I admit it ... I once was a true urbanite!  I couldn't live without hour-long steaming hot showers each morning.  I loved city life and all its conveniences ... from corner stores to boutiques and entertainment.  I was an avid proponent of life's creature comforts.  

Then, I bought a small rural property.  It was a pretty big step for a single woman who'd never had dirt under her manicured fingernails!  

Looking back, I know it changed my outlook on the world irrevocably.  Suddenly I had to contend with the challenges of septic systems, water cisterns, water tables, growing things, and weather changes.  

I had never before thought about where all that water went during my shower.  It hadn't occurred to me what really happened to all the stuff I dumped down the drain ... soaps and bleaches and sundry chemicals.  I had never even realized how much water I actually used.  The modern conveniences of urban life had certainly lulled me into taking for granted that supplies of water, electricity, and sewage disposal were my right and were limitless and completely at my disposal.

I took that attitude with me to my new farm.  Within weeks my septic system was backed up, the cistern was dry, and I was bemoaning third-world conditions of life on a farm.  I discovered the hard way there is a delicate balance in nature.

When you rely on a natural septic system to break down and process what you flush, you cannot use bleach or chemicals of any kind.  Nature employs bacteria to break down effluent and waste materials, recycling them into life-giving compost and fresh water.  Chemicals kill these beneficial natural bacteria.  Even toilet paper has to be bleach-free and biodegradable.  What's more, you can't use unlimited quantities of water.  It comes from a cistern or well and has a finite supply.  And it goes into your septic system, which has a limited volume.  

Oh, it was all highly demoralizing and frustrating for an urbanite like me!  To actually discover my true impact on the environment. Well!  

However, what began as a crisis in lifestyle, eventually evolved into a passionate defence of nature and our natural resources.  Life on the farm taught me to be acutely aware of and responsible for my personal impact on the environment.

The delicate ecosystem of my humble little farm is no different than that of nature at large.  Each time you pull the plug on your kitchen sink you have added to the chemicals entering our freshwater supply.  Every time you rinse out paintbrushes or colour your hair, toxic chemicals enter our water system and eventually our lakes.  Every time a woman taking birth control pills flushes a toilet, synthetic estrogens from her urine are released into the water supply.  They disrupt the hormonal functions of all living things drinking from and living in that water supply.  Think it is a minor problem?  20 years ago 6 in 1,000,000 women were infertile.  Today 1 in 6 women are infertile.  The same goes for pharmaceuticals and antibiotics of every kind.  You could ultimately be drinking someone else's prescription.      

That is the reality of urban living.  Each of us contributes significantly to the growing demise of our planet.  

I have experienced firsthand how urban living isolates us from the rhythms and balance of nature.  It creates a dangerously artificial environment that we come to accept and believe as the real world.  It's not.  Nature is perceived simply as a resource to be used and discarded, rather than a living entity that needs our respect and care.  

What we do not understand, appreciate, or respect, we do not value, honour, or protect.  And that has led us to this climate and environmental crisis.

My experience on a farm has made me a conscious consumer, even though I now reside, once again, in the city.  I now feel very aware and responsible for my impact on my surroundings.  

My conscious lifestyle choices have created a deeply satisfying relationship and oneness with nature that gives my life much greater meaning and ease.  I see the integral part that every living thing, whether plant, animal, fish, insect, fungus, or micro-organism plays in the ultimate balance wellbeing of all.  I have become increasingly aware and respectful of the enormous diversity of life in all its forms--every being striving for its own right to live and be healthy, and adding value to all other life around it.  

Every animal, that is, except humans.  

I am so acutely aware of the delicate natural balance that is constantly interrupted and compromised by the blind selfish ignorance of humans--the only species on the planet that does not add value to the natural order.  We exploit, use, and plunder all the earth has to offer ...water, lumber, minerals, oil, fish, animals, as though the supply is inexhaustible and never-ending, and leave a trail of death and devastation wherever we go.  It really isn't necessary.  And, it's going to kill us all, and every other species along with us.

We have forgotten our essential connection to the earth.  Every aspect of the earth and the natural world is contained within our bodies in the exact same proportions ... water, air, minerals, salt, carbon, micro-organisms, as though we were actually birthed from the earth itself   In fact, our own bodies mirror exactly how the earth works, because we ARE all of its elements.  

We aren't on this planet.  We are an aspect of this planet, one small part of it.  Like every other species on this planet, we are designed to play our part in keeping the world self-sustaining through what we add that is of value to the rest of the natural world

 

The question is...what DO humans add that benefits anything but ourselves?  Why would mother earth (or Creator) want us to remain here, risking all other species in the process?    

What happens when something within your body falls out of balance?  Your metabolism immediately acts to regain balance, right?   For example, when you catch a cold, your body tries to expel that harmful organism by sneezing, coughing and having a runny nose.  It tries to kill off the organism by varying your body temperature with chills and fever.  Symptoms are important, because they tell us the body is working properly to self-correct.  

Nature responds exactly like your body when something is out of balance.  The symptoms we see in nature are how we know the earth is reacting to us.  For every malady that emerges, nature has already installed its antidote to ensure balance can be restored.  To that end, pathogens, too, have their place and purpose.  

