Day 879: No Water, No Life

Every living thing on this planet needs water in order to survive, whether directly or indirectly. Many beings have adapted to incredibly dry environments, however I doubt there is any thing that can survive without water indefinitely (even if that means its food source was what usually provided the water). Rain is what fills up rivers and dams, only in a few areas does water come out of the earth. Most living things are entirely dependent on the weather, so if it rains there is life, and if it doesn't there will be death.

We are seeing a lot of extreme weather these days. If there isn't a drought then it's exceedingly hot or cold, or there is too much rain, or when the rain comes it comes hard and fast so that it washes away whatever isn't securely attached to the ground (and often in these cases the ground itself washes away). I have not spoken to one person in recent years who remarked about the normalcy of the weather. There is no more normal. Because the weather is such a huge and intricate system, we feel incredibly small and insignificant when staring it in the face (if the weather had a face, what would it look like?). We feel like we have no influence over the weather, we ask how we could possibly do anything about it.

On the one hand, yes, we as humanity made some choices that have caused the consequences that we are facing now and the consequences that we will still face. Yes, nothing happened over night, it was a long and consistent application of similar actions that led to these results we are facing now. Having said that, we tend to get lost in the enormity of it all, we get stuck in problem mode, and when you're in problem mode it gets pretty damn hard to see the solutions that are available to you.

We are absolutely dependent on the weather - therefore it is crucial that we do everything we are able to in order to stabilise the weather again. Do I know exactly how we could do this? No, not at this moment. However, I realise that I am responsible for who I am in relation to the weather. I will either stand one and equal with the weather, which requires as well that I take responsibility for how we got to this point as well as focusing on developing solutions. Who I am in relation to the weather requires also that my perception is clear and that I am stable within myself. When I look at the weather as a system with which I stand one and equal I cannot allow myself to be stuck in the frame of mind that focuses on everything that's wrong, or everything that could possibly go wrong. Yes, I must consider potential futures, but the moment I allow emotion to move within me then I am opening the door for a shift in perception, where I may no longer be seeing the weather clearly for who and what it is, as I will be seeing it through the tainted vision of emotion.

Who I am affects what I do, how I live. If I allow myself to exist within and as emotions, those emotions will permeate in everything I think, say and do. If I am facing a problem and I am allowing emotions within me, those emotions will be a part of who I am within the point of facing the problem. Who I am is determined by the thoughts I allow within my mind, those are the thoughts that generate the emotional experiences that influence how I see and interpret information. If who I am is thoughts that are generating fear, then my interpretation and assessment of information will be tainted by that fear in some way.

My point is this: if we are facing the issues we have essentially created while we are reacting emotionally, even if the reactions are subtle, we will not be effective in how we assess the problems or develop the solutions. We are facing some pretty big issues - and right now most of us are simply frozen in terror. It's time to recognise how our emotional responses are influencing our ability to solve those problems.