Downstream Neighbor 2012 Symposium , Denver , Colorado

Call for a show of hands! Early registration rate through Thanksgiving for Journey of the Universe, Water 2012 networking, and keynote by Maude Barlow at opening session of The Downstream Neighbor - acting locally for the South Platte watershed in the context of global issues and the evolution of the cosmos!

Calling contemplatives, scholars, activists, and kindred spirits! Denver, January 27, 2012.

Special registration fee through Thanksgiving, only $15

http://downstreamneighbor.org/.

The wave of healing for our second annual Earth Healing Day is building, and we invite you to join in. If you are in the Santa Fe area, please join us at noon at the labyrinth on Museum Hill. If you can’t join us, you can create your own EHD event.

Wherever you are, it’s time to wrap our precious planet in a huge healing embrace once again. Starting at the International Date Line, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm in each respective time zone, a wave of spiritual blessing will move around the planet - and once again offer participants a global experience of unity.

Prompted into action after the underwater volcano of oil gushed into the Gulf, the first Earth Healing Day was created to support our precious planet during this crisis. On August 15, 2010, participants from around the world focused their prayers, meditations, chants, and healing intentions toward the Gulf. After this successful day of blessing, participants continued efforts as an ongoing monthly global event, held on the last Sunday every month and focused on a specific country or condition.

At this one year anniversary we look back in celebration of all the focused healing intentions we’ve collectively addressed. As each new devastating event filled news headlines, a new region received our attention. September was dedicated to getting relief aid to flood victims in Pakistan. In October, supporters focused prayers for peace in the drug wars in Mexico. Media coverage in November was centered on freeing the trapped Chilean miners. The attention in December was directed toward villagers who survived volcanic eruptions in Indonesia.

In January, on the one year anniversary of Haiti’s earthquake that took a quarter of a million lives and homes, aid was directed at getting the hundreds of thousands of refugee from tent camps to more permanent homes. February saw devastating flooding in Australia, Brazil, Philippines and Sri Lanka while April dealt with balancing the elemental forces of wind and water after floods and tornadoes in the United States.

The revolutions in Northern Africa and the Middle East riveted eyes and prayers for freedom fighters during March and support for Tibet’s half a century struggle for independence became the focus in July. When the earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear meltdown in Japan, prayers for survivors poured in. Healing radiation poisoning became the focus in May as nuclear scientists scrambled for cooling solutions.

Remaining attuned to ongoing disasters can be challenging, but those of us fortunate enough to live lives of relative ease are called to do just that. Set aside the tendency to slip into overwhelm and complacency. Get informed and get involved.

World Aid organizations warn about compassion fatigue, but EHD participants can turn to tools on the EHD website to inspire and energize their monthly efforts. Make a compassionate connection with fellow planetary citizens. Read the monthly focus articles and listen to a guided meditation about that region’s specific needs at www.earthhealingday.com.

When flooding along the Missouri River threatened two nuclear plants in Nebraska and the path of a wildfire threatened Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, it reminded Americans of their potential plutonium poisoning vulnerabilities.

Earth Healing Day was birthed amidst last year’s highly publicized stain on Earth’s oceans. The need was obvious. Now we are living with a field of invisible radioactive particles which are potentially even more grave for Earth and her inhabitants.

Help transition planetary responsibility across the current generational gap. Those with greater life experience and wisdom are called to guide and support those who will inherit Earth. These future generations must learn to harness the power of the collective mind, because it is strong enough to shift the course of a planet.

Join us at noon on August 14th to send your loving thoughts and prayers to cleanse and heal our beloved planet. Combined with the efforts of tens of thousands of others around the globe, your prayers will have a powerful energizing impact. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of human history.”

Kristi McCracken is a journalist in the Central Valley of California

Here is a copy of a note one of our organizers recently sent to all her friends. We urge and welcome you to take a moment to send a message out to all your friends, associates and loved ones as well. Thank you.

Dear Friends:

I'm sure you all remember our first Earth Healing Day last summer. We are looking forward to another great day for Earth this year.

I would like to invite you to once again participate in our "global wave" of prayer and healing on behalf of our wonderful planet. While the official Earth Healing Day remains August 15th, we will be creating the global wave on Sunday, August 14. (We are soliciting participation from all around the world, and that is much easier to accomplish on a Sunday than on a Monday.)

As you may recall from last year, the idea is both simple and grand. We ask people all around the world to spend one hour, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. in their own time zone, reflecting on this amazing planet we call home. Imagine thousands of people from all around the world thoughtfully intending that Earth receive healing from all the stresses currently arising. This might take the form of praying, meditating, chanting, singing, dancing or some other form of intentional focus. Many paths, one intention: healing for our precious planet.

Our goal is to once again enlist support and participation from people in every time zone all around the world. This will result in a global embrace that spans a full 24 hours. Will you join us?

Please check out our website – EarthHealingDay.com. On the Get Involved page you’ll find information cards as well as a list of suggested activities for Earth Healing Day. Feel free to share this information with everyone you know who cares about the future of our planet (not to mention the future generations of maturing young adults who will "inherit the Earth" we leave them). Let us do everything we can to leave them a pristine and peaceful planet, and a beautiful world to enjoy with their children. If you can get together with a group of friends or family members during the selected hour, please do so - prayers and positive intentions are magnified in a group focus.

I would love to hear from each one of you regarding how you spent the hour designated for planetary blessing and healing. Here in Santa Fe we will be busy hosting a large event. We’ll be chanting, meditating and invoking planetary healing through prayerful dance by a local group, the Aztec Dancers. I wish all of you could come to Santa Fe for this powerful event - we are expecting hundreds of people to attend. Wherever you are on August 14th, have a wonderful Earth Healing Day!

Love and blessings to you all,

Kathlyn

p.s. We’re on Facebook now, so you can “Like” Earth Healing Day and help spread the word that way as well. Thanks!

Fukushima’s reactors exploded and are melting down, Los Alamos’s nuclear waste narrowly escaped burning fires, and Nebraska’s plants are drowning in flood waters. Summer heat passes and sweating isn’t deadly, but these nuclear issues will affect generations to come.

Triple digit temperatures across America signaled not only the arrival of the heat of summer, but the death of my air conditioning unit. After sweating through a day of 86 degree temperatures indoors, I broke down and called the repairman. In the short duration of this little lapse in climate control, greater empathy emerged for those who deal with this inescapable heat on a daily basis all across the world but especially in Japan.

I don’t envy the Japanese employees whose companies have raised the temperature of their work environment, because my sluggish brain wasn’t processing very well. Due to the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima and a decision by the government of Japan to shut down other nuclear reactors until they can be made safe from natural disaster, the Japanese are facing energy shortages.

With less electricity available, companies wanted to avoid blackouts, so offices are setting their thermostats to 82 F. Some businesses have encouraged employees to take longer summer vacations and to wear Hawaiian shirts as well as flip flops rather than three piece suits.

Fukushima’s reactors are in meltdown with temperatures reported at over 5000 degrees which is high enough to melt the stainless steel containment structures putting the ground water at risk. Trace levels of radiation in whales and fish off the coast near the plant are being reported. Local hospitals are finding trace levels of radiation in patient’s urine as well. Not only has containment not been reached, but radioactive poisoning has already begun to show up in humans and animals not only in the water but the air as well.

Nuclear fears heightened here in the U.S. when 12,000 residents of Los Alamos, New Mexico were evacuated because fires raged out of control near their nuclear plant during July.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the world's first atomic bomb was developed, no longer stores nuclear warheads, but it does house approximately 30,000 barrels of plutonium contaminated waste. These 55 gallon drums contain gloves, clothing and spent fuel rods that have been exposed to plutonium.

Plutonium is one of the most toxic chemicals known to science. According to physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, if fire had engulfed these drums, they would likely have popped open and spread a low level cloud of plutonium dust within a 10 mile radius. One microscopic speck in your lungs could cause cancer.

The fear in nuclear situations is that circumstances are worse than they seem, and that those in charge don't know the full extent of the damage or aren’t telling the public because they’re not sure how to cope with it.

In Nebraska, the flooding Missouri River surrounded the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant, 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska when a protective aqua-berm collapsed. Floodwater two feet deep surround the containment buildings and power transformers at the plant which are reported to be waterproof.

This has forced workers to use elevated catwalks to access the facility. Employees use life jackets, waders and boats to check flood barriers, build scaffolding and move equipment around.

The plant manager claims that the areas containing radioactive material have remained mostly dry using flood barriers and pumps, but one wonders when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman comes to investigate if perhaps things aren’t worse than they’re letting on.

One of the biggest threats to the safety of any nuclear power plant is a prolonged loss of electrical power because the plant needs to be able to keep the radioactive fuel cooling by pumping water over it.

Fort Calhoun has several backup power sources in place, including different power lines and extra diesel generators. The reactor has been shut down since April which helps make the plant safer because the radioactive fuel has been cooling off since then.

Officials continue to assert the safety of nuclear plants because they have numerous backup systems. The problem is that their test model scenarios did not factor in the combination of complications resulting from natural disasters. It’s time to openly address the issues of hazardous nuclear waste.

Kristi McCracken is a journalist in the Central Valley of California

Tibetans are now a minority in their own country. Over one million Tibetans have been killed since China invaded Tibet 60 years ago. The Chinese have imprisoned and tortured thousands of Tibetans and have destroyed thousands of monasteries. By the thousands, Tibetans continue to flee each year - while the Chinese are encouraged to migrate to Tibet with incentives such as high paying jobs and lower cost housing.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and political leader, fled to India a half a century ago in order to avoid execution by the Chinese. He was forced to set up his government in exile from the Indian side of the border. For fifty plus years, he has attempted to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Chinese – but the Chinese government has refused to meet with him or his delegation. Thus, his “middle-way” approach, which sought to uphold an independent country status for Tibet, was given up in hope of at least establishing an autonomous zone for Tibetans.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama twenty years ago for his continued non-violence stance. Four years ago, the US awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal which is the highest honor a civilian can be given.

