NEW YEAR

A New Year, New Decade, New Chance for Life. Last night was New Year's Eve and one of the most beautifully perfect nights of my entire life. I had just flown home from spending the Christmas week with my family on Oahu and was SO happy to be returning to my beloved Kauai. Oahu is an absolute battle zone on New Year's Eve. For some reason it is fun for people to simulate bombs exploding all night long all over the island, like they are in a war. Perhaps if they actually had to live through a war it wouldn't be so fun. So this year I decided to fly back in the afternoon and see what it was like here on Kauai. GOOD CHOICE! When I got to my house I could hear night insects and the waves from the ocean. HEAVEN. Bringing in the New Year with peace. What a concept!

As I drove by Kealia beach I discovered this magical gathering happening there, so I had to stop and partake. A large magnificent labyrinth had been created right in the sand with 7 circles enveloping each other, and there were luminaries placed at intervals in between the rings, with candles glowing gently from within. There was a live musician quietly playing sacred music, the surf was rushing the shore to add it's own rhythm and percussion, and over all this splendour the COMPLETELY FULL MOON lent her glory. It truly was a transformed space and time. I danced the labyrinth slowly, savouring moments with the feel of the sand under my bare feet, the sounds of the gentle waves, the light of the moon illuminating gracefully the faces of other blissful people meeting me on the circular path. Even though I knew only a few of the people I met, it felt like joining a community that sought to create something very different from the war simulation on Oahu, with all that polluting smoke and debris. So much damage to the Earth on one night in the name of having "fun". Imagine welcoming the New Year listening to Nature rather than burying her in smoke and trash! Yahoo!

It had been 8 days since I had been with my beloved Larsens, so on I went for that reunion. WOW. It could not have been more perfect. The moon was so bright it was silvery day, and complete wilderness with not a person in sight. Walked the entire length to my "yoga spot", and my body thanked me profusely for finally taking time to do a full sequence, breathing the delicious air right off the sea. It was so bright I could pick sea spinach by moonlight, and go for a dip in the calm water with sparkles playing all over its surface around me.

Drove home just in time for the countdown with the family next door, and hugs from their adorable little kids who were SO excited. Truly the perfect balance of community and solitude.

Since I began my life here on Kauai almost 2 years ago, focusing on our Earth and what is happening to her, I have learned sooooooo much, and continue to shift my own choices to reflect that knowledge. As I talk with people about what I am learning, one thing comes back over and over. People feel that what they do to harm the Earth is so insignificant. I lived with someone for 4 years who would say "it's just a small amount" every time I suggested making choices that do no harm. Small amount of paper, small amount of emissions, small amount of trash, small amount of toxic chemicals down the drain, on and on. But if 7 billion people in the world have the same thought, "it's a small amount", suddenly it is no longer small. Every single person adding their own small amount becomes the crisis we are in. Those small choices become the mountains of trees cut for paper, the huge emissions spewed by our inventions, the trash that requires impossible amounts of landfill space, the toxic chemicals that now poison even the water buried deep beneath the Earth's surface. Nothing is a small amount any more, because there are too many people contributing their own "small amount". The only thing that can shift this is people realizing they are part of the MASSIVE destruction going on every day. It is not one person, or corporation or country creating it all. It is literally billions of "small amounts" from people who think that what they do is insignificant. When do we wake up and see that what we are doing is contributing to the ENORMOUS destruction of the Earth we all live on? Some people seem to think that if they do a few things with the Earth in mind, like recycling and carrying a re-usable bag, that it somehow cancels out the other things they do that are damaging. The Earth doesn't have a tally sheet. EVERYTHING we do that does damage adds to her dying. We CAN make different choices from now on. Choose to not be part of the destruction.

So as we all begin a New Year,a New Decade, and a New Chance for Life, this is my wish: each person in the entire world changes the thought that what they do is a "small amount". Each person finally takes responsibility for the damage they do every single day, and makes different choices. And all those small choices gather together to become an enormous movement to STOP destroying what is left of Creation. We are all so richly blest by the Earth every moment, and how do we repay her? With poison. That must change. I appeal to the heart of everyone reading this right now. Make this a year of Life for the Earth in all your choices. Start really looking at the things you think only do "small amounts" of damage, and imagine all the billions of other people saying the exact same thing. Then make a choice for Life, over and over again. Let's make this a truly New Year.
Thanks for listening.