When I used to write songs, changing time was as simple as introducing a new time signature. When we had babies, it was as simple as making sure that there were enough cloth diapers clean and on hand, warming a washcloth and doing the ages old deed. If we remained diligent and aware, for the most part, it took a few minutes tops. When it comes time to get ready for a night on the town, as most men know, it only involves throwing on a new shirt, or perhaps changing pants and shirt if it was a particularly work-filled day. In the time it takes to blink, or eat a sandwich, life can change forever. Not just the mood, purpose or attitude we have toward it, but the whole of our existence. Just ask those who recently went through the destruction of the more and more frequent natural disasters. As fast as our world can be ripped asunder, it can rise up, out of an ash cloud and head for the stars. Changes are coming, but without our paying attention, and responding appropriately, we may miss the chance to make those changes with grace.
It has been a long time coming, but the new time signature of our lives will either take place with us all becoming fully aware, simultaneously, or with great dislocation and strife. We are the ultimate decision-makers that will have make up our minds about whether this will be a smooth transition or a more wrenching one. Like a tight group of players, we can make the change simultaneously and with fluidity, or we can clash, each making our own way through a fog of dissonance.
Some may not realize what just is taking place. With luck the majority will. If we can manage to jump time with awareness and grace, it will sound like a chord change accomplished by consummate musicians, if it happens the other way, the traumatic crash and painful dislocation will be heard around the planet. I have written about the coming of the age of Aquarius a time or two, but this is actually a date certain that is still about 150 years away. Like the full moon, which appears to last a few days, the dawning of this new age, which lasts 2600 years or so may take a few hundred years to"dawn". The flower children or Rainbows may have been the first wave, but as so often happens, what they actually were was quite different than what the powerful told us. Many of us (the current change agents) feel like aliens amongst human-kind, but for good reason. We are the first of several generations that will be needed to make the shift to the age of the water bearers.
A groundswell is taking place at this time. Native people from around the world are standing up to demand an end to their oppression and the violent extractions of "resources" that is and has been taking place. In my day, I found it better to speak of the resource base in terms of gifts. The gods and goddesses have smiled on us, in infinite and varied ways. Like finding a salt lick in the forest, each element and mineral has areas that hold concentrations of potential wealth or sustenance and in some cases profitability, but the way we often approach resource use is to believe that they (the resources/gifts) are solely placed in the landscape for our use. Native beliefs recognize the fact that the value of most resources are far more than their commercial value under a scheme of exploitation. The frackers are rushing headlong down the path of diminishing returns and will eventually deplete resources that they have yet to consider. Nothing will ever grow on their gravel pads and the areas around them will be affected for centuries, perhaps millennea. The same is being done by diamond miners, gold seekers, foresters, most agricultural corporations and those who extract and exploit every gift that has been bestowed upon us, attempting to convert it to wealth, power and prestige.
In the time it takes to read this sentence, the parameters that we once had assumed can be changed to include a new perspective. Again, if we all change together, we will be able to do it harmoniously. Failing that, there will be mass dislocation, strife and discord. In the future, we will have to honor the sanctity of the food shed, our trophic level, other beings we share the planet with, the cycle of water, of nutrients, of toxic chemicals in the environment and the energy cycles inherent in all life. If we continue to tell one another that wealth and greed are our inalienable rights, we will remain out of step with the planet and continue to defend the untenable position of extraction and oppression that has torn the ecological fabric of life on Earth asunder.
It has been a long time coming, but the new time signature of our lives will either take place with us all becoming fully aware, simultaneously, or with great dislocation and strife. We are the ultimate decision-makers that will have make up our minds about whether this will be a smooth transition or a more wrenching one. Like a tight group of players, we can make the change simultaneously and with fluidity, or we can clash, each making our own way through a fog of dissonance.
Some may not realize what just is taking place. With luck the majority will. If we can manage to jump time with awareness and grace, it will sound like a chord change accomplished by consummate musicians, if it happens the other way, the traumatic crash and painful dislocation will be heard around the planet. I have written about the coming of the age of Aquarius a time or two, but this is actually a date certain that is still about 150 years away. Like the full moon, which appears to last a few days, the dawning of this new age, which lasts 2600 years or so may take a few hundred years to"dawn". The flower children or Rainbows may have been the first wave, but as so often happens, what they actually were was quite different than what the powerful told us. Many of us (the current change agents) feel like aliens amongst human-kind, but for good reason. We are the first of several generations that will be needed to make the shift to the age of the water bearers.
A groundswell is taking place at this time. Native people from around the world are standing up to demand an end to their oppression and the violent extractions of "resources" that is and has been taking place. In my day, I found it better to speak of the resource base in terms of gifts. The gods and goddesses have smiled on us, in infinite and varied ways. Like finding a salt lick in the forest, each element and mineral has areas that hold concentrations of potential wealth or sustenance and in some cases profitability, but the way we often approach resource use is to believe that they (the resources/gifts) are solely placed in the landscape for our use. Native beliefs recognize the fact that the value of most resources are far more than their commercial value under a scheme of exploitation. The frackers are rushing headlong down the path of diminishing returns and will eventually deplete resources that they have yet to consider. Nothing will ever grow on their gravel pads and the areas around them will be affected for centuries, perhaps millennea. The same is being done by diamond miners, gold seekers, foresters, most agricultural corporations and those who extract and exploit every gift that has been bestowed upon us, attempting to convert it to wealth, power and prestige.
In the time it takes to read this sentence, the parameters that we once had assumed can be changed to include a new perspective. Again, if we all change together, we will be able to do it harmoniously. Failing that, there will be mass dislocation, strife and discord. In the future, we will have to honor the sanctity of the food shed, our trophic level, other beings we share the planet with, the cycle of water, of nutrients, of toxic chemicals in the environment and the energy cycles inherent in all life. If we continue to tell one another that wealth and greed are our inalienable rights, we will remain out of step with the planet and continue to defend the untenable position of extraction and oppression that has torn the ecological fabric of life on Earth asunder.
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