rarely considered for apologists for the synthetics belief system is how single chemicals that seem benign by themselves can become monsters when they interact as an additive effect or synergistically with other chemicals to greatly magnify their effects." (p.29) We are living in a world out of control and instead of throwing our hands up in the air we need to plant our feet in the ground. We need to demand change.
How can we take this concept of synergy and apply the same principals to this new way of life we are defining? How can each of us individually come together and blend in ways that are not hazardous, but instead healing, as we reclaim our planet? If we each keep holding our point yet willingly reach out to others who are doing the same we will begin to weave together a tapestry that will take on a life of its own. Together we can make our own magic that will be the balm that nurtures our wounds rather than the poisons that are silently killing us.
I feel the synergy in my conversations with others who are seeking the same. I feel the possibility in moments when we come together and allow our energies, visions and intentions to intertwine and let goodness unfold. In a time when our senses have been manipulated and confused to an extreme, I trust in our instinctual, intuitive selves to know the difference between right and wrong and find our way home again.
May 2009 bless us with health and new beginnings.
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