For example, in the Amazon rainforest, there are millions of different species, all doing their own small part to maintain an incredibly complex environment.  If an ant colony grows too large and begins harvesting too many leaves or insects for food, thereby upsetting the balance, nature will quickly act by releasing a fungus or pathogen to kill a great many of the ants, until the ant colony has finally been reduced to a sustainable level again.  What is painful to the ants is necessary to keep everything, including the ants, in balance.

Viruses are one of nature's remedies to restore balance.  They are an environmental check-balance designed to deplete or incapacitate a species that is overpopulated and out of balance with the natural world.  Viruses are not random or accidental.  They are quite intentional.    

So, the pandemic is no accident.  And it won't be the last pandemic we experience in our lifetime  

Humans are completely out of balance with the natural world.  We have over-populated the planet.  Like rainforest ants, we have destroyed so much of the planet that nature is now trying to stop us so it can restore balance.  If we don't change radically and become more thoughtful and self-sustaining, our species will be eliminated.  

No matter how hard we try to fight viruses, they will grow more virulent until we become extinct.  But, if we quickly and quite radically change how we interact with the world, viruses will mysteriously disappear, as their need will become obsolete.                           

Our Enlightened Feelings products are derived from a deep mutual relationship and respectful partnership with nature.  We do not harm any aspect of nature.  Our products are 100% sustainable and renewable.  Every EF essence that you use creates a unique 'internal conversation' with a living plant being that is adding to your wisdom, happiness and quality of life.  You become one with a living plant's wisdom.  That makes you quite special, doesn't it!    

Your choices, even as just one person, can make a difference.   Small choices such as choosing organic produce over commercially grown and sustainable products such as ours, using phosphate-free cleaning supplies, and composting are important.  But, you can make a much bigger impact with your electoral vote.  The single most important choice you will make for your future will be to petition for and vote for HUGE, rapid, radical change in climate policies.  

As a scientist, I can tell you that what we DON'T know is far greater than what we DO know about the workings of the environment.  We have studied only about 5% all all the species on the planet.  So, how can we possibly understand the complex relationships between all living things and their place in our ecosystem?  How can we be so arrogant to presume to 'manage' natural resources?  

Everything we think we know or believe turns out to be wrong, as real-life experience keeps showing us.  For example .... just 20 years ago scientists believed that only humans were sentient.  Now we know that animals, reptiles, insects and even plants and trees are conscious and sentient.  We are beginning to understand that their knowledge and wisdom is far greater than ours.    

We cannot possibly manage what we do not know or understand, or make predictions upon which our very survival hinges, when we have such limited information.  The public can't learn the facts because there are too many stakeholders who are muzzling scientists, lobbying or bribing politicians, and using the media to create confusion, misinformation, and doubt so that they can continue to profit.

The only global solution is to completely stop doing everything that is causing problems and let time and the wisdom of nature heal and rebalance the consequences of our reckless behaviour.  David Attenborough and Canada's David Suzuki lead the way in offering do-able solutions for industry, businesses, and governments.  

According to credible research, we have, at best, 50-60 years of sustaining life on this planet if we use the current goals of slowing climate change.  All it takes is for the ocean to fall out of balance in order for the entire planet to die.  And that is happening now.   In 60 years the planet will be dead--oceans dead, all life gone.  

Your political choices NOW will literally determine whether your grandchildren get to live.  It really is THAT serious.  Vote as if your life depends on it--because it DOES. 

Politicians will tell you the economy has to be protected and we cannot make sweeping changes.  It is a lie designed to protect the status quo.  The economy will always thrive by what is in demand.  Right now we support a 'throw-away' disposable economic model.  But, a demand for completely sustainable renewable, recycled products that support and augment the environment (products like Enlightened Feelings offers) will create an even bigger boon to the economy without any cost of cleanup or reparation.  

You are not separate from the earth.   You are inextricably connected.  What you do to the earth, you ultimately do to your own body.   When you do not nurture and look after the earth's health, you are, quite literally, not looking after your own health.  

 In fact, recently I have observed a direct correlation between what is happening to the earth, and people's health issues.  What happens to earth, happens to us.  One example: In 2019, fresh water levels suddenly rose to dangerous levels.  People everywhere suddenly and inexplicably began experiencing problems with their own body's water levels--oedema (retaining water) and water-weight gain.  This reflection of the earth's health within all of us is why I felt the need to share my perspective on climate change

Please share this message with everyone you know.  Let's start a powerful new movement!  This wisdom is part of the teachings of shamans, indigenous peoples, first nations cultures, and that of all aboriginal peoples.  It is the origin of the biblical reference of the first 'sin' described as 'tasting of the tree of knowledge' (use of intellect--thinking with logic rather than intuitive awareness) .  Intellect is uniquely human and what made us mistakenly believe we can exploit, control, or use nature rather than remain an integral part of it.  This is how we stepped outside of 'the garden of Eden'--a state of oneness and balance with nature.   Rectifying this greatest of all sins is what can truly save our planet and humanity