A recent Guardian headline read "Human Society Under Urgent Threat from Loss of Earth's Natural Life." It was hardly unique. You can't watch or read the news these days without hearing catastrophic news stemming from human consumer-oriented activity. From the global climate crisis to mass extinction of animals, to war, famine and fire.
These stories all outline multiple urgent crises facing our planet, including the fact that more than a million species are currently at risk of extinction. The scope of the news is so dire and massive that it can leave us all feeling powerless and helpless, as though there is nothing we can do other than to hope someone does something about it. We are here to remind everyone that we are all someone. And, no matter what, we are ALL going to have to do something about all of this, whether we want to or not.
We cannot continue to live the lifestyles we were taught to live. It is that simple. We over-consume. We waste carelessly. And, we are destroying our world needlessly because of it. In the social quest for a constantly growing economy we have all been trained to work jobs we hate in order to buy stuff we don't need.
The good news is that breaking that programming can be hard, but it can be done. It can also be a lot of fun, too. To put society on a path of correcting all of this, we need - as individuals - to begin changing the ways that we live to be more in harmony with the natural world. We don't need to buy that new phone. We can continue wearing the jeans that are not the current fashion trend. We do not need to wear makeup. We can stop using lawn chemicals. We can grow some of our own food. We can join a CSA. We can support local businesses, rather than big corporations. We can buy organic. We can reuse rather than discard a surprising amount of stuff. We can fix things when they break, instead of buying new stuff. We can conserve water, plant pollinator-friendly plants, install solar energy, walk and bike more, bake our own bread, can our own preserves, compost, turn the lights off and the thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter.
In short, we can turn off the autopilots that run much of our daily lives and begin making smart choices each day, understanding that everything we consume comes from the Earth. When we do, we not only help the planet, we make our lives better.
We can learn to consume with awareness and respect. Join us in breaking the current cycle. Don't wait for someone else to fix this. Begin fixing it yourself. You will be glad you did, we promise!
On Saturday, September 28, 2019, Our Urban Farm will launch a learning series called Transitioning that will put participants through a number of experiential developmental exercises that will help empower them to cast off the negative programming of our "consumer" paradigm and explore new ways of living in harmony with the world. Attendance is limited and additional details will follow soon.
If you are ready to let go of the sense of powerlessness you feel when facing the reality of catastrophic climate change and mass extinction of species and move into a position of mindful empowerment, we hope you will join us for this revelatory event. For more information, feel free to contact Our Urban Farms at your convenience. Get ready to be the change we all need to see.
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