Thoughts on 2021- Choose Life

We are dependent on microbes, including viri (virus plural). A healthy immune system is resistant to viral infection. An unhealthy immune system is an active source for viral replication. You are responsible for keeping your body strong and healthy, no one else. We face a pandemic because we are NOT HEALTHY. We have chosen medications to mask the symptoms of our ‘dis-ease’. We call 'healthcare' treating symptoms not cause.

To be alive, to be healthy we humans REQUIRE real food, genetically appropriate (ancestral foods), grown on soil alive with microbes and nutrients WITHOUT pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, without additives or preservatives, containing sufficient proteins, high quality fats, vitamins, minerals. We need real sunlight OUTSIDE without sunscreen, darkness at night (https://darksky.org ), healthy relationships, exercise, clean air, clean water (NO PLASTIC PLEASE) and family, biological and/or chosen. We also need ALL OTHER LIFE, from the smallest virus or bacterium to the largest whale. We are a concert NOT A SOLO ACT.

We choose, life/regeneration, or death/degeneration. Choosing life means honoring ALL LIVING organisms, ALL.

From I Contain Multitudes Ed Yong-

…When Orson Welles said “We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone”, he was mistaken. Even when we are alone, we are never alone. We exist in symbiosis – a wonderful term that refers to different organisms living together. Some animals are colonised by microbes while they are still unfertilised eggs; others pick up their first partners at the moment of birth. We then proceed through our lives in their presence. When we eat, so do they. When we travel, they come along. When we die, they consume us. Every one of us is a zoo in our own right – a colony enclosed within a single body. A multi-species collective. An entire world.

…The Earth is 4.54 billion years old. A span of time that big is too mindboggling to comprehend, so let’s collapse the planet’s entire history into a single calendar year.1 Right now, as you’re reading this page, it is 31st December, just before the stroke of midnight. (Thankfully, fireworks were invented nine seconds ago.) Humans have only existed for the 30 minutes or fewer. The dinosaurs ruled the world until the evening of 26th December, when an asteroid hit the planet and wiped them out (except for the birds). Flowers and mammals evolved earlier in December. In November, plants invaded the land and most of the major animal groups appeared in the seas. Plants and animals are all made up of many cells, and similar multicellular organisms had certainly evolved by the start of October. They may have appeared before that – the fossils are ambiguous and open to interpretation – but they would have been rare. Before October, almost every living thing on the planet consisted of single cells. They would have been invisible to the naked eye, had eyes existed. They had been that way ever since life first emerged, some time in March.

Our alliances with microbes have repeatedly changed the course of animal evolution and transformed the world around us. It is easiest to appreciate how important these partnerships are by considering what would happen if they broke. Imagine if all microbes on the planet suddenly disappeared. On the upside, infectious diseases would be a thing of the past, and many pest insects would be unable to eke out a living. But that’s where the good news ends.

Grazing mammals, like cows, sheep, antelope, and deer would starve since they are utterly dependent on their gut microbes to break down the tough fibres in the plants they eat. The great herds of Africa’s grasslands would vanish. Termites are similarly dependent on the digestive services of microbes, so they would also disappear, as would the larger animals that depend on them for food, or on their mounds for shelter. Aphids, cicadas, and other sap-sucking bugs would perish without bacteria to supplement the nutrients that are missing from their diets.

In the deep oceans, many worms, shellfish, and other animals rely on bacteria for all of their energy. Without microbes, they too would die, and the entire food webs of these dark, abyssal worlds would collapse. Shallower oceans would fare little better. Corals, which depend on microscopic algae and a surprisingly diverse collection of bacteria, would become weak and vulnerable. Their mighty reefs would bleach and erode, and all the life they support would suffer. Humans, oddly, would be fine. Unlike other animals, for whom sterility would mean a quick death, we would get by for weeks, months, even years.

Our health might eventually suffer, but we’d have more pressing concerns. Waste would rapidly build up, for microbes are lords of decay. Along with other grazing mammals, our livestock would perish. So would our crop plants; without microbes to provide plants with nitrogen, the Earth would experience a catastrophic de-greening. (Since this book focuses entirely on animals, I offer my sincerest apologies to enthusiasts of botany.) “We predict complete societal collapse only within a year or so, linked to catastrophic failure of the food supply chain,” wrote microbiologists Jack Gilbert and Josh Neufeld, after running through this thought experiment.12 “Most species on Earth would become extinct, and population sizes would be reduced greatly for the species that endured.”

