Children of the earth

An email arrived a few days ago that I must share with you.  No author was credited so I can only say "anonymous" or "unknown.  This is an excerpt from the story of the end of the life of Lawrence Anthony.

"Lawrence Anthony, a legend in South Africa and author of 3 books including the bestseller The Elephant Whisperer, bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the globe from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during US invasion in 2003.
On March 7, 2012 Lawrence Anthony died.
He is remembered and missed by his wife, 2 sons, 2 grandsons and  numerous elephants.
Two days after his passing, the  WILD elephants showed up at his home led by two large matriarchs.
Separate wild herds arrived in droves to say goodbye to their beloved man-friend.
A total of 31 elephants had patiently walked over 12 miles to get to his South African House.

Witnessing this spectacle, humans were obviously in awe not only because of the supreme intelligence and precise timing that these elephants sensed about Lawrence 's passing, but also because of the profound memory and emotion the beloved animals evoked in such an organized way: Walking slowly - for days -Making their way in a solemn one-by-one queue from their habitat to his house.
Lawrence 's wife, Francoise, was especially touched, knowing that the elephants
had not been to his house prior to that day for well over 3 years!
But yet they knew where they were going.
The elephants obviously wanted to pay their deep respects, honoring their friend
who'd saved their lives - so much respect that they stayed for 2 days 2 nights without eating anything..
Then one morning, they left, making their long journey back home............"

The day I read this email I found an issue of National Geographic my husband left on the kitchen counter.  The lead story was about 25,000 elephants killed in the past year for their ivory.  With an aching heart I can't help wonder how many "dumb" animals are slaughtered each year for money or for sport.  No, I am not a vegetarian.  I know all beings on this planet must consume other living things in order to survive.  But we can stop the tortures of factory farms and useless, so-called sport and consume the gifts of life we are given by these other children of the earth with prayerful respect and gratitude.

Those we call "dumb animals" feel what we do.  Fear, love, gratitude, respect, joy, pain and perhaps some more feelings we humans have not evolved enough to access.  Truly we humans are too often the "dumb animals."  I hope we learn soon.

 

 

 

 

Paths of the Gods

Changing our actions

   You know, every time we come to the beginning of a new century, we humans expect great or terrible things to happen.  All sorts of prophets arise with all sorts of predictions.  The world is going to end, there will be cataclysms, the rapture is coming when some will be lifted to heaven with Jesus and the rest of us will suffer eternal damnation, a new wave of consciousness will transform us all, and on and on and on.  And those expectations come true, although not always as we imagined.  Just looking at the last few hundred years, we find a new wave of spirituality sweeping the world at the beginning of the last century, not the least of which was introduction of the Hindu tradition of meditation to the western world.  The one before it was the industrial revolution and the beginning of modern science.  The one before that was political revolution, carrying a wave of democracy.  The one before that was a wave of exploration and settling the earth.

   Now here we are approaching December 21, 2012 and those expectations are wilder than ever.  And I like what I’m hearing.  Some of it is incredibly exciting, and it is you and I, ordinary people living ordinary lives, that are going to bring it about.  We are going to do it by changing our minds about our beliefs, and once our minds are changed, our actions and our lives will change.

   The following is from futurist John L Peterson.  It is from a presentation made to the Unity Worldwide Ministries board of trustees in 2009.  “I believe we are entering one of those punctuation points in the evolution of our species that will rapidly propel us into an unimaginable new era.  This new world won’t work at all like what we currently find familiar.  Because this shift is so fundamental and acute, the most positive option will not make sense at all from this vantage so early in the transition.  In the face of almost certain uncertainty, our job is to rise to the occasion, to evolve – in our thinking, our perspectives and in our commitment to make this transition as positive as possible.  We will probably become some new kind of human at the end of it all – it is that big and important.”

   This was followed by a list of possible breakdowns and breakthroughs over the next 20 years, and the breakthroughs are so astounding and positive it almost makes the breakdowns seem piddly.  Of course, each of us has a hand in this.  It does depend on us.  The critical question we have to ask ourselves is have we each attained enough ethical and spiritual evolution to handle these startling new changes in a way that is moral and just?  They are going to effect our lives.  Can we deal with it?