Buddhism is a key component of the cultural identity of Tibetans. Despite this, the Chinese have killed over 90,000 monks and nuns, and they have destroyed over 6000 monasteries and temples. Religious suppression in Tibet is so severe that many consider it genocide. Even today, Chinese restrict religious life by banning images or talk of the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan people have faced political oppression by the Chinese for six decades. The political protests in 1950s, 1980s and 2008 were met by extreme violence which crushed each uprising by beating, arresting, and silencing protesters. An estimated 300,000 Chinese soldiers still stationed in Tibet clamp down on any attempts by Tibetans to voice their desire for freedom.

Economic discrimination makes it hard for the Tibetans to rise out of the poverty of their traditional nomadic lifestyle. Chinese resettlement, land confiscation and fencing practices have all but wiped out their nomadic heritage. Over a million nomads from this plateau are being relocated by the Chinese. If they commit to not herd for 10 years, they are promised housing in the city - but often they can neither afford the rent nor find work, since all jobs are controlled by the Chinese government. This rural farming population is the object of discrimination by the Chinese, and they are relegated to areas with open sewage flowing in the streets.

Environmental exploitation of the Tibetan Plateau has resulted in half of the available forests being cut down. A hydropower station damaged the lake that Tibetans feel holds the life force of Tibet. Several nuclear missile sites are located inside this country of peaceful people, with nuclear waste threatening contamination of Tibet’s largest lake. Over $100 billion from large mineral deposits of zinc, copper, and lead are being collected by the Chinese.

The Tibetan plateau, which is a third the size of the U.S., is known as the roof of the world. This plateau, also nicknamed “the third pole,” is now experiencing an unprecedented glacier melt. Over half of the green, high-altitude meadows have become desert.

The Tibetan Plateau is the source of many of Asia’s major rivers, and those rivers are the primary water source for 80% of the Asian population. Tibet’s rivers are drying up or being diverted to irrigate Chinese farms.

The 700 mile railway between China and Tibet strengthens Chinese control. The railway was built at a cost of over $4 billion. It is facilitating the migration of Chinese into this once isolated country, and also the extraction of mineral and timber resources.

While the Chinese portray Tibetans as backward and their monks as barbaric, the Dali Lama continues to peacefully lead by example. Many around the world are speaking out for Tibetans, who have lost even the right to maintain their own language.

Our prayers of support are needed by the occupied country of Tibet and by the Tibetans who have fled their country. May some goodness eventually come from this long standing issue. May Tibetans regain their basic human rights, and have the privilege of self-determination once again.

Kristi McCracken journalist from the Central Valley of California.

For more information about Tibet try these links:

Chinese invasion of Tibet as outlined in Lost in Tibet See www.lostintibet.com/chineseinvasion.html

History of Tibet Before the Chinese Invasion of 1949 ... See www.savetibet.org/resource-center/all-about-tibet/history-tibet-before-chinese-invasion-1949html

Tibet: Before and After Invasion | Friends of Tibet (INDIA) See www.friendsoftibet.org/main/today.html

Invasion of Tibet See www.tibetancommunityinireland.com/invasionoftibet.html

A huge "Thank You" to all of you who participated in the global wave for Earth last Sunday, June 26th. It was another exciting day of healing for Earth, and an inspiring opportunity for all of us who participated to offer blessings, good wishes and lots of healing energy to/for the planet. Again, thank you! Earth is counting on all of us to support Her in these rapidly changing times.

As we move toward the new month (July), there is much to consider on behalf of our precious planetary home. In the U.S., here in New Mexico and Arizona, we watch as our land, homes and forests continue to blaze with wildfires. The drought here makes it nearly impossible to contain and control the fires, which are now threatening the nuclear facility in Los Alamos, the very laboratory that created the atomic bomb. Yet, at the same time, my friends and family in North and South Dakota continue to build levees of sand bags, trying to contain and control flooding rivers that threaten destruction of land, homes and farms. Further, the flooding Missouri River threatens two nuclear facilities in Nebraska, bringing home the very real threat of nuclear catastrophe.

Our brothers and sisters in Syria are grievously oppressed, and continue to face circumstances daily that can only be described as unimaginably brutal. We bear high witness to their continued stamina in the face of overwhelming repression, torture and killing. While statistics are difficult to verify, estimates tonight are that over 1,000 people have been killed in the Syrian resistance movement, at least 100 of whom were tortured children. Let us redouble our efforts to send compassion, healing and clarity to the people resisting domination in Syria. May our continued moral support and our prayers and meditations sustain them at this time.

As of Monday 27 June, Moammar Gadhafi has been declared an outlaw by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. While the action of the ICC (an international tribunal created to prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity) may seem slow, today's action at least lays some groundwork for international sanctions. Unfortunately, Libya appears to be descending into a vicious civil war. May our combined support continue as we remember our Libyan brothers and sisters in our meditations and focused visualizations.

Our focus for July will be on the freedom fighters of Tibet. Having resisted the domination of the Chinese government for over 50 years, their resistance movement is the longest in recorded history. Yet amazingly, in spite of enduring years of torture, loss of life and quality of life, not to mention the destruction of their land, wildlife, cultural and spiritual institutions, the Tibetan spirit remains strong. Having withstood conditions so deplorable that most of us cannot even imagine them, the valiant determination of Tibetans to regain freedom from outside oppressors calls all of us to examine the level of our own commitment to a just and free world.

Join us this month in sending a healing wave to the people of Tibet. Let us acknowledge the half-century of dedicated commitment to freedom, justice and human values, which has fueled this amazing, although incredibly costly, resistance movement. May their suffering not be in vain!

An unsettling video image of people scrambling onto the roof of their car as it floats down the flooded street like a boat in a turbulent river brings the plight of the flood victims onto our screens for prayerful consideration. In compassion, we note the power of the out of balance water element. Film footage of the devastation from numerous tornadoes shows traumatized people looking for their homes and loved ones after the powerful winds tore their world apart. We note also the imbalanced air element.

The disturbing part about these images is that they could have been taken in numerous places around the globe from the flooding Red River Valley in Canada down to the Mighty Mississippi River as it crests and spills into the Gulf of Mexico. Like the waterways of the world, earth’s planetary citizens are connected.

Our planet and her inhabitants need our compassionate attention as powerful wind and water storms rage. Unprecedented amounts of rain that cannot be absorbed by the deluged land are causing flooding, and super cell tornadoes of higher magnitude have literally torn apart hundreds of lives and entire towns.

In Joplin, Missouri officials say the death toll from the massive tornado last month has risen to 138 people making it the deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1950. According to the Associate Press, along a six mile path of destruction, more than 8,000 homes and 500 commercial properties were destroyed in the tornado.

Japan still needs our prayers after suffering nuclear reactive meltdowns, which produced contaminated water and air. Radioactive particulates carried by both water and air currents, will likely affect far reaching places on the planet for years to come. Even the land has dead zones that are not likely return to their prior fertile condition for at least 100 years.

When you make note of flooding in Australia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, and Bolivia, it becomes apparent that the water element seems out of balance all across the planet. Of course, we must also count the flooding rivers in Columbia, Canada and Midwestern U.S., as well.

Columbia, South America, usually has two rainy seasons: one in the fall and in the spring. However, it has been raining now for a full year, with devastating results. Over 3 million people have been displaced. Northern and southern hemispheric winds converge here, forcing strong thunderstorm updrafts. These severe storms have resulted in very heavy flooding.

The unusually heavy spring rains have produced devastating floods in Colombia killing over 400 people so far this year. Nearly 500 others are missing. Last year’s floods killed nearly 600 people. The director of Colombia’s weather service said that they have received 5-6 times the usual rainfall over the past year.

Flooding in Manitoba, Canada has been a reoccurring problem, but this year it caused billions of dollars in damages. Hundreds of residents along Manitoba Lake raced to evacuate before highways became too flooded for them to leave. Farmers and rail owners worry that the submersion once again of the flood plains in the Red River Valley is drowning their economy. Yet odd as it seems, flooding here spares residents downstream in Winnipeg.

Unfortunately, dam spillage and levee leaks, as well as intentional dike diversions, caused families to not only to lose their farms, but their ability to earn an income, as well. While the government offers compensation for property loss, perhaps the real issue concerns loss of income. Flooded fields cannot be planted and for this, there is no compensation.

Further south, rapid snowmelt and heavy spring rains added stress to the eight dams along the Missouri River including large ones in the Dakotas. Tributaries to the Mississippi are greatly swollen, and the rushing currents continue to affect lives downstream.

Flooding along the Mighty Mississippi and its tributaries inundated the Midwest with large volumes of water. Residents in numerous towns along the affected region attempted to sandbag their way to flood control as the river crested at new highs in multiple cities on its southern surge toward New Orleans.

The Mighty Mississippi has been protected from flooding since 1950s by a system of levees and spillways. This year, the Army Corp of Engineers opened the flood gates on all the spillways at the same time for the first time ever. Flow experts said that opening levees would alleviate pressure on the entire system, displacing hundreds (rather than thousands) of residents. Watching fields of crops and pasturelands for livestock turn into lakes left those who labored over them speechless, and often homeless.

As earth’s inhabitants face the powerful destructive forces of Mother Nature’s elemental imbalances, the realization has begun to dawn on many more people that inner calm and balance are needed to meet the challenges we, as a global community, face. May you, too, be willing to open the floodgates of your heart, releasing huge flows of compassion to aid those affected by these flooding conditions, and to alleviate the pressures of chaos in your life, as well. Allow your compassion to flow into your community and out to our planet during these wet and windy transformative times.

As Buckminster Fuller reminded us, we’re not just passengers aboard spaceship earth, we’re the crew. Our compassionate response to the pressing needs of flood and tornado survivors can have a restorative effect on balancing our Mother Earth, and on the elemental forces of wind and water that have raged so savagely in many parts of our world.

Four tectonic plates converge near Japan. Consequently, people there live on the brink of disaster, in a country that is one of the most seismically active places on the planet. It’s not easy to look in the face of fear, but as the trio of disasters in Japan continue to unfold, we see the need for compassionate action toward our neighbors.

The Japanese stoically faced the 9.0 earthquake that shook their island country and the 30 foot waves from the tsunami that swept homes, cars and loved ones into the sea. Luckily, tens of thousands of people were saved with early warning systems. Over 12,000 are still missing, perhaps swept into the sea or buried under the 25 million tons of rubble. The death toll has risen to over 14,300.