Microbes matter. We have ignored them. We have feared and hated them. Now, it is time to appreciate them, for our grasp of our own biology is greatly impoverished if we don’t…

...All of us have an abundant microscopic menagerie, collectively known as the microbiota or microbiome. They live on our surface, inside our bodies, and sometimes inside our very cells. The vast majority of them are bacteria, but there are also other tiny organisms including fungi (such as yeasts) and archaea, a mysterious group that we will meet again later.

There are viruses too, in unfathomable numbers – a “virome” that infects all the other microbes and occasionally the host’s cells. We can’t see any of these minuscule specks. But if our own cells were to mysteriously disappear, they would perhaps be detectable as a ghostly microbial shimmer, outlining a now-vanished animal core. the measures by which we shape and control our microbiome – the phages, the mucus, the various arms of the immune system, and the ingredients in milk – are all connected.

I’ve discussed them as if they were separate tools, but they are all part of a huge interwoven system for stabilising our relationships with our microbes. In this counter-intuitive reality, viruses can be allies, immune systems can support microbes, and a breastfeeding mother isn’t just feeding a baby but also setting up an entire world. And breast milk? German was right: it’s far more than a bag of chemicals. It nourishes baby and bacteria, infant and infantis alike. It’s a preliminary immune system that thwarts more malevolent microbes. It is the means by which a mother ensures that her children have the right companions, from their first days of life. And it prepares the baby for life ahead…

Krispin again- We need all of our parts to be healthy, for us to survive, for the planet to survive. Every part is important. Bacteria, fungus, virus, plants, animals or people are NOT our enemies. When diverse and harmonized they are our best friends, members of our abundant family called LIFE. When we fail to honor out bodies, fail to care for them AS REQUIRED FOR LIFE we find the territory hostile, dangerous. When we fail to care for ANY part of our living planet we destroy ourselves. There are no vaccines for stupidity or suicide.

Reverence exists all around.
The smile of a child.
The kiss of the rain after a long dry spell.
The smell of Land as she sighs in delight for simply existing.
Reverence for self and soil.
The first meeting point starts with breath.
Where we go from there is up to us.
With so much darkness spouted over the digital airwaves. So much anger at what is being done to the Earth
It is time to notice that when a finger points, three point back to ourselves.
Anger serves no purpose.
As the Buddha says…
…it simply burns the hand of the one holding the hot coal of anger.
To see the trauma of the Earth - is to see the trauma deep in ourselves.
To heal what we have done to the world - we need to start healing self.
Forgiving self for all the harshness we may have spoken. Or thought. Or acted out.
If we protest, we must do so with a kind, loving, open heart.
The exact opposite of how we might feel at the injustices done in the name of progress and civilisation.
The un-civilised feel, the civilised do not.
To feel deeply. Intimately.
We must first listen deeply. Intimately.
Listening deeply is the start of creating…
…"compassionate relationship".
It's how we learn to heal ourselves. Our communities.
Its how we empower ourselves. Each other.
Deep listening is not about fixing others. It is about allowing the listening space to be filled with presence and reverence.
It is about this moment. Right here. Right now.
However we find ourselves. Whatever we feel.
Can you be with another's pain and joy?
Can you be with yourself?
We cannot start this journey without first cultivating…
…"honest reflection".
Not fantasy created by the crazy head.
Not fanciful theories and explanations.
Just sitting still.
Observing and feeling the currents that flow through our bones. Our being.
Not running from that which is within. However hard it is to face.
Yet face it we must. Face it with kindness.
To not face it. To not come to a loving acceptance of our flaws as well as our gifts, means we walk this Earth lopsided.
Pointing fingers at others. While running from the shadows of our own soul.
Sitting with plants, means sitting with self.
Breathing with plants, means breathing with self.
Not running away. Not trying to change anything.
Just clear honest acceptance of who we are as humans.
Without that, we will continue to pollute the Earth with the same darkness we have been doing for millennia.
Ever since we became a static species instead of wanderers. When we gently followed the flow of life.
As simple as a child walking hand in hand with a loving parent.
We are so young as a species. So full of ourselves and our puffery.
That we oftentimes forget the simple.
That which makes life exquisite.
Stop.
Breathe.
Look.
Observe.
Touch.
Smell.
And TASTE the very nectar that exists in each perfect moment.
How simple to be human. Oh, how easy to forget.

HEALING

The grace that is the health of creatures can only be held in common.

In healing the scattered members come together.

In health the flesh is graced, the holy enters the world.

The task of healing is to respect oneself as a creature, no more

and no less.

A creature is not a creator, and cannot be. There is only one

Creation, and we are its members.

To be creative is only to have health: to keep oneself fully alive

in the Creation, to keep the Creation fully alive in oneself, to see

the Creation anew, to welcome one's part in it anew.

The most creative works are all strategies of this health.

Works of pride, by self-called creators, with their premium on

originality, reduce the Creation to novelty-the faint surprises

of minds incapable of wonder.

Pursuing originality, the would-be creator works alone. In loneliness

one assumes a responsibility for oneself that one cannot

fulfill.

Novelty is a new kind of loneliness.

III

There is the bad work of pride. There is also the bad work of despair-

done poorly out of the failure of hope or vision.

Despair is the too-little of responsibility, as pride is the too much.

The shoddy work of despair, the pointless work of pride,

equally betray Creation. They are wastes of life.

For despair there is no forgiveness, and for pride none. Who in

loneliness can forgive?

Good work finds the way between pride and despair.

It graces with health. It heals with grace.

It preserves the given so that it remains a gift.

By it, we lose loneliness:

we clasp the hands of those who go before us, and the hands of

those who come after us;

we enter the little circle of each other's arms,

and the larger circle of lovers whose hands·are joined in a

dance,

and the larger circle of all creatures, passing in and out of life,

who move also in a dance, to a music so subtle and vast that no

ear hears it except in fragments.

And by it we enter solitude, in which also we lose loneliness.

Only discord can come of the attempt to share solitude.

True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without

human obligation.

One's inner voices become audible. One feels the attraction of

one's most intimate sources.

In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives. The

more coherent one becomes within oneself as a creature, the

more fully one enters into the communion of all creatures.

One returns from solitude laden with the gifts of circumstance.

And there is no escaping that return.

From the order of nature we return to the order-and the disorder-

of humanity.

From the larger circle we must go back to the smaller, the

smaller within the larger and dependent on it.

One enters the larger circle by willingness to be a creature, the

smaller by choosing to be a human.

And having returned from the woods, we remember with regret

its restfulness. For all creatures there are in place, hence at rest.

In their most strenuous striving, sleeping and waking, dead and

living, they are at rest.

In the circle of the human we are weary with striving, and are

without rest.

VII

Order is the only possibility of rest.

The made order must seek the given order, and find its place in

it.

The field must remember the forest, the town must remember

the field, so that the wheel of life will turn, and the dying be met

by the newborn.

The scattered members must be brought together.

Desire will always outreach the possible. But to fulfill the possible

is to enlarge it.

The possible, fulfilled, is timely in the world, eternal in the

mind.

Seeing the work that is to be done, who can help wanting to be

the one to do it?

But one is afraid that there will be no rest until the work is finished

and the house is in order, the farm is in order, the town is

in order, and all loved ones are well.

But it is pride that lies awake in the night with its desire and its

grief.

To work at this work alone is to fail. There is no help for it.

Loneliness is its failure.

It is despair that sees the work failing in one's own failure.

This despair is the awkwardest pride of all.

VIII

There is finally the pride of thinking oneself without teachers.

The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.

In ignorance is hope. If we had known the difficulty, we would

not have learned even so little.

Rely on ignorance. It is ignorance the teachers will come to.

They are waiting, as they always have, beyond the edge of the

light.

The teachings of unsuspected teachers belong to the task, and

are its hope.

The love and the work of friends and lovers belong to the task,

and are its health.

Rest and rejoicing belong to the task, and are its grace.

Let tomorrow come tomorrow. Not by your will is the house

carried through the night.

Order is only the possibility of rest.

Thoughts on 2021- Choose Life

To heal, re-embody, connect to LIFE, find help here.