“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world, as in being able to remake ourselves.” – M.K. Gandhi

1. Awareness 2. Food 3. Plan 4. Home 5. Choice 6. Transportation 7. Creativity 8. Work .

Chapter 4

TAKE THE FIRST STEP

Every great journey begins with the first step. Find your inspiration in the constant rebirth of nature  all around you. We must see again with new eyes. We must rebuild our thoughts on the foundation of truth . All the answers exist in nature, in our heritage, and in our technology. The answers are all out there. All we need to do is take the first step.

Take the time to learn about your connection with nature  by stopping to watch the sun  rise or set. Be aware of the true causes of problems in the world. Be skeptical of anyone who says it is impossible. Even the best among us may be mired in cynicism, wrapped up in ego, or thinking too conventionally. Keep in mind that we may be misinformed. Don’t be deceived by one-sided reporting on issues. Know that there is more to life than the money it costs to buy something. The things of daily life are wonderful things that we should take care to do with all our heart. You know what is right. Do what is right.

How do I know this? When I ask myself, “What is the purpose of my life?” The simple answer comes back, the life of my children. It is the same as it has always been and it always will be. It is the same as for bacteria, plants, insects, birds and all other forms of life. Our primary purpose is the creation, preservation, nurturing and propagation of life. The purpose of life is to live as well as we possibly can.

The first step, I propose, is to embark on a path that reduces the complexities to a level that we can understand. By focusing our attention on the essential purpose of life, we will recover our awareness of nature . The essential elements of life, even our complex modern ones, are still the food  we eat, the home that shelters us, the type of transportation  we choose, and finally our life’s work. In all of these we must consider how we can best serve the needs of our lives so that we may create a nurturing environment for our children and their children. In our choice of food, the homes we build, the cars we drive, and the work that pays the bills, we must ask ourselves, does this truly support our purpose? And if it does not, then we must choose to change our ways, creatively.

Some of the best things in life can be found in sharing food  with family and friends, finding happiness by exploring natural places, having fun by playing in water, creating, loving and even just being. These things are the basis of a fulfilling life based on the purposes of creation. Many creatures in nature  demonstrate these same traits. I’ve learned to have fun and even laugh at myself in relation to the many things that I’ve changed in quiet contradiction to the norms all around me. I remain humble in the face of nature and people who every day teach me something new. But yes, the issues of preserving life on this planet are very serious. Given the grave consequences of ignoring the warning signs and knowing that our purpose is creating and preserving life and nature, surely you will agree we must act now. To this task I propose, based on my direct experience, learning from many mistakes, the following step by step process. These steps offer a fun, simple, and effective system for living naturally as you apply it in your own creative way.

This section combines the steps that you can take, as my family has, in order to make the changes necessary to create a lifestyle  that connects you with the wonders of life and is in harmony  with nature .

Stop everything!

Listen to silence. Find a quiet place and listen to the silence of nature , full of life, full of music. Take some time to think about who you are, what you are doing, and why. What is your purpose in life? What talent do you have that, when you do it, puts you into such deep focus and enjoyment, that you don’t notice the passage of time?

Stop everything!

Plan to take next weekend off, completely off. Go for a walk in nature . Make it a long walk as deep into nature as you can. After walking into nature for several hours, away from other people, stop, listen, and look around. Don’t think. Simply be aware of nature, life, rocks, leaves, sun , wind, wild flowers, leaves, grass, birds chirping and your  heart beating . What value and beauty do you feel? Can you sense your connection to this force in nature that creates life? You can notice it when you tap into the harmonics of nature.

So maybe that seems a bit over the top. It worked for me when their seemed to be no other answers. Alone in nature  I was re-awakened to a primitive driving force within me to nurture and preserve life. By feeling nature’s pulse I found the energy  and understanding I needed for the battles ahead.

Another way I like to connect to nature , one that may be more accessible to you on a regular basis, is to start by walking down to the local coffee shop. Buy your own reusable mug with a lid if you don’t have one already. Select one of the organic  coffees. If you can, sit outside in a sunny spot. If it is too cold, then simply sit near the window . Sip your coffee and observe, without thinking, without judging. Let the caffeine infuse your arteries with that positive energy  boost. Then simply be. Dream. Love what you see around you. You are connected to all of nature, the little weed in a crack on the sidewalk, yes the people, the cars, trucks, buses and even the small puddle with birds playing in it.

Stop everything!

More than anything it is a reconnection with nature . You are a part of Gaia, the living earth. Take notice of it  when you swim, through the plants you eat, in the warmth of the sun  on your face, and when you hold someone, mother to son, father to daughter, and lover to lover. We are all one. We are all connected through time, space and matter as one in nature. The intelligence of life, the creativity of ever diversifying life forms is intimately connected to everything else in the universe. Something in this nature we share connects everything to everything. Our goal must be to find these connections . Our perception of individuality is not real. We are both metaphorically and scientifically one with the broader context of nature as a whole. Two implications are: First, that the harm and destruction we inflict on nature injures us all as a whole. Second, that our actions towards the healing process individually will heal the whole of nature.

Stop everything! You need not do anything!

The first step is awareness. This means being aware of nature  and your connection to everybody and everything else. Be more thoughtful about your actions. Connection to nature is easily felt by simply removing all thought and focusing on your breathing as your lungs make the connection with air which is connected to the infinite. Awareness provides you with the knowledge, intelligence, compassion, empathy and feelings needed to desire, through love, to protect your greater self, called nature.

This connection became clear to me during the birth of my children. This epiphany is the first step along the path of Natural Living. Without this first step the other steps may be too difficult since they are built on the foundation of awareness. Only with awareness of your connections , as you go about the process of living, can the rest of these steps continue to make sense.

There are some essential features of all our daily lives including eating food , sleeping in a home, getting to work, and the work we do to earn a living. These common activities are the most damaging to nature . This correlation makes sense. The activities that are common to all people create the largest stream of consumer  activity. The main activities of our lives include providing a home for our families in which we share family meals. Eating food is essential for all life. These two natural activities are at the root of life, all life in one form or another. For humanity, however, two other major activities have been created by modern civilization. These modern activities include the need to work, to earn money, to pay for a home and food. Also, the majority of us must use some form of mechanical transportation , such as a car, motorcycle, truck, bus, train or plane now that there are so many of us living and working in different places.

Our modern civilization, despite the many advances, has at its core the need to provide for the essentials of life. These are primarily the need for clean air, nutritious food , fresh water, solid shelter and some rest. As it turns out these ancient essential activities, given our vast billions in number, create the largest impact on nature . We can well do without television, video games, and alcoholic beverages which are massive consumer  activities. However, we can never do without food to sustain us, a shelter of some kind, work to pay for it or transportation  to get us from one to the other. That’s why these activities end up being the most problematic activities. Since these activities are the root of the problem the greatest impact can be made by addressing them first. That doesn’t mean doing without, but it does mean asking deep and hard questions about each and every aspect of these cornerstones of our lives if we desire to find a future for our children.

That is why Natural Living revolves around these essential activities of daily life:

                  Food – Switch to organically grown natural healthy local products.

                  Home – Transform your living space so that it uses energy  efficiently, is created from natural renewable materials, and provides a healthy and inspiring place to live.

                  Transportation  – Take the necessary steps to better use public transit . Whenever possible avoid the use of a car. If a car is required make the switch to an ultra low emissions vehicle or better with your next purchase.

                  Work – Do what you love to do. Ensure that this activity is life supportive. Make plans to change the work you do to be supportive of a sustainable society in the long run. Live near where your work.

In order to make these changes, it’s necessary to change our mode of thinking. So much of what we do every day seems routine and common to everyone. Most of the systems that form the fabric of our societies support these common routines. These engrained systems aren’t normally visible. We don’t even consider them, since they seem so normal. Unfortunately many of the normal things of every day life have developed from the abnormal until they’re perceived as normal. We need to break these linked systems in order to change the essential activities of our lives.

The glue that links together the essential activities of Natural Living includes four principle changes in the way we think. Actually, these aren’t changes at all; they are more of a reawakening to the essentials of a life worth living. After all, it is a search for the good life, a life that creates and sustains life that is at the heart of Natural Living. In order to find the path, the life force that holds nature  together for people, we must consciously adjust our way of thinking. Unlike most forms of life in nature, humanity has the responsibility of a brain as our niche survival trait. This brain has advanced so far that, combined with our large numbers, the machines we’ve created, and the new ways we transform nature, we have the power  to destroy ourselves. Of course that same brain, when applied creatively with a broad understanding of our connections  to nature, has the power to be not only life-sustaining, but the greatest celebration of life through awareness of life itself.

That’s why the four steps that bind together the activities of Natural Living revolve around the way we use our brains.

                  Awareness – Use your reasoning powers in order to get beyond your self, to move beyond self awareness, into a universal awareness of your connection to nature . This evening, my daughter explained it to me this way: “We breathe in oxygen from the air and breathe out carbon dioxide for the plants to breathe in our carbon dioxide and then they breathe out oxygen for us to breathe in again.” We as a species are symbiotic with the plants all around us. Think of it!

                  Plan –The power  resides in each of us to take the first steps. We must plan to make changes in these essential aspects of our lives through these first steps, and all the remaining steps of our lives. Planning is our connection to the element of time—so relevant to life’s trans-formative powers.

                  Choice – Make choices consciously in every moment, with a full awareness of your connection to nature . Making choices consciously breaks the binds of illusion built into the routines of daily life.

                  Creativity – In making the choices of daily life, apply the full depth and power  of your creativity, to find the broad array of your connections . We need the power of creativity to help us find new answers or rediscover old answers.

These are the steps of Natural Living. Before getting into the details of these steps the next chapter provides you with a quick start guide. If you are like me you’ll want to get started right away. The next chapter provides first a short term step by step summary of actions you can take along with their associated benefits. Then a long term step by step summary of actions are provided that enable you to make the deeper changes we all must make in order to create a sustainable world. These one page guides are designed to give you a quick reference to the most essential information on the steps of Natural Living to make it easy for you to review each day.

Chapter 5

TAKE ACTION

The following tables provide a quick summary of the Natural Living action plan. The first column is a reference to the most significant consumer  activities or “Life Activities” that are currently destroying nature . The second column, “Take Action”, provides a simple list of priority first steps that will make a major impact. The third column, “Results and Benefits” summarizes some things you can expect to accomplish.

First Steps, are simple and easy things we can all do to start along the path of Natural Living. The second table (not included in these sample pages on the web), Natural Living, is a list of priority steps that provide goals  which you can set your sights on achieving throughout your life. These represent the essential elements of Natural Living and will result in the vision outlined in the introduction. Ultimately Natural Living reverses the current trend towards the destruction of nature  and moves us to a restoration of nature and our reestablishment of reverence for it.

All it takes is for a few million of us to do these things, and those few million to encourage a few billion to join us, and that changes everything. Considering the so called “six degrees of separation”, making this change happen globally isn’t that hard to imagine. Through many projects in my own life, I’ve often heard, (as I am sure you have) that “it can’t be done...it won’t work….it costs too much”. And yet, in most of these cases those precise thoughts have been proven wrong. It can and must be done. “Can’t”, “won’t” and “costs too much”, are indications that creative solutions exist waiting to be discovered. Change for most of us is difficult to deal with emotionally since it means confronting the unknown. The wonderful part is that once we confront this fear we are rewarded with the creative energy  to continue.

Take action today by cutting out the First Steps table. Post it on the fridge at home or in your office, and try to make progress each day towards achieving some of these changes. When you’ve achieved some success with the first steps, then begin to focus on the Natural Living steps in the second table. As you achieve these steps celebrate the many benefits you and nature  will reap.

Review these tables and keep them in mind each day. Then you can return to the following chapter to find specifics and details on ways you can achieve Natural Living. Or, after reviewing these tables you may want to skip to section three, which records the experiences of my family, and learn about our journey. It can be done. We all can do it.

First Steps