Dave Key / Being different
The group process in the Natural Change Project is not about doing, so much as about Being.
I think, with the global social and environmental challenges that face us all, that we tend to over-focus on doing. We’re culturally obsessed with action plans, outcomes, products. Everything is linear, sequential, measured and evaluated.
At the risk of being controversial - we’ve been ‘doing’ environmentalism for nearly 50 years now but the situation is still getting worse!
Before we do anything, perhaps we should ask questions about the way we ‘are’. The way we feel about ourselves and other people… and our environment. In getting things done we often mine our own integrity, destroy close and unknown relationships… and devastate the land and sea.
I believe that we need to balance our compulsive doing with some carefully considered stillness. But how do we do that in our 24/7, data-saturated, global culture? Well, I think we need to work on Being first and foremost and then have faith that from this will come a more considered and compassionate form of action.
There are 4 comments on Being different:
I think it’s important to have balance between wisdom to act and compassion to be! ;-)
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 pmHi Dave I work in the outdoors and after looking at some of your posts and reflecting on my working life at present the one word that comes to mind is empathy.
Things are not good in “frogland these days”. We’ve been completing a field study of New Zealand native frogs over the last five months. These frogs(can be as small as 9mm) are mostly found under streamside stones.
Basically we have to lift the roof off their house to find them, get a measurement and put their house back in order without touching the frog. Sometimes it’s like pulling down a house of cards and then returning it to it’s original state. Make a mistake and you squash the frog.
I have to belive that their lives are important…it’s the same with every individual in the street..”being in the relationship”..giving others the a reason to care.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:30 amBut how do we know when we’re “being” a human?
October 16th, 2008 at 9:27 amI’d say it’s when:
I can consciously take in a full breath of air
to know I’m sustained by its space
It’s a place to see what’s really (I think is!) around me….
I’m going to do this 10 times during my day tomorrow…
Might be a fib if I said I’d do it in my sleep:o)
Hi, I agree we each need to work on ‘Being’… it is our ‘internal’ resistances and internal conflicts that cause all the angst in the world… Hard to believe I know, but we need to peel off our resistances if we are ever to connect fully instead of ‘conflicting’. We need to Look Within and understand our innermost fears if we are to stop seeking ‘happiness’ with material possessions, thus exploiting our Planet, which surely risks leading to our own self-destruction. It’s time to stop making others ‘wrong’.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:34 pmComment on this post...