Are you a homeowner? Would you like to help the environment? Well, this article may give you some ideas on how your front yard can directly impact the local environment right where you live.
As the title of my commentary suggests, everything we do counts. While I suspect it is next to impossible to eliminate the harmful effects of our western lifestyle at this point, I do believe there are a lot of little choices we can make to help mitigate and reduce our impact.
While I understand not every choice will be right for everyone, I think we can all find some that are easy or maybe even enjoyable for us. I’ve always loved the look of homes where the front yard is overgrown with wild grasses and flowers. I find this more exciting and appealing than the traditional well-manicured lawn.
We, humans, were born into paradise or the ‘Garden of Eden.’ All our needs and wants were provided for by Mother Earth. Yes, there were challenges, but who does not like a challenge? And yes, there was sickness and death, but these things are still with us as much as they ever were.
Then we ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and we saw ourselves as separate from one another, separate from Divinity, and separate from the Earth. Knowledge creates this false sense of separation as we are not, in reality, separate at all.
I hope this pandemic has brought the fact that we are not separate home for you in a very real and visceral way. As we look forward, let’s ask ourselves in what ways we might make small changes that allow us to recognize and live that truth.
I am not anti-knowledge, but the question we have to ask is, are we using it, or is it using us? Without tools like yoga and meditation, chances are it is using you.
May the Spirit be victorious!
-Douglas Johnson
