Living Simply and Treading Lightly on the Earth

I remember as a child turning up my nose at homemade breads and cakes in favor of the more unusual and tasty store-bought treats. My love affair with what was new and exciting didn’t end there. Soon it was television, central heating and cooling, air-conditioned cars and, eventually, all the high-tech labor-saving and entertainment products that continue to proliferate in our world.

While many of these inventions have added greatly to our creature comfort, I wonder where this obsession with constantly seeking the exotic and new is taking us. Maybe it is wisdom gained from becoming a mature adult, but I am no longer dazzled by whatever is new just because it is new.

For a long time now, I have felt uncomfortable walking through department stores because of the incredible variety of products. They scream out that we are a culture based on conspicuous consumption. I actually feel ashamed, and wonder where many of these often needless products will end up. I also wonder how many different varieties and brands of each item are truly necessary.

I realize that nationally we have created an economic juggernaut. We’re on a huge treadmill that means we have to keep producing all this stuff, and someone has to keep buying it to assure that the economic wheels grind on, growth continues and new jobs are continually being created.

Yet we are already at more than capacity population-wise in many areas of the planet and our natural resources are not all endlessly renewable. Meanwhile the pace of life moves faster, people are more concerned about the Earth’s survival, and we’re moving further and further away from nature, each other and living simple lives with simple needs. Perhaps it is the distraction of new “toys” that numbs people to what is happening in our lives.

Recent statistics show that visits to our national parks have dropped dramatically. It seems that today many would rather get their dose of nature from television.

This is a trend that should cause great concern. The reality is that we need continuing contact with nature in order to remember that we are human. The Earth grounds us, gives us our connection with all of life and confirms our authentic identity as a part of nature. Contrary to what many people may think, we are part of nature and decidedly not above it, as many seem to believe. It is not a coincidence that we live by the same laws as all of nature.

In forgetting our inherent link with nature we can also ignore the fact that we are dependent on the Earth and arrogantly think it is the other way around. It is time we begin to learn how to live on the Earth in cooperation and respect for our home and for our fellow creatures. It will require a bit of humbling as mankind has labeled itself superior in every way to the “lesser” life forms.

If we were really as smart as we think we are, we would have realized the answer long ago and been acting on it. By running roughshod over the Earth, humans have done little to prove their superior intelligence or their ability to care for anything other than their own self interest.

I believe some of the fears most of us have around the survival of our planet would be greatly helped if we individually chose a new philosophy for our lives – one that is based on slowing down, living simply, treading softly on the Earth, and accepting that we are part of the natural life process.

Then, perhaps with deep humility and real caring, we can apologize to the Earth and once again become so connected to nature that we not only hear the cries of the rocks, the streams and the forests, we understand and act on their messages. In this way we embrace the mysterious life process—and in harmony and cooperation instead of domination and mindless mass production there is hope for the future.
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Copyright 2008 by Fern Stewart Welch

The author’s book THE HEART KNOWS THE WAY—How to Follow Your Heart to a Conscious Connection with the Divine Spirit Within is available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers, as well as through major bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders.