The World Will Change When We Change
Cultivating a Healthy Global Community
It's hard to let go of things even if they are not working. I
remember trying to end a relationship with my less-than-stellar boyfriend in
college. I knew he was not good for me, but I did not know who I would be
without him. I stayed in the relationship longer than I should have because I
feared to let go of what was familiar.
The Coronavirus is forcing us to face our two biggest fears:
death and financial security. This global disruption is exposing our belief
that money, position, and possessions will give us power and protection. The
world has sputtered to a halt. It's as if we've have been given a time out and
sent to our rooms to take time to contemplate what it is we value.
By disconnecting from the chaos of the outside world, we see
how interconnected we are. Our world economy and society are connected by
supply chains, communication, technology, and travel. There is an intricate
relationship between us all. Just as we eat the same foods, drink the same
coffee, and wear the same clothes, we are all vulnerable to the same diseases.
Many of us learned denial was the easiest way to solve a
problem, but as we have seen, denial can be deadly. We cannot heal our planet
if we continue to ignore the signs of climate change. We watch Mother Earth
struggle from smog and acid rain. We witness extreme heat waves, rising
sea-levels, floods and droughts, intense hurricanes, and degraded air quality,
yet we do nothing to change our ways. Our environment can no longer protect us
from the negative impact of human behaviors. We need to take a long global
pause to heal and rejuvenate and create a world that benefits us all, not just
a select few.
Although it may feel
like our lives have stopped, I believe something else is happening. Something
quite powerful and truly remarkable is igniting, gestating, and restructuring
in each of us individually as well as in our world. Sometimes we hang on to old
mindsets because we don't dare to create new ones, but if we want our world to
change, we must change. We need to make significant shifts, make new choices,
dream new images, and create new ways to live and heal the earth fully that
moves all of us toward a state of health.
If we continue out of balance, we will not continue. The
choices each of us makes points to the future. Hitting the reset button has
helped us to focus more on the greater good, which is about cultivating the
health and life of our global community. As we understand our
interconnectedness, we must learn the lesson from this particular crisis. We
cannot go back to our old ways. We need to develop sustainable economic
development, a clean environment, and a sophisticated and capable system of
global public health.
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