MEMORY OR FANTASY

The most amazing thing happened today. In a year and a half of swimming at Larsens I have never seen a monk seal in the water, which is quite surprising since I see them there on the beach quite regularly. Well today, the GIFT! I was just about to get out of the water when suddenly there was this beautiful creature, and thank goodness the water was clear today so we didn't bump face to face before we saw each other! They are like liquid, breathing, incense, wafting and swirling through the water. I stopped swimming just to see what he would do, and he swam a big U around me and then just sat for a moment between 2 coral heads looking at me before he swam off. A big adult male that I knew from my seal watches. They are HUGE in the water! They look much bigger than on the sand. Maybe because what I am used to seeing in the water is nothing larger than a sea turtle. It was pure magic. These creatures are GORGEOUS! What a gift. I was so EXCITED I felt like a 4 year old. The rush of adrenaline needs to be bottled for use at a time when I feel low on energy!

For a long time I've had a fantasy about what it would be like to encounter a seal in the water on my daily swim, and now it will be a beautiful memory to cherish. Which brought to mind a wonderful quote I just heard from Jack Kornfield: "The only place you can really love is in the present. Love in the past is a memory, and love in the future is a fantasy." So today I got love in the present. Neither a memory or a fantasy.

Then I came home to an email about 25 uses for coffee filters because you can get 1000 at the dollar store for almost nothing! WOW. And 17 of those 25 were for single use and throw things. Like using a coffee filter as a spoon rest while you cook and then you can just throw it out. Again, WOW. Our throw away society is throwing away Creation. I just read that the amount of paper used just in junk mail in the U.S. is the equivalent of clear cutting the ENTIRE Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months!!!!! That's not all. The emissions created are the equivalent of 9.4 MILLION cars. And here comes someone urging us to use and throw more paper every single day like that is a good thing. How can this be? Can people really not know that they are destroying forests and poisoning air with these choices? There is SO much information now about "going green" everywhere, it seems like it would be impossible to not know.

But then comes the most difficult thought of all. The email came from people who would say they love God with all their heart. Being Christian, they would also say they believe God created this Earth. So how do you get from all that love, to thinking it is o.k. to promote destroying what God created? Urging people to use and throw more paper every day. I just don't get it. God is not loved when we destroy what He made. The love of God they feel is not in the PRESENT in a decision like that. Maybe they did something to help save God's Creation last week like taking in the recycling, and maybe they have a plan to do something in the future like join a trash clean-up day. So one is a memory and the other a fantasy. But what about love RIGHT NOW? What about Creation in this present moment? (Yes, I'm using my computer right now, I know. So I'm doing harm while I'm trying to help. Crazy. I haven't yet found a computer that does no harm. But I'm looking.)

Whatever your religious or spiritual beliefs I ask you to bring the LOVE of Creation into the present moment. Not just a memory of what you did for the Earth a few days ago or what you plan to do tomorrow. What about THIS moment? Can you get up and go turn off a light or something? I read an article by "No Impact Man" (picture the cape blowing in the breeze), who suggested a period every day where you do NO impact to the Earth. You don't use electricity, drive a car, or use any resources, for a few hours each day. He calls it an "Eco-Sabbath". Beautiful. He has tried for an ENTIRE day of no damage to Creation. My new hero. I wonder if he has super powers to save the Earth. I sure hope so.

So what can you do to be kind to Creation in THIS moment? Not a memory of what you did do, or a fantasy of what you will do. Now go do it.
Thanks for listening, and acting.