I celebrate this 50th anniversary of Earth Day with deep grief, reverence and optimism. Fifty years ago, there was such promise of cutting back human consumption of Earth’s resources, of curbing fossil fuel emissions and for environmental justice…but human behavior didn’t change. The planet is heating up. The ice sheets are melting. The oceans are dying. Then 2020 arrived and everything changed, but not as we had expected! We have finally reached the tipping point of life out of balance and what the Hopi call “Koyaanisqatsi”. Nature has arisen like the wrath of Kali and released a deadly pestilence. Now the world and its economy have been quarantined until we can figure a way out of this via a vaccine, behavior change or spontaneous immunity…or all three. I do not grieve the lockdown and isolation, though inconvenient to my physical activities. I grieve the path that got us here, such […]
Aging with Trickster Wisdom
BY LINDA JOY STONE Many of us find beauty in gnarly old trees, amongst overgrown forests and within nature’s oddities, but shudder at the wrinkles, barnacles and deformities human bodies develop with age. The Japanese have a jaunty term—wabi sabi—for the beauty of imperfection. In our rather adolescent culture, imperfection is seen as a flaw. However, striving to achieve some kind of perfection or perpetual youth can rob us of joy. I find the “anti-aging” movement a bit of a con job that feeds a vanity-motivated, death-fearing, multi-billion-dollar industry. Instead, consider “pro-aging my way” as a better description for a natural occurring process, and then choose wisely. Our bodies and our hearts know what to do if we listen and take care of them. Having a good sense of humor is a vital attribute in aging well and being able to appreciate the unpredictability of life. This is where we […]