The threat continues as silent invisible particles of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants now threaten an ever expanding danger zone. When the quake hit, the three operating reactors shut down as designed. When the wave topped the seawall, backup generators used to cool the rods flooded and died. The outer buildings of the reactors began exploding one by one to release the pressure that was building up from the overheating.

The incredible power stored inside the nucleus of a tiny atom is hard to contain. Splitting the atom, a process called fission, releases huge amounts of energy. Lise Meitner, the scientist who first discovered the process, never intended for this knowledge to be used to create the atomic bombs such as the US dropped on Japan in WWII, and which triggered the fears during the cold war of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Using fission for peaceful purposes, such as generating electricity, the chain reaction must be controlled. Special control rods in nuclear reactors absorb the free-flying neutrons so they don’t split other nuclei. The vaporized water produces steam energy that spins turbines which generate electricity.

When the excessive heat generated by the fuel rods can’t be adequately cooled, meltdown begins and potential radioactive leakage is heightened. Meltdown is a term used to describe a severe nuclear reactor accident producing overheating that results in damage to the core. Nuclear scientists from around the world are assisting Japan in an attempt to minimize the meltdown effects. Of the over 400 nuclear power plants around the world, two have become infamous due to meltdowns.

In a reactor accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania during 1979, the containment structure fortunately never ruptured, and it kept the radioactive release from the nuclear reactor’s partial meltdown to a minimum. This spared thousands of people from the nightmare of a more serious nuclear accident.

April 26, 2011 was the 25th anniversary of a nuclear accident at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. In 1986, at this site, the worst disaster in the history of nuclear energy released radioactive material into the atmosphere estimated to be hundreds of times that of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The uranium rods did not have a containment structure, and the explosion sent a cloud with 50 tons of radioactive particles into the air - exposing thousands of local residents.

Hundreds were hospitalized with radiation poisoning in the first couple of months. Many of those directly exposed, such as plant workers and fire fighters, died. Radiation poisoning can kill in 30-60 days for those sustaining ongoing exposure. However, radiation poisoning is more likely to show up later in the form of various cancers, especially thyroid cancer in children. Estimated deaths attributed to the radiation fallout from the Chernobyl disaster range from 4,000 to nearly one million people.

As the wind expanded the radioactive radius of Chernobyl, millions of people in neighboring European countries fearful of contamination faced various dreadful predictions. Romanians were told not to drink rainwater. Polish officials stopped the sale of cow’s milk, fearing contamination. Scandinavians didn’t feed their kids fresh fruits or vegetables. Only one reactor was damaged in Chernobyl, whereas Fukushima has four out-of-control reactors. It is highly likely that Fukushima will far surpass Chernobyl in terms of its environmental damage and human death toll.

Fearing danger from a nuclear accident, the recent global resurgence of interest in nuclear power has stalled. Although increasing nuclear energy could mean that dwindling fossil fuel supplies such as coal, oil, and gas might not be depleted as quickly as feared, private investors are not yet willing to foot the $10 billion bill per reactor, given the current devastating problems.

Radioactivity is once again sending ripples of fear around the planet. Nuclear energy, considered by some to be a clean, inexhaustible energy resource, continues to be plagued with the very real issues of nuclear waste and safe containment. These unstable isotopes break down at a constant rate, releasing radioactivity until they are neutralized, a measure of time known as half-life. Depending on the type of uranium, it has a half-life between 700 million and 4 billion years.

Our understanding of radioactivity became clearer when Marie Curie discovered that some elements have naturally unstable nuclei that break down, giving off radiation. She was a brilliant scientist who died young due to overexposure to radiation in the form of X-rays. Curie’s daughter figured out how to create the artificially unstable nucleus used by medicine to stop the growth of cancer by using rays to irradiate them.

While the use of radiation can be beneficial, great caution and wisdom are required. It is highly dangerous to living cells of all kinds, not just cancer cells. The destructive potential of radiation depends on which unstable elements are exposed. Nuclear power plants typically emit four kinds of radioactive elements. Exposure to radioactive iodine often leads to thyroid cancer, while exposure to radioactive strontium is taken up in the bones and teeth, often leading to leukemia. Plutonium is the most toxic of all; when inhaled, it can lead to lung cancer and other tissue damage. When cesium enters the body, it circulates everywhere - causing cancer of the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. To date, there are 27 different types of cancer associated with exposure to radioactive isotopes.

Technically, the fuel rods in the Fukushima nuclear power plant where the isotopes are stabilizing are still contained. However, it is doubtful that the meltdown which has begun can actually be stopped, since cooling only slows the process. The system pumps are so damaged it appears that only radical acts like dowsing with sea water can mitigate the problem - which is not even a solution, but rather an interim step. These attempts to cool the reactors using sea water have resulted in overflow ditches that are dumping thousands of tons of highly contaminated radioactive water into the ocean off the coast of Fukushima.

Due to high radiation levels, restrictions have been placed on the distribution and consumption of a sea fish known as the sand lance found in these waters. Since fish migrate and ocean currents circulate, it may be only a matter of time before radioactive contamination crosses the Pacific. It is as yet uncertain what the net effect will be to the living ecosystem of the sea.

This unknown, invisible and often non-obvious radiation threat can be frightening. Japan’s epic quake has shaken us all, and her aftershocks continue to leave us rattled. The force of the tsunami's crushing blow claimed inestimable amounts of property, possessions and thousands of lives, for which many still grieve. The radiation remains as a lingering threat. We watch in horror at the continuing effects arising from man's "harnessing" of the atom.

Prayers for the Japanese workers who are at greatest risk are indeed merited. Despite sleep deprivation, poor food supplies and heightened radiation exposure, they continue to valiantly attempt to hold the greater negative possibilities at bay.

The dramatic events in Japan have allowed us to touch the untouchable in our minds, and to think the unthinkable. We must respond with compassionate engagement. We would do well to emulate the resilience and calm determination of the Japanese people to overcome what cannot be controlled. Natural disasters lay bare the best and worst in people. While Japan’s grief is quietly restrained, the shock of the loss continues to reverberate as fear escalates. In Emperor Akhito’s first-ever televised address he said, “Pray for the safety of as many people as possible.”

Before the terrible disaster that befell Japan, a dear friend of Earth Healing Day told one of the founders this story of her youth:

I am a child walking with my father on the beach. It is December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor.

We see the Japanese planes come in, they fly very low. I look up, into the eyes of a Japanese bomber pilot. We gaze into each other’s eyes. He has been a child once; maybe he is a father now or hopes to be one. He flies further down the beach. He knows that I know, and I know that he knows, that he did not drop a bomb here on the beach as he was supposed to do, because he gazed into the eyes of a child.

Throughout my life, I have had this awareness, that I owe my life to the mindful gaze of that Japanese pilot.

The Earth and all of us are squirming through an intense vortex, as though wriggling forth from a fledgling maturity in one phase of development, to emerge as infants in the next. As together we face this transformation, we pause and reflect on the similarities of the tragic Japanese experience and that of the Gulf of Mexico one year ago. This may not be obvious at first glance, but if we collapse time as experienced in the Gulf, or expand time as experienced in Japan, we will see certain similarities worth noting. Another way is to take the perspective of a lifetime still in process.

In the span of a mere 65 years, Japan has experienced the terror of nuclear war and the terror of nuclear power. The very floor of the ocean that provides its basic context has buckled, and the ocean itself has wreaked havoc. And in that same approximate time span, the Gulf of Mexico shrank from a vast, deep, pure sea spawning prolific life forms for the delight of sea and other creatures, to a shallower, more polluted slough where the capacity to bring forth and nourish sustained life is at great risk. Though dramatized by the horrific devastation at the time of the BP-Transocean-Haliburton-Macondo oil drilling disaster, this insult has been building and accumulating over decades. Decisions by industry and government to exploit what Earth in her wisdom has protected for millennia are the common thread. Common symptoms are illness and death suffered by humans and other living species.

Amazingly, the Japanese emerged from their 1945 disaster as ambassadors of peace to the US, their former enemy. During the previous US administration, I participated in a march through the streets of New York City to the United Nations for a scheduled review of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. Fragile Japanese elders, wounded at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, carried thousands of paper cranes and urged the people of the United States to join the world in honoring that venerable agreement. Yet even the NNPT allows the use of nuclear energy, and Japan’s leaders acquiesced in that awesome and dangerous technology. Governments now subsidize the industries that give us nuclear energy and the ones that dredge up sequestered carbons that foul our oceans and our air, and warm our planet. An ocean in peril anywhere is an ocean in peril everywhere.

The interconnected oceans cover 71 percent of the surface of the globe, so that Earth is sometimes called the water planet. We humans ourselves have been described as aquasapiens, meaning self-reflective water.¹ We have a sacred connection to water; we are water. Mindfully attending to the essence and attributes of water, we mindfully attend to our selves and our Source.

The same river deltas that give us nurseries of teeming ocean life put those same nurseries at terrible risk because the oil is there, deep below the ocean floor, the product of millennia of pressurized deposits of the detritus of life in transformation. Of course we will be drilling, they say, and it will be spilling and ruining the nurseries, one of the ironies of life!² Another view is that wise Earth has for millennia been carefully “cleaning house” by sequestering the carbon safely under the ground and below the sea so that the planet does not become toxic or over-warm.³ Parliaments and scientists debate carbon sequestration to protect coal production from being so dirty. Maybe we should consider leaving it where Mother Earth put it in the first place. Maybe those responsible for spilling over 270 million gallons of oil and adding some additional 1.8 million gallons of toxic chemicals in response to the Gulf oil deluge could compensate Earth by fasting from producing or using that many gallons again – leave that much oil under the ground.⁴

After Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana officials and the Army Corps of Engineers drew a red line above the coast to indicate what could, and could not, be saved from sea level rise and the vanishing wetlands. Below that line were numerous aboriginal villages whose names are like echoes from my childhood: Pointe Aux Chenes, Isles de St Charles, Lower Dulac. The Houma nation is struggling internally with how to address their vanishing lands. In this they are similar to the Inuit in Newtok, Shismaref, Unalakleet, and Kivalina in Alaska, the Maldives and other island nations – as well as other delta regions like Bangladesh. I once heard the head of Bangladesh environmental ministry say to a public television camera that, since industrialized nations had caused global warming, he expects them to accept the millions of climate refugees that will be coming to their shores soon from his native country. On the south coast of Louisiana, an aboriginal people are also approaching climate refugee status.

