Following on from my last blog post, I am continuing the series of offcuts from my forthcoming book, “Stop Drifting, Start Rowing: One Woman’s Search for Happiness and Meaning Alone on the Pacific”, due to be published on October 15th this year. Please drop me a message if you would like an email reminder when the book becomes available.
The final instalment, Part 8…..
Although the environmental challenge may seem like a many-headed monster, the basic question is very simple: if everybody did what I am doing, day after day, what would the consequences be in a year? In five years? In a hundred years? In a thousand years? That is the fundamental criterion of sustainability.
The good news is that shifting consciousness does not cost anything, and can be achieved in an astonishingly short space of time. Cultural shifts have happened before, and can happen again. As the bumper sticker says, Shift Happens.
We are seven billion souls, adrift on our tiny liferaft in the vastness of the universe. If we lose this, we lose everything. We must do what we have to do. Let’s rise to the challenge we have created for ourselves. We can do it. We just have to want to. Our future lies in our hands. Let’s surprise ourselves with our own courage, and do what we know is right.
This work isn’t always easy. I know a bit about tackling projects that aren’t easy. There are many times at sea when my motivation wavers, and I wonder what the hell ever possessed me to do this. But the thing that keeps me going is that I have a powerful reason why. I just have to keep my eye on the goal, and know that in the end it will all be worthwhile, because I am fighting for something that I care about. Ask yourself, is our continued survival as a species something that you care about? In your heart of hearts, do you believe we are worth saving?
For all our many faults, I absolutely believe that humanity is worth saving, and that we can do it. If we all pull together, we can build a better, greener future, the same way that I row across oceans – one oarstroke, one mindful action, one wise decision, at a time.
The Sixth Extinction by Richard Leaky puts it all very clearly too Roz. I’m rowing (metaphorically that is). Put a copy of the book aside for me please.
Will do, Julian! And thanks for the book recommendation. I found a chapter of the book online, which I assume gives the gist of The Sixth Extinction. See http://www.mysterium.com/sixthextinction.html
Roz, I have learned that the network of people who care is unbelievably large and complex — just in my little niche in the fabric — and what invigorates me is finding new connections in unlikely places. Just one example happened two days ago: While visiting my cousin in Lincoln, NE, she introduced me to a lovely couple who are active in the tiny progressive community there, and it turned out that Christy knows a person (Sam) in Louisville, KY, who I met in Winnsboro, TX, at the Tarsands Blockade convergence last September. AND, last night while visiting Sam, I learned that he has a friend Lesli who is also friend of my travel companion Peter … the physical distances between us are measured in thousands of miles, but our efforts to make a difference are inseparable. We are so connected, yet we are not even aware of the connections until serendipity brings us together. So my energy comes in knowing that what I do in my niche is mirrored elsewhere in places I cannot imagine. The ripples are being generated in different places, but they come together, reinforce and magnify our individual efforts