Deciding a few thoughts to write about: Birth from the world and continuation of life; Work ethics and balance; Creative play; Is it just escapism?; Difference between appreciating nature and a deeper ecospiritual living; ...
I am catching up with some reading at the moment and keep dipping into three or more books and so getting quite an amalgamation of thoughts.
I came across the concept that we are birthed from the world and not in to the world. I am just a continuation of the creative process that is unfolding on the earth. I didn't appear from outer space and land one day in a tiny patch of Worcestershire. I was the product of the combination of the flesh and cells of my parents formed by the metabolism of the food they ate and the air they breathed. Their food was grown in the earth and so perpetuated the long cycle of creation and decay that characterises the development of life over millions of years. My window on the world is so infinitesimally small compared to the big picture, and perhaps that is one of the failings of our modern society. We live in a world that divorces us from the reality of the big picture of creation and nature. Are we really just like fleas on a dog's back? We can see the big picture because we have the ability to stand back and view the world but the perspective we chose may not be from an ecological view.
Although I feel encouraged to live in the present and not worry about future, I think it must be important to somehow recognise the past, the customs, the people, the culture and the natural world that has been part of my creation to this point. From what I gather, that is what Halloween is traditionally all about - celebration for the end of the summer and its provision for the harvest; a time for realising that the darkness of winter is ahead of us and that the closeness of death is ever present; and a time for remembering the people who have brought us to this place so far from our past. I realise there may be some darker aspects to it in some cases, but as that is not something I relate to or wish to discuss I will move on to something else.
Nature is always birthing even in the depths of the cold of winter. As the winters here have got warmer over the years this is becoming very noticeable. Buds forming on trees, spring bulbs pushing up though the grass - even a hibernating mouse is alive and slowly breathing and growing. Even a pile of dead leaves changes through the growth of fungi, micro-organisms and bacteria. Cells pass from life to death to assimilation to life in a never ending cycle.
(Now here's a challenge in connectivity) Jesus... as well a being human, and so part of this great natural creative cycle, had the skill to transcend the normal prespectives of his culture and see a bigger picture of the past, present and future. His ability to be a cultural and social philosopher was probably grounded in a deep connection to the earth, though I have to assume this as biblical language isn't always very ecocentric! He must have been very much like the creative thinkers today who want to see changes to the economic, consumer driven and unsustainable lifestyles we lead. When I read Resurgence magazine I am sure many of the writers there are, in what may be a heretical thought, Jesuses - people who are visionary, explore alternatives to the norms of society and seek changes to better the world around them.
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