The lieutenant governor of Louisiana is making public announcements that residents should understand that not all the villages sinking into the sea will be saved. And in the newspapers, we read of Japanese people weighing the pros and cons of rebuilding their devastated towns. Who can compute the loss in human culture and interwoven enjoyment of land and sea?

The coast can be compared to the meeting of lovers about to start a family. This rich ecosystem is designed to be a region of high creativity to generate the life of the sea from which we all draw nurturance. In this time of unfortunate rupture in the relationship of sea and land, we pause to send our deep compassion.

For both the Gulf of Mexico and the Japan ecosystems, we ponder certain basics. The impacts of this particular incident are deep and ongoing. The problems associated with the industry have not gone away. This is not an isolated incident or in an isolated location, nor are its impacts merely local. And this incident reveals in microcosm the extent of control the industry has over a government and its people.⁵ People are gaining awareness of these interconnected dilemmas and finding more effective ways to self govern.⁶ And much more progress is demanded of the human spirit. Fortunately, a comprehensive worldwide strategy of investing in and constructing the green energy grid is within reach.⁷

And fortunately, people are capable of great compassion such as the Japanese elders with their paper cranes, the Japanese bomber pilot moving on down the beach, and the volunteers from all over the world gathering to clean a beach or bathe a pelican.

With compassion for the suffering of the sea creatures and the birds of the air, for the grasses and the edible plants of forest and stream, for the humans who cling to the battered coastlines and those who live huddled together in cities, this month we hold forth a field for positive transformation for the interconnected oceans and peoples of the world struggling for freedom from harmful sources of energy. We give thanks for Earth’s wisdom in teaching us to sequester carbon and keep it sequestered. We give thanks for nuclear energy’s ability to point us to the power of the sun, the quintessential nuclear generator. And we give thanks for the evolving consciousness available to human beings to transform the structures that are crumbling from their own insufficiency, and to be ready to rise from the ashes and the oil slicks to create the new green energy era.

This month as we ask participants in Earth Healing Day to hold a positive energy field for the healing of Japan and its waters and airstreams that connect to the whole planet, may we also remember the one year anniversary of our prayers for the Gulf of Mexico, its creatures and atmosphere and humans. May all who are already one in dependence on the beneficence of the sun realize our oneness in spirit and renew our determination to come home together to honor and respect our beautiful planet Earth.

May profound goodness arise from this noble endeavor. May all beings be blessed a thousand-fold, and may life be richer, fuller and kinder to the children and grandchildren of the oceans, the forests, the cities, and the coastlines.

References

¹ Linda Gibler, OP, in a talk on Water and Cosmology at the San Antonio Water Symposium, 02/14/2010

² Rowan Jacobssen, Shadows on the Gulf (Bloomsbury 2011).

³ It was Cormac Cullinan, author of Wild Law, a Manifesto for Earth Justice (Syber Ink 2001) who first made me aware that Earth had sequestered carbon for millennia.

⁴ A lawsuit based on international jurisdiction and filed under Ecuador's constitutional provision that recognizes the rights of Mother Earth (Pachamama) has demanded just that, as legal remedy.

⁵ Antonia Juhasz, author of Black Tide, speaking at Gulf Gathering, Weeks Bay, Alabama, 03/14/2011.

⁶ Self-organizing complexity is one of three essential themes in the cosmos (the other two are diversity and communion) according to Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in The Universe Story. A group that helps humans in the US self govern in the face of corporate intrusion into the political process is the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, http://www.celdf.org/

⁷ World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE), Action Plan for the Global Proliferation of Renewable Energy.

I want to begin by thanking all of you who have faithfully continued with the spiritual work of Earth Healing Day. Yet, this debt of gratitude comes not simply from me, one mere being on a heftily populated planet, it comes from the planet, herself. As we continue our prayers and meditations for the people and ecosystems located in areas encountering such amazingly planetary stress, it is good to periodically also create some inner receptivity and listen to our precious planet and her offspring. After all, if we can send out mental frequencies of healing, hope, compassion and good will, we can surely receive returning frequencies as well.

The healing originally selected for April, 2011, was the Gulf of Mexico. We thought it appropriate to revisit the Gulf on the first anniversary of last year’s crisis, continue with our healing focus, and bless the entire area as the living waters and coastlines move forward from the devastating occurrences we sadly witnessed last year. To that end, I am providing a link that all of you may watch, which shows the abundant and teeming bird life that occupies this magnificent region. As you may know, along with the new life that is cheering for healed waters and coastlines, there is also another side to the story that bespeaks the tragedy that continues in the Gulf. I hope all of you will take the time to research this matter for yourselves, and will hold the Gulf and all its inhabitants secure in your precious heart of wisdom.

While implementing our plans to feature the Gulf of Mexico, shocking news broke on March 11th of events in Japan that logged a whole series of earthquakes, with the most devastating one clocking in at somewhere between 9 and 9.1 on the Richter scale. This unprecedented event was followed by a catastrophic tsunami.¹ As of this writing (March 18), the latest reported death toll is 7,197, and the number of people reported as still missing is roughly 10,905, according to the National Police Agency, although reports from other sources are higher. ²

After losing homes, loved ones, and all their possessions, many survivors are now contending with harsh winter weather conditions and radioactive fallout from the explosive collapses of four nuclear-powered electricity generators. While additional reactor plants may also be at risk of meltdown, the impending threat of catastrophic radiation sickness and death hangs over the afflicted area like a death pall. Since the media worldwide is covering these events, I will not here attempt sorting out all the details. Suffice it to say, the people of Japan need our prayers and the creative forces of our combined meditation skills.

In the face of such tragedy, it seems impossible to find words to communicate both the devastation and a vision of hope. A friend of mine sent me an e-mail she received quoting a friend’s friend in Japan. The quote she offered was amazing, and I will pass it along here:

"A morning note from a friend in Japan said that the trees are flowering there - and there were celebrations -- thinking of Yoko Ono's offering that one of the things we might best do is honor the strength of Japan and the people there."

This, I believe, is a fitting tribute to a country that has entered the modern time in the shadow of its own nuclear holocaust during World War II. Think what it must be like for those who lost family members to radiation sickness and death, or grueling deaths by cancers that resulted from the radioactive fallout occurring after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan had to rebuild its infrastructure after these bombings, in the face of unimaginable loss.

Further, after the Kobe earthquake in 1995, Japan once again had huge infrastructure collapses to replace. This earthquake was particularly devastating, due to the fact that it occurred at a depth of fewer than 20 km below Awajishima (an island in the Japan Inland Sea). The shallow epicenter resulted in a surface rupture and an average horizontal displacement of roughly 1.5 meters on the Nojima fault. While Japan has faced many earthquakes and tsunamis in its history, often with amazing consequences, none have had the 1, 2, 3-punch of the recent series of events.

For those of you wishing to offer some assistance, even if small, here is a list of relief organizations that are trustworthy and have a great record in their service work.

For those of you old enough to remember the T-shirt generation as your own, you might find the following link a nice way to offer some financial support to a very deserving cause – one for which the final chapter is yet to be written.

In the days to follow, I know we will all continue to be shocked at the toll now striking Japan. I trust that we will be inspired by stories of heroism and bravery that will touch our very souls. In the mean time, let’s see if we can find a way to increase our humaneness to all living beings. Let’s join our hearts and intentions in a combined commitment to global peace. As we remember our brothers and sisters around the world who are engaged in the very costly process of creating liberation, we must dedicate whatever good might come as a result of our combined efforts to the utter healing of Earth and her precious inhabitants.

With a singular voice, may we together chant:

May all beings be happy;
May all beings know peace;
May all beings have ease and a sense of well-being;
May love and kindness fill and heal all beings everywhere!

May each one of you be blessed a 100-fold for your continuing precious service to Earth. As you heal, so may you be healed!

Fondly,

Kathlyn Kingdon

for Earth Healing Day

1 For some riveting photos comparing before and after satellite shots of the Japan’s coastal areas, click here

In the aftermath of the recent shocking earthquakes in Japan, I urge you to spend some focused time sending compassion to those whose lives have been so radically altered. Please use your full meditative force to send a calming wave of equilibrium to this disaster zone. Envision relief being extended to the people of Japan.

This series of catastrophic seismic events began last Friday with an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, Japan's strongest on record, and the tsunami that followed. It has continued with powerful aftershocks, so far numbering 200 quakes of magnitude 5 or greater. Scientists are reporting that the quake shifted the Earth's rotation on its axis, effectively shortening the length of a day by an infinitesimal amount.¹ Further, scientific sensors show that the force of the quakes have actually moved Japan roughly 12 feet closer to North America and shifted the nation downward about two feet.

As Japanese officials frantically pump sea water into reactors to prevent meltdown at two of their nuclear power plants, and as people flee the Fukushima area, please be mindful of your brothers and sisters in Japan. May they find liberation from the incredible stress that descends upon their nation. May their lives be returned to some semblance of normalcy as quickly as possible.

If it is possible for you to do so, please add this small act of service to your ongoing daily meditations this month for Libya, Egypt and the Mid-East/Northern Africa. Continue to send waves of healing around the planet as a whole - and specifically to our brothers and sisters bearing the irreparable damage to their lives and loved ones lost.

Thank you.

Kathlyn Kingdon

1. See Quake shifted Japan coast 2.4 metres, tilted Earth's axis

The recent honoring of Presidents' Day in the U.S. reminds Americans that George Washington refused to run for a third term in office, despite the fact that he would most likely have won. This action quelled colonial fears that the executive branch would become too powerful, much like the British monarchy against which they had rebelled.

President Washington set a powerful precedent for term limits and the peaceful succession of power from one administration to the next. Countries like Egypt do not share these same constitutional agreements between leaders and citizens.

This month, Earth Healing Day will focus on the healing needed in the countries of northern Africa and the Middle East, as Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain seek liberation. Further, this movement now seems to be spreading into Oman, Jordan, Syria and even Morocco.

With compassion for the suffering of the protesters and the leaders of their countries, this month we hold forth a field for positive transformation in this region.

Tunisia’s revolt began a wave of protests that have opened the doors to liberation for not only their own country, but Egypt and parts of Libya as well. After weeks of anti-government protests Tunisian President Ben Ali stepped down and fled the country. Protests continued resulting in the resignation of the Prime Minister as well.

The Egyptian revolution began on January 25th, in reaction to the national day honoring police, which protesters' felt to be brutal and corrupt. Demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, labor strikes and even some violent clashes erupted between protesters and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak. Millions of Egyptian citizens demanded the ousting of Mubarak, and an overthrow of the regime.

Similar to the colonial times in the U.S, the Egyptian issues were also economic, including high unemployment, massive inflation in food prices (21% in the last year), and low minimum wages (40% of the population earning an average of $2 a day).

Insisting that martial law be lifted, free elections established, and free speech honored, protesters unrelentingly called for the end of Mubarak’s regime. While George Washington refused to serve a third term, Mubarak, after nearly three decades of rule, fell under heavy populace demand to leave office.

In Egypt, the contagious effect of the organized protests spread from Cairo and Alexandia to other cities. The Guardian (UK, Jan. 25, 2011) described Cairo as "a war zone," the government imposed curfews that the people defied, and that police and military forces did not enforce. Those loyal to Mubarak, Egypt's Central Security Forces, were gradually replaced by military troops who showed restraint in dealing with protesters.

When President Mubarak, elder statesman of the region, resigned on February 11 in response to weeks of protest and pressure, Egyptians celebrated with fireworks. It took only 18 days of protest, rather than years of war, to overturn an oppressive regime. Indeed people power had influenced presidential power.

Unfortunately, at least 365 lost their lives, and the number of injuries was reported to be in the thousands. Even so, the protesters prevailed. Egyptians now have high hopes of electing a responsive, non-military government.

In President Obama's remarks regarding the event, he said that we’ve witnessed history in the making. The Egyptians have inspired people the world over by their willingness to risk all for the sake of liberation. For many, this event is reminiscent of the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “There is something in our soul that cries out for freedom.” To date, the entire world has born witness to the cries from Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The people of Libya are also adamant about their freedom. Gadhafi has reigned for 40 years. Now protesters are demanding that he step down. Having taken power by force himself, Gadhafi now has limited military power. His supporters are keeping a stronghold in the capital of Tripoli, but several other cities have fallen to the protesters. While Gadhafi's has forcefully sought to strengthen his hold, the desire for liberation seems to be contagiously spreading.

Similar to “"the shot heard 'round the world" ”at the start of The American Revolutionary War in 1775, the shouts for freedom from the Mid East are once again ringing around the world. As the protests persist, may the powerful winds of change blow peacefully.

This month we ask participants in Earth Healing Day to bear witness to the struggle and the courage of people risking so very much for their liberation. You’re invited to listen to a mediation of compassion by Clicking here.

May their sacrifices be noticed by planetary citizens everywhere, and may profound goodness arise from their noble efforts. May they all be blessed a thousand-fold, and may life be richer, fuller and kinder to their children and grandchildren.

Kristi McCracken is a journalist in the central valley of California.

Mali : Gift Economy

Mali: Gift Economy

A short introduction to the practice of “dama”, or gift giving, in Mali.

Our compassionate efforts for this month go out to our fellow planetary citizens experiencing severe flooding. People’s possessions, homes, and even family members have been swept away in floodwaters in Brazil, Australia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

We are all being called to witness the pain and support healing for our planetary family in these regions of the planet. You can help by energetically holding the field of support. Tune in to what is going on, and contribute to the collective visualization of relief for all the suffering that was left in the wake of these mighty waters.

As always, we encourage you to offer daily compassion prayers and meditations – and we will join together to create a worldwide healing wave from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm on the fourth Sunday of the month - February 27, 2011.

Brazil

In Brazil, mudslides and flooding washed through the hills above Rio de Janeiro and officials fear more than 1300 are dead. Over 830 bodies have been recovered while 540 people are still listed as missing.

Rescue workers searched for thousands of survivors in the mountainous region who were trapped in their homes. People dug through three feet of mud searching for their belongings and bricks to help them rebuild.

Six thousand residents made homeless by this disaster are living in temporary shelters. Many areas remain cut off from road access so victims are receiving help via helicopters.The Rio state disaster is reported to be the worst natural catastrophe in Brazil's history.

Further south heavy rains also swamped Santa Catarina state leaving 23,000 more homeless. May our hearts compassionately open to those who have faced first hand the flooding in Brazil as if they are members of our family. Indeed, we are one human family, are we not? Help their healing by acknowledging their grief at the loss of material goods as well as loved ones.

Australia

Cyclones struck Australia's northeast coast causing heavy rains that overflowed rivers to flood 20 cities and towns affecting over 200,000 residents. Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard said that this is a major natural disaster which will take considerable recovery time.

The flood-waters have wreaked havoc in Brisbane, Australia, as well, where 30 suburbs were submerged. Government officials and insurance companies estimate that 40,000 homes and 5000 business have been flooded. Lost crops and ruined highways add to the cost estimates for damages which run over a billion dollars.

Strong community spirit has rallied to clean up debris from the flooding, but efforts were hampered when no collection trucks could get through to take the silt away. Business owners used only wheelbarrows to clear away the debris.

Queensland’s capital, Brisbane, draws billions of dollars annually from tourists who come to see the Great Barrier Reef. Rivers dumping flood waters affect reefs close to the shore because fresh water kills coral. This slows the process of reef recovery from other impacts, including over-fishing, climate change, and pollution.

The sea animals, coral and those who’ve lost loved ones and homes in this flooding need our compassion as we offer strength to endure the aftermath of the big floods that hit the Land Down Under. Visualize restoration and healing for the land, the people, and all the animals so greatly impacted by these floods.

The Philippines

In the Philippines, flooding and landslides due to heavy rainfall last month have left 68 dead, while 26 others were reported missing. Although it’s the middle of the dry season, a third of the provinces along the island chain have been drenched - affecting nearly 2 million people in over 2000 villages.

Rains flooded at least six low-lying coastal villages damaging approximately 40 million dollars worth of crops, infrastructure and private property. In the northern and central Philippines, nearly half a million have received emergency assistance.

Floods have triggered erosion and mudslides due to deforestation. Illegal logging is a recurring problem in the Philippines. The President is considering banning logging in the country due to the loss of life from the mudslides.

Like a web, we’re all connected. Preserving the trees prevents mudslides which save lives. May the villagers who must now rebuild receive our generous assistance. Create a wave of gratitude for all those who are aiding and assisting those affected by the floods.

Sri Lanka

In December, 43 people were killed and a million driven out of their homes by flooding. In January, 27 more deaths from heavy monsoon rains were reported. More rain has fallen in the last month than they normally receive in a year.

During this second round of heavy rains, approximately 350,000 people left their homes seeking safety in temporary refugee camps on higher ground. As flood waters recede and families in this region return, they face the loss of their homes and livelihoods. Rains have wiped out schools and crops as well.

Sri Lanka's agricultural ministry reported that 21% of the country's rice crop had been destroyed. The Eastern Province was hit the worst hit losing 80% of its rice crop. A spokes person for Save the Children fears that over 400,000 children will face food shortages in the next couple of months.

Visualize an abundant outpouring of relief efforts and food supplies arriving in a timely manner to help all those in need. May your generosity and kindness add to the healing potential for all who are suffering.

What You Can Do:

• Go to www.earthhealingday.com and click on the Get Involved page. You’ll find a sample mediation to listen to (in English and Spanish). Offer your compassion prayers and meditations daily. This is such an easy way to extend support to all those affected by these devastating floods.
• Mark your calendar: Sunday, Feb. 27th (12:00 noon - 1:00 pm). If you enjoy getting together with others you may want to make arrangements now to host or attend a gathering.
• Support aid organizations: We trust that as you feel called and are able to, you will extend your prayers as well as financial support to those organizations working to help affected areas.
• Save the Date: We're halfway to our 2nd annual Earth Healing Day. Mark your calendar... Monday, August 15, 2011. Your monthly efforts help build the field for creating the annual Earth Healing Day wave, “The OM Heard Round the World."
• Spread the word: Please forward this email to any friends, family and associates who might be interested in joining in these monthly service opportunities. Thank you.

>Kristi McCracken is a journalist in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

See what one 12-year-old young lady has done to contribute to Earth's healing.

Click the link below to read an amazing article:

See www.truth-out.org/the-new-earthquake-manifest-haiti-monsantos-destiny66930

The monthly focus for Earth Healing Day in January is Haiti. The anniversary of the devastating earthquake there a year ago reveals some bleak facts. The quake claimed over 250,000 lives and nearly as many homes. Over one and one half million people still live in the camps. Approximately 1300 spontaneous temporary settlements sprung up using bed sheets and towels as shelter from the elements. Many still remain, but new tarp coverings don’t do much to improve their permanence.

Last January's earthquake also decimated their health care system. When 60% of hospitals in the affected region were damaged or destroyed, medical care for the 300,000 who were injured was difficult at best. In October, a cholera epidemic spread quickly when rains washed remnants of the unsanitary living conditions into the drinking water contaminating it.

Simple life saving measures such as prompt administrations of fluids can reverse the dehydration. Aid groups rushed in thousands of cases of medical supplies and water purification tablets, but lack of infrastructure hampered distribution efforts. As the year ended, the victims of the cholera epidemic numbered over 2700.

Securing adequate food and safe drinking water remains an issue. With 80 % of the Port-au-Prince schools destroyed or damaged, the children were no longer able to attend. Hungry and homeless victims of the quake still live in squalled conditions with little to no privacy.

Violence toward women has become acute with a three fold increase in reported rapes in the camps and lack of prosecution when rape victims do come forward. Reducing these occurrences will require increased security in the camps, more officers to investigate reported rapes, and courts that will convict rather than release the rapists. These dire conditions call us to pray for the restoration of dignity and comfort to the victims.

Political unrest due to the corrupt government also needs attention. Protesters in the streets claimed that election results were tampered. Peace and ethical leadership are needed in the region. Port-au-Prince will require continued support in order to rebuild.

It can be challenging to remain attuned to ongoing disasters. But those of us fortunate enough to live in ease are called to do just that. Don’t let “compassion fatigue” in. Set aside the tendency to slip into overwhelm and complacency. Rise to be your best self. Get informed and get involved.

Give the gift of your focused efforts this month. Click here to listen to a guided meditation to assist you in making a compassionate connection with Haiti. Compassion is a powerful force on this planet.

Set aside one hour on January 23rd (from 12 noon to 1:00 PM) to send your loving thoughts, prayers and goodwill to Haiti and all who live and work to heal the suffering there. Combined with the efforts of thousands of others around the planet your prayers will have a powerful impact. Thank you for all you do.

Kristi McCracken is a journalist in the Central Valley of California.

Please note: We’re halfway to our second annual Earth Healing Day - Save the Date… Monday, August 15, 2011. Your monthly efforts help build the field for creating a global “OM Heard Round the World.”

The remote islands in western Indonesia are a popular tourist destination, but recent disasters have sent even the locals fleeing the area. Three natural disasters: an earthquake, a tsunami and a volcanic eruption all struck Indonesia in the space of 24 hours.

Off the Indian Ocean side of Sumatra, in late October, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake sent 10-foot waves 2,000 feet inland. The earthquake struck along the same fault line that triggered the massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami stirring up memories of the deadliest one on record with 230,000 victims.

Officials said the death toll from the most recent tsunami had reached more than 400 people, leaving behind bodies strewn on beaches and buried in debris. Disaster response officials believe the final death toll could exceed 600 because many victims were pulled out to sea when the tsunami receded. Almost 13,000 people are living in makeshift camps on the islands after their homes were wiped out by the wave which was triggered by the strong earthquake.

A day later, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta, a city on Java Island, Mount Merapi erupted. Scientists believe that the quake the day before caused Mount Merapi to begin erupting again. The volcano launched hot ash miles into the air sending lava down the mountain slopes claiming over 100 lives. Two weeks later another eruption spewed out volcanic ash causing people to flee a city at the foot of Mount Merapi by any means possible. Indonesian officials evacuated a 12 mile radius declaring it a danger zone because nearly 5 million cubic feet of lava had been released. In towns not ordered to evacuate many residents fled anyway fearing mud rivers.

On the slope of a hill above the Code River, black volcanic sludge burst riverbanks and poured into buildings racing at 60 mph. Heavy rains threatened more deadly volcanic mudflows along this river, which flows into the heart of Yogyakarta which is the second most important tourist destination in Indonesia after Bali.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because it sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire." Mount Merapi, also known as fire mountain, is the most active of 129 volcanoes in Indonesia. At an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet at its summit, Mount Merapi is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes. The problem is that it is located in one of the island's most densely populated areas. Smoke rises above the mountaintop 300 days a year, but recent eruptions have displaced nearly half a million Indonesian people.

Many Indonesians live in the shadow of one volcano or another, feeding livestock and raising crops. At one point nearly 280,000 people took refuge in emergency shelters. Further eruptions forced people to evacuate to shelters. Islanders wore face masks when Mount Bromo, another active volcano nearby began spewing ash blanketing their villages. Join us in our effort to alleviate their distress. On the 4th Sunday of December which is December 26, the day after Christmas, another wave of healing energy is scheduled to circle the planet at noon. Help seed the healing energy by making it a daily morning practice to listen to the monthly focus meditation on Indonesia.

In the evening you’re invited to listen to the compassion meditation which will help open your heart and assist in transmuting the suffering of those in this region. The natural contribution of an unrestricted heart is compassion.

Our beloved Mother Earth has spoken once again and lives continue to be drastically changed in Indonesia as the government offers to relocate or transmigrate people with the offer of land and six months of living expenses if they’ll move to on Borneo. You’re invited to join many planetary citizens to contribute prayers and meditations to help heal this new wound.

Thank you for your loving act of service.

— Kristi McCracken is a journalist from the Central Valley in California.

In February 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake shook Santiago, Chile, killing 486. It damaged over a half a million homes displacing over 2 million people. The ferocity was 800 times greater than the earthquake that hit Haiti.

Rescue teams had difficulty accessing cities such as Concepción because of the damaged roads, bridges, and buildings. Fires, blackouts, looters, and escaped prisoners added to the difficulties.

Three hospitals collapsed in Santiago and a dozen more south of the capital had significant damage. A fifteen-story residential building fell backwards trapping many of the residents. In fear of aftershocks people slept in tents, in the parks and on the streets.

The worst-hit sectors were the poor neighborhoods of adobe houses. In spite of the great need and tough conditions, aid in the form of food, water, and medical supplies trickled in slowly.

A tsunami wave triggered by the quake devastated several coastal cities and caused serious damage to port facilities lifting boats out of the water. The tsunami raised waves 7 feet high half way around the world doing millions of dollars of damage to fisheries in Japan.

Insurance repair estimates have reached over $5 billion and Chile’s president said it would take years to rebuild. Chile has not experienced an earthquake of this magnitude in 50 years.

Miner and engineer Raul Bustos survived February's earthquake, but lost his job in the tsunami that followed. His search for work ended with employment in the San José gold and copper mine. He was one of the 33 Chilean miners trapped below the earth’s surface this fall for 2 months.

After the mine collapsed, he worked to divert water away from the men's sleeping area and devised a plumbing system to flush waste underground. Miners had to drink water that tasted like oil which was caustic to their stomachs.

Relatives of the trapped miners said that workers had expressed concerns about the precarious condition of the mines, but were ignored because their bosses were more concerned about production. Locals called the miners kamikazes because of the dangers of their job and 30% higher salaries seem to be a sort of hazard pay.

After the collapse it took 17 days before those on the surface knew the fate of the 33 miners and discovered the challenging living conditions. Entombed alive, uncertain of being rescued, they struggled to survive in spite of the heat, humidity, poor air quality and lack of food.

Local psychologists supported the miner's family treating them as victims and offering assurances about the men's safety with daily briefings before news was released to the press.

Meanwhile the men were sent medicine, clothes and games through a 700-meter borehole. A modified telephone line was set up for them to talk to rescuers and psychologists.

A NASA engineer designed the rescue capsule to extract the men. The miners had to stay slim so they’d fit in it. They worked out, wore compression socks and took pills to lower their risk of blood clots.

Inside the capsule, miners wore dark glasses to protect their eyes against the sunlight. Oxygen masks helped prevent them from becoming nauseous, and lessened the potential for panic or fainting as the capsule spun around and up. The transition from the stifling underground heat to that of the cold surface temperature was one of many shocks to the miners’ systems as they made their 15 minute ascent.

The joy of returning to their families had its complications as well. Facing death in such a prolonged case such as the miners did may cause trouble readjusting to normal life. Becoming publicly known figures overnight can add a weighty dimension.

Rescued Chilean miners will have regular medical checks to guide their recovery to physical and mental health over the next several months. Post-traumatic stress symptoms such as flashbacks and anxiety are expected.

The “tough guy” miner image can help if it makes them strong, but can hurt if miners don’t ask for help. Luckily, the push for greater mining production didn’t exact a human toll in terms of loss of lives this time, but what about next time?

Chile has one of Latin America's fastest growing economies, yet income inequalities are great. Chile is the world's largest producer of copper, and its 4% growth rate has been largely fuelled by copper exports. This country, like many others, lacks adequate safety standards to protect the miners who make its prosperity possible.

The government’s reconstruction work after the earthquake and the rescue of 33 trapped miners has helped to improve Chile’s world status, but prayers are still needed as much suffering remains.

Mother Earth has spoken yet again. Are we listening? Can our compassionate hearts grow big enough to encompass and dissolve the pain of Chileans? Join us as we circle the planet in another healing wave from noon to 1:00 on Sun. Nov. 28.

— Kristi McCracken is a journalist from the Central Valley in California.

This is a huge THANK YOU to all of you who participated in the healing meditation embracing Mexico today, October 24, 2010. For me, it was a very powerful experience, and I hope it was for each of you, as well.

As today neared, it has seemed that a powerful energy was moving in Mexico. In yesterday's newspaper, I read about the earthquakes in Mexico. In the newspaper this morning, I read of the senseless slaughter of 13 young people who were attending a party in Ciudad Juarez. Apparently, the assassin got the wrong address!

I know that each of you is saddened as deeply as am I at such breaking news. We ask ourselves, "Will this violence never stop?" Of course, none of us has the answer to that question, but I think we must fervently believe that it will stop, for dedicated belief generates a very powerful energy.

I'm writing this to ask each of you to "amp up" your meditations for Mexico for the remaining few days of October. I realize that this month's meditation has been more difficult for many of us than was, say, the Pakistan meditation. How is it we are to hold compassion for those who seem to have no respect for the preciousness of the lives of others -- particularly children?

While I believe we must find it in our hearts to forgive those who engage in such darkness, I also believe ours must be a forgiveness grounded in reality. In other, we do not forgive the actions of such violence, we forgive the people who fall into a state of mind (or being) where they can perpetrate such actions. I believe that if these people really understood the consequences of their actions from a spiritual perspective, they truly could not continue generating violence against others.

In addition to holding compassion for those who must surely be setting themselves up to draw violence into their own lives, I like to compliment my meditation with one additional feature. I see something I call "the light of purification" shining down on all who generate and perpetuate violence. I hold the thought that this "light" will expose those who need to be exposed, and offer truth and clarity for all others.

I also shine a light of healing not only on Mexico, but along all her borders and coastlines, as well. Indeed, I am overwhelmed by how much blood must have been spilled by now in the drug wars -- on both sides of the Mexican/U.S. border. With practice over the course of the month, I have been able to genuinely enter a field of compassion, even for those who I might otherwise judge for their cruel and heartless actions. While this could be considered some kind of accomplishment, I find I need to do the meditation with more of a sense of action.

While I recognize that the compassion part is extremely important, I also need to hold the focus for some direct shifts, so that I do not feel disloyal to those who have suffered most. I can, at least intellectually, recognize that everyone in this war is acting out of what must be tremendous fear, and I do have compassion for just how great that fear must be. Yet beyond this recognition, there remains the fact that to resist falling into a hopelessness trance, I need to actively envision more than compassion in my meditation.

If this might be helpful to any of you doing the meditation for Mexico, please join me in adding a focus of truth and clarity that puts our compassion to work for a new outcome in these drug wars. Together, I believe we can powerfully intend another outcome than what we see in the daily news. Let's do it!

Again, thank you so very much for participating in this massive coming together to heal the really wounded places on Earth. Let us never forget that "There, but for some amazing flow of grace, go I."

This month, let us shift our healing focus to Mexico. This country not only has areas of flooding from recent hurricanes, but is also collapsing under the weight of violence from drug wars. Securing the 2000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico has fallen to governors of four southwestern states and the officers they command. Their request for assistance was finally answered when the Obama administration deployed 1,200 National Guard troops to California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.

Playing an active role along the border is new for the Guard, although they have carried out counterinsurgency drug work for years, trying to put drug traffickers out of business. One of the Guard's primary activities is "reclamation," or uprooting marijuana plants and dismantling irrigation systems. Camouflaged soldiers and drug agents often lay in wait for the return of the heavily armed men who guard marijuana fields on public lands.

Drug gangs and Mexican cartel growers produce approximately 90% of the marijuana crops in California. Cultivation of marijuana is a multi-billion dollar business operating in over 200 U.S. cities. Although Mexico has produced illegal drugs for generations, today's cartels are more powerful and better-financed than those existing a few years ago.

The toll for law enforcement is high. Police commanders and political figures have been assassinated. Reporters and journalists have been kidnapped and tortured. Innocent bystanders continue to be shot as gun fights break out in what used to be sleepy border towns.

This upsurge in drug-related violence began at the end of 2006 when President Calderón sent thousands of soldiers and federal police to eradicate the cartels. Both the American demand for drugs and the supply of illegally smuggled guns from the US into Mexico continue to exacerbate the issue.

As the Mexican federal police and military initiated a crack-down, fights over gang turf have escalated. More than 28,000 people have been killed in the four years since Calderón began putting pressure on the drug organizations. Over 2,000 local, state and federal police officers are included in that death toll. Recently, Calderón intensified government focus on decreasing the number of killings and disrupting known trade routes, but conditions continue to deteriorate.

In spite of these efforts, the availability of methamphetamine has increased, due to large-scale drug production. Smugglers continue to fire on Mexican and US law enforcement agents. Gunfire between the Mexican side and U.S. Border Patrol agents is escalating. Off the coast of Nicaragua last month, a U.S. Coast Guard ship was fired upon by suspected drug traffickers.

Keeping hope in the face of this despair will require diligence. Opening our hearts in compassion and generating a potent field of transformative potential can help. May we be the ones who arise each morning and include Mexico's president and the officers on both sides of the border in our prayers, meditations and directed intentions. Please pray for peace, and most importantly, visualize peace descending upon those so compromised by this ongoing violence.

This month's focus for earth healing will reach its apex on Sun. Oct 24th from 12:00 noon - 1:00 PM. Once again we will circle the planet, hour by hour, in a blanket of compassion. Then, for the remaining days of October, please continue to actively visualize peace descending upon Mexico, the U.S. border states, and people on both sides of the violence. May our loving intent heal the greed, corruption and victimization that continue to exact a tremendous human toll and foster instability along the U.S./Mexican border.

Click here to listen to a beautiful guided meditation focused on generating compassion for Mexico. (Available in English, Spanish and French.)

— Kristi McCracken is a journalist from the Central Valley in California.

The sun is taking its time waking up. It stretches, peeks an eye out from under the covers, rolls over and goes back to sleep. Its coffee pot sits idle on the stove, the waiting grounds still tucked in for the night in the freezer. Yesterday, the sun was sitting up by now, stretching its arms wide on the edge of the bed, about to stand up. Every day it’s a little sleepier, takes its time a little longer, waking up. Welcome to autumn, harvest time.

The ancients saw gold as the metal that best reflected the value of the sun. And silver represented the moon’s capacity to wax and wane, pull the tides of Earth and our bloodstream, light the night with reflected light. I think about this as the sun wakes up, languidly, this golden time of year. In these waning days of the industrial age, we ache for Earth’s native species and peoples when corporate giants leave their wake of destruction behind their gold and silver mines. How today can we properly reverence the sun and the moon, their gifts to us? What new awareness bridges the mystical and the practical, the beautiful and the economic?

Long the harbingers of planting and harvest, the transits of sun and moon anchor our days and illuminate our nights. Wes Jackson of the Land Institute commented at this year’s Prairie Festival that Wendell Berry won’t farm with machinery fueled by ancient sunlight (fossil fuels like oil and gasoline). Ever the poet, Berry prefers the intimacy of the farmer and the land. He works on foot, with his mule pulling a simple implement.

On September 26, I toured a Kansas indigenous wild prairie with one of Jackson’s staff. Did you know that over a hundred years ago, when a homesteader first opened the wild prairie with a plow, it sounded like a zipper! That sound cracked open the dust bowl. Funnels of rains washed millions of tons of prime topsoil down the Mississippi River to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The chemical pesticide and fertilizer load in that same wash created a huge dead zone where the River meets the Gulf. And these same dynamics help destroy a football-field-sized area of wetlands every 38 minutes. Planet Earth built these wetlands to foster new ocean life and buffer the coast against hurricanes. Now throughout the globe, living soil washes away just like, wherever the native vegetation has been cleared for farming – and exponentially more intensely where industrial agriculture reigns.

Most of us do not realize that it took Earth millions of years to create complex living soil. The minerals and organic matter, the microscopic creatures who do the work of translating soil nutrients to fibrous root hairs – these do not regenerate overnight. People talk of Peak Oil, but Peak Soil is more serious. People do not have to fly in airplanes, but everyone needs to eat. And the human population is increasing in drastic proportions.

The agronomists and soil scientists at the Land Institute have a solution in the works. They learn from nature, as well we all would do. They notice that the native wild prairie is a diverse ecosystem. Numerous varieties of prairie grasses, legumes, and forbes form a dense interwoven living system, whose roots plunge as far as 20 feet down into the soil. Not only do the roots hold the soil in place, while drawing up minerals and circulating nutrients for both micro-organisms and plant life alike, these roots continually build soil by shedding parts of themselves as compost. The biodiversity makes this a healthy resilient system, impervious to decimation by marauding insects, violent windstorms, or flooding rains.

By contrast, the annual monocultures (wheat, corn, barley, rye, etc.) that farmers have been taught to grow are vulnerable to pests, not to mention washing away precious soils during the harvesting, resting, and plowing times of the year. Diminishing soil quantity and quality have made farmers vulnerable to a multi-billion-dollar industry of farm chemicals, whether to fertilize or protect from pests. And multinational corporations tinker with plant genes to build Frankenstein pest control into corn via addiction to certain herbicides and pesticides. Scientists like Sandra Steingraber trace “the farm inside the body” as public health enemy number one.

At the Land Institute, a quiet natural transformation of the entire system of agriculture is under way. With the vision of a perennial, diverse farmland that mimics the health of the indigenous wild prairie, Wes Jackson and his collaborators patiently hybridize prairie grasses with edible seed-bearing grasses (annuals like wheat, barley, rye, etc). Already, they have developed a perennial wheat they have trademarked Kernza. The real possibility exists for a variety of crops to grow in a single, resilient field, with perennial roots down 20 feet, rebuilding the soil base of the watershed and feeding the burgeoning human population with healthy grains. The producers of chemical pesticides and fertilizers will just have to join the party by transforming their industrial capacities to support the green energy revolution!

The sun is up now, sitting on the bed and stretching, wondering what the day will bring. What if you were the sun, beaming abundant energy out with constant generosity? Would you be pleased at the blue planet circling you so regularly? What response to your beneficence would please you?

At the Prairie Festival, I heard the term “running on current solar energy” so many times it is embedded in my brain like so many deeply rooted prairie grasses. Fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal are stored solar energy. We risk bankrupting the planet when we spend down this natural capital, at such quantities and speed that the diminished ecosystems cannot absorb it, much less regenerate it. Yet our industrial agriculture follows that path, in the form of fossil fuel for large tractors and combines, for transporting the food to distant markets, and for chemical derivatives known as pesticides and fertilizers. Current solar energy is like a mule that runs on grass, like a person that moves on legs or a bicycle, like a solar cell that runs a cookstove or a computer.

It’s a slow process, the traditional farm-based hybridization of new plant stock. But when I imagine fields of golden grain – biodiverse, perennial, and full of healthy nutrition – waving in the Kansas wind, I see a new icon of appreciation for our generous sun.

© 2010 Libby Comeaux

See www.landinstitute.org

From mid-July 2010 till the end of August 2010 Pakistan was devastated by monster floods that swept through the length of the country, from the mountains of the northwest to the Arabian Sea in the south. Rivers overflowed, levees were breached, houses and cattle were swept away and tens of thousands of acres of farmland ruined.

The province of Punjab (where Faisalabad is situated) is the agricultural heartland of Pakistan. It is the “Land of the Five Rivers”, a flat plain with a vast network of irrigation canals, levees and embankments to conserve the river water and to channel it for irrigation. Mercifully, the area of the Diocese of Faisalabad was spared from the massive destruction caused by the floods surging through the river Indus and the River Jhelum. Only a few villages in the south of the diocese, near the city of Jhang, have been inundated and are still under water. The situation of the people of these villages is pathetic as their houses and fields are still under 2 to 3 feet of water. They need food, clean drinking water, and medical care. Tents have been provided by Caritas as temporary shelter.

However, quite apart from the flood waters, the unprecedented rains which started in mid-July and continued till yesterday, have also caused widespread damage. Many poor people in the villages, and also in the city slum areas, build simple houses with roofs made of light wooden beams covered with reed mats and spread over with mud plaster. Such simple houses can withstand normal occasional rain and wind and are fairly sturdy. But these houses could not withstand the heavy and incessant rains this year. Hundreds of roofs have caved in, and many houses have collapsed completely. These are the people who need help, so that they made have a roof over their heads. Autumn will set in next month, followed by winter.

Farmers are also badly hit. In Khushpur, a Catholic village founded in 1901, and 9 other surrounding villages, the rain water is stagnant in the fields and there is no way of draining it out. After three weeks the standing crops of rice, sugar cane, cotton and corn are beginning to rot. Farmers fear that, if the rains continue, there will be no possibility of the water drying up to enables them to plant the next crop, wheat, which is the staple food of the people of Pakistan. Farmers are desperate, as some of them have also lost livestock in addition to their crops.

The fourth category of people that need help is the brick kiln workers. Most of the buildings in Pakistan are built with baked bricks made from clay. Making bricks is hard labour, all done by hand. The workers are paid a pittance according to the number of bricks they can make per day. There are dozens of brick kilns in the diocese employing hundreds of workers, most of whom are Christian.

As some of the brick kilns are under water, the workers have no employment and thus a way of earning a living. Since over a month they have not been able to earn their daily wages. It will take another month or more for the water to dry up, so that production of bricks can begin again. These people need temporary help with food rations and money to enable them to survive until they can earn their living again.

Many Religious Congregations in the Diocese, as well as parish groups, have joined hands to help in any way possible. Recently the Bishop, Msgr. Joseph Coutts, called a meeting of all Christians NGOs (about 40 in number) and Caritas Pakistan. He stressed that it was necessary to work in a spirit of co-operation rather than that of competition as this was a disaster that needed all the help we could muster.

The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan called for a day of prayer and solidarity in all churches throughout Pakistan on 24th August 2010 (the same day as Earth Healing Day for Pakistan). It was also a way of making aware those who had not been affected, of their Christian duty to reach out to their needy brothers and sisters in this massive disaster. Sisters of Loretto have been very active in assisting the relief efforts in the diocese.

All of our Pakistani sisters are now safe at home in Faisalabad. Nasreen, Maria and Samina welcomed Iffat home this past Monday. They have received the necessary vaccinations to protect them from the diseases that plague the country in the aftermath of the flood. The La Salle Brothers have re-opened their school for classes and our sisters are back in the classrooms teaching and helping with the very young students.

Afternoons and evenings are spent ministering to the multitude of flood victims living in near-by refugee camps. Although the waters have receded, the heat and humidity is intense with temperatures rising to 115 degrees. Standing water serves as a breeding place for disease-carrying insects and residual odors are stifling.

At the request of Bishop Coutts, our sisters have been preparing and taking food to a village of women brick makers who lost everything in the flood. Their presence is a comfort and support to these women and their children. Our sisters have also opened their home to a couple and their four children also victims of the devastating flood. The mother is helping our sisters with food preparation.

Media reports that necessary aid is slow in getting to the neediest in the flood ravaged areas. Loretto has been in contact with Bishop Coutts, Nasreen, Maria, Iffat and Samina in an effort to determine the most effective way to get help to Pakistan. The most efficient channel is through Bishop Coutts and the Diocese of Faisalabad. Loretto will serve as a conduit for donations to the flood relief efforts in Pakistan.

All contributions for Pakistan should be sent to the Loretto Development Office and earmarked for Pakistan Flood Relief. These funds will be transferred to Bishop Coutts for use through the services provided by the Diocese of Faisalabad. We wanted to ensure that funding would reach those in need and not be tied up in government red tape.

We encourage all Loretto Community members to spread the word to family and friends who may want to join in our efforts. We have had many inquiries and now have a system of channeling financial aid to our sisters and brothers in Pakistan. All contributions are tax-deductible and will be acknowledged by the Loretto Development office staff.

Earth Healing Day’s monthly focus of Pakistan isn’t just for spiritual, earth-friendly adults. Children are participating in Her healing as well. Their curiosity, enthusiasm, and dedication inspire action.

As an educator it’s my job to open students’ eyes to the wider world. Preparing global citizens means provide reading materials that act as a doorway through which they can step to make a difference.

Young formative minds need to be fed examples of people such as Greg Mortenson whose simple inexpensive educational solution in Pakistan lessens the impact of the Taliban as they recruit children to their schools that teach jihadists.

Stones into Schools is the sequel to Three Cups of Tea which Greg wrote to promote peace with books, not bombs, in Pakistan. It spotlights his heroic efforts to convince local tribal men about the importance of girls’ education and highlights some of the thousands of girls who have gone through Greg’s schools.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “What Greg understands better than most—and what he practices more than anyone else I know—is the simple truth that all of us are better off when we have the opportunity to learn, especially our children. By helping them learn and grow, he’s shaping the very future of a region and giving hope to an entire generation.”

As my students try to conceptualize what life is like for the children of Pakistan who live half a world away, their vision is simple… they hope that kids will have a dry place to sleep and food to eat as the flood waters recede.

After reading accounts of massive evacuations that have separated families, my students worry. Millions of displaced Pakistani children face cold nights, hot days, and hunger. In the camps, they’re just beginning to register families and set up hotlines to open communications to reunite youngsters with their families.

To make matters worse, insurgents are threatening foreign aid workers who are delivering flood relief and many worry that the Taliban will capitalize on the chaos created by the floods in Pakistan.

It’s hard for my students to understand that kind of hardship. They have trouble even conceptualizing that in Pakistan, they speak another language, worship a God called Allah, and eat food that differs from their own.

Greg describes how he had to learn to appreciate the yak tea and various other local delicacies, but his descriptions of life for the children there connected with my students. Kids in Pakistan also love their families, play with their siblings and study hard but in outdoor mountain top schools.

For that matter, many adults struggle with the cultural differences which is why Greg’s book is required reading for military personal who are assigned to the region. We hope that Pakistani schools will be rebuilt soon so that the students don’t have to write their lessons outside in the dirt with a stick.

For me, the meditations on the EHD site help focus my prayers which can indeed have a positive impact on a geographical region and those who suffer there. Join us as together we gather from around the world to celebrate our many blessings. Join with like-minded friends this Sun. at noon and send out a collective thank you to our beloved Earth for her many offerings. After this devastating flood, may the people of Pakistan feel our supportive embrace and experience many warm new beginnings.

Unfortunately U.S. military command has felt it necessary to take two forms of action in Pakistan which has severely alienated the Pakistani people. One can understand how U.S. bombs falling on innocent Pakistani people would create anger in the country. Likewise, one can understand how the intrusion of U.S. soldiers going door to door in search of the Taliban would antagonize Pakistani families. It is understandable, yet regrettable, that U.S. military actions have caused the U.S. approval rating in Pakistan to fall drastically, particularly at a time when we desperately need the Pakistan people's support to banish the Taliban insurgency.

But we have a chance to redeem our good name and restore trust with the Pakistani people if we "show up" to help them in their great time of need. Millions of Pakistani people are now homeless as a result of the worst flood in Pakistan history. Children are searching for higher ground with no parents to help them. People have had to climb trees to escape the waters and eat leaves to stay alive. We, on the other side of the world, cannot fathom the destruction and devastation the flood waters have wrought on the land nor the water-born diseases that are spreading throughout the country.

If ever a country needed the help of the international community, it's Pakistan who needs it and they need it URGENTLY NOW. Now is our chance to redeem our good name and reputation for being a force for compassionate conscience. My goal is for every U.S. citizen to donate $10 of their own money to help desperate people whom we will never meet. Let's help the U.S. "show up" with aid and support for the Pakistani people. This can only enhance our poor image in the Muslim world. There is no time to lose; we must TAKE ACTION NOW (which will help our cause as well as theirs).

Note: Donations made payable to the Rotary Foundation will be matched dollar for dollar through their Rotary Pakistan Flooding Recovery Fund. For donations to be matched dollar for dollar, checks should be made payable to The Rotary Foundation with “Rotary Pakistan Flooding Recovery Fund” on the memo line and sent to: Rotary Club of Washington DC, 1101 16th Street NW, Floor 1C, Washington, DC 20036. Download more information about the Rotary Foundation’s efforts in Pakistan.

We join with the earth and with each other

To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air

We join with the earth and with each other

To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures

We join with the earth and with each other

To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the song of the stars

We join with the earth and with each other

To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children

We join with the earth and with each other

We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery:
for the healing of the earth and renewal of all life.

May the song of planet Earth be sung in full harmony

to the uttermost parts of the Universe.

May the sentient beings of Earth hold forth complete respect

and utter appreciation for Her sacrifices on behalf of them.

May Earth be freed from the darkness of the collective karma of Her children,

and may grace be restored to the planetary experience.

May Earth have her full liberation,

and may Her bondage to the darkness of Her children be forever obliterated.

May the suffering Earth has experienced at the hands of Her children

be utterly dissolved in a cosmic flow of loving kindness.

May purity and goodness arise on Earth,

ascending from the foul pools of pollution

just as the legendary phoenix rises from is depleted ashes.

May the combined goodness of all sentient beings come forth,

cleansing and dissolving the negative karma now arising on Earth.

May the stuporous trance that obscures pristine consciousness

be utterly shattered by a profound awakening of all Earth's beings.

May the darkness of the toxic karma compromising Earth

be thoroughly transformed by the renewing of collective human consciousness.

May the combined goodness of all beings everywhere,

from every time and place, arise with purpose,

obliterating the toxic darkness that would devour Earth's pristine innocence.

May the darkness of the greed, corruption, deceit and neglect

perpetrated on this planet

be utterly dissolved in the presence of Divine Light.  

May wisdom, love and decency prevail,

and may the progress of Earth be unfettered.

My tradition is Judeo-Christian, and I wanted to gather a few worship resources from my tradition to aid in participating in Earth Healing Day:

An Environmental Confession for Yom Kipper, by Rabbi Lawrence Troster  www.coejl.org/~coejlor/celebrate/yk_confession.php

The Environment is a Broken Window (long poem, may be adapted for choral reading) By Rabbi Zoe Klein, from www.coejl.org/~coejlor/celebrate/rh_klein.php

Gregorian chant can be found in CD stores and by searching on You Tube.

Canticle of the Sun, from St. Francis of Assissi, by Marty Haugen  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv222BaAKMU

For "everything you need to build a creation-honoring worship service, including scripture, sermon ideas, hymns/choral readings, and prayers," go to www.earthministry.org/resources or visit www.eco-justice.org for great sermon ideas in the archives of the weekly newsletter.

May I live as a holy example of Divine Light indwelling human form,

and may my example bless Earth.

May the power of the life force that graces my body-mind

be offered to my beloved Earth,

and may it bring some form of healing to Her.

May I love Earth with the profound intensity of a Buddha or a Christ,

and may Earth be the better for my presence among her children.

May I be fully awake to all my prior negligence and apathy toward Earth,

and may I fully commit to remaining awake to serve Her.

May my mind be pure and whole,

reflecting the pristine beