If your only experiences have been on a computer, social media, virtual reality or gaming, you have no relationship with our Earth. You don’t see yourself as part of this giant ecosystem, but rather you view our planet as a product for profit.
If you have never walked among the old growth Sequoias and Redwoods, or experienced the power of the sea as it crashes up against the huge rocks, you can’t appreciate its majesty, no matter how may photographs you have viewed.
Intergenerational conversations are a way for the wise elders, my generation, to convey what it was like for us growing up without GMOs, without contaminated water and soil, without chemtrails, and the 80,000 untested chemicals what we are barraged with everyday in everything we eat, drink, and breathe. Rachel Carson put it so beautifully when she said, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter,” Rachel Carson
I grew up believing in that quote, but today I am not so sure. We elders have a message to share with the young eager ones who will carry the mantle of our humanity forward. They can learn from our knowledge, but also from our mistakes, of which we made many. We were the “ME” generation, and grew up feeling that Earth had infinite reserves for us to use and plunder.
But we were wrong. We should have been better stewards of our only planet, instead we thoughtlessly used her resources with no regard for future generations. We didn’t know they would be depleted so quickly?
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I realize this paints a pretty bleak future for us, but it is not too late. I am very hopeful. Mother Earth and everything in it and on it wants to regenerate, and the great news is it doesn’t take nearly as long as we have projected it would.
We can create the healthy future for the people and the planet by coming together, joining forces and joining hands in solidarity. We must stand up for what we know to be right.
We need to hone our intuition and listen to it. It is the little voice way inside you that puts up a tiny red flag of caution when something doesn’t sound right or feel right to you. We need to retrain ourselves to listen for that little voice.
Our old industrial models are not serving us well. As Buckminster Fuller says, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
Together, that is what we must do now. Build new models for the coming generations as the old models are certainly obsolete. In some cases, it is easier to build new parallel structures than it is to keep fighting a battle we cannot win.
Whether it is our global economies, education, healthcare, industrial farming and ranching, or our polluted environments, we need to build these new structures with seven generations in mind. Learn from the elders, build strong community structures, and begin local grassroots movements to create a better tomorrow. I believe it is happening. I am witnessing a global movement forming to regenerate Mother Earth.