Resolutions for Earth Living 2017

Dear People,

           The Earth thanks you and I thank you for the steps you took in 2016 to care for our common life on this Earth. It is good that we continue to expand our efforts in 2017.

Our mainstream culture has been mistaken in many ways about the Earth and about us as human beings. It is time to know and live who we truly are and who the Earth truly is. We can know how to live in harmonious connection with an Earth we come to understand, respect and live within her and our natural order so she is healthy and so are we.

Through this process we can discover a different balance of life and be less thrown about by fears and projections of what may happen to humans and their life on Earth. We can begin to think for ourselves and transform our ways of living as we discover what we may be doing that is causing harm.

The Earth is Sacred, just as we are Sacred Creation in process. Let us step into Co-Creative Action speaking intentions each day to live in harmony in all our ways of doing and by asking for clues and guidance. Many books, workshops and organizations can help us in this process, with Source, the Earth and beings of Nature to draw on. Let’s put the Earth first, knowing her design, then design our own lives to support Earth.

I invite you to join in considering the following “Resolutions for 2017” (1 a month) to benefit Earth and us all.

Resolutions for Earth Living 2017

1. Live every day with the Earth in mind and heart with gratitude in all you do.

2. Become more conscious of the ways that you take care of yourself which could be transformed into contributions to restore Earth but which now contribute to climate change and degradation of ecosystems. Please choose to transform or lessen negative impacts.

3. Make a commitment to cut back 25% on fossil fuel use in your personal daily transportation; choose one day a week to use alternative transportation

4. Make a commitment to cut back 45% to 50% on your air travel.

5. Make a commitment to shift from eating conventionally produced foods in favor of eating organic foods, even a few at a time and especially local sources.

6. Make a commitment to avoid meat processed in feed lots, eat 50% less meat sources and instead substitute other sources of protein with fewer negative impacts on climate change.

7. Wear more layers in winter and turn down thermostat; in summer wisely close curtains and let your home vary in temperature without constant AC; dry your clothes outdoors on the line or indoors on a rack.  

8. Make a commitment to work together as a nation towards a decision like Sweden’s to have a zero-carbon footprint by 2020 and to create alternatives, which are realistic, to the human causes of climate change. See studies** done for each state about those solutions.

9. Stop supporting war efforts so that our money and energy goes into building peace in our lifetime including working for environmental, social and racial justice and empowering all people.

10. Consider working to limit population growth and in your personal life choices until we figure out how to live in harmony and share with our neighbors of all species instead of exterminating them to have “what we want.”

11. Live our lives as though people to come in generations ahead really matter to us — that we want their lives and ours to be sustained by clean air, fresh water, healthy soil and wild beautiful places.

12. Foster your relationship with the Earth with an open heart each day for several long moments through a tree or plant, a calm body of water. Let it know you want to connect and appreciate it. There is much benefit from coming into alignment with the Earth’s creation and her Living Ways as a way to live life each day.

What if each of us made a commitment, discussed it with several other people, and asked them to join the effort? What a huge difference we could make to reverse human-caused climate change and our sense of powerlessness! Please use your precious time and attention to make these steps make a difference.

Thanks for giving it a try! The Life Force that created this planet and sustains it and its Great Intelligence are waiting to support all of us in this effort. Support can also be obtained from programs like Up to Us, http://www.pachamama.org/engage and many of our local organizations (see below) working for peace, healthy food and justice.

Blessings to you and planet Earth in the process. Please share this invitation with others…print/post on frig.

Bonnie Sundance, Executive Director, Our Sacred Earth email:OurSacredEarth at Outlook dot com

http://our-sacred-earth.org   Offers local programs and a list of Resources with detailed descriptions, including for books written by women like Active Hope,  Kissed by a Fox and Braiding Sweetgrass; please see web pages for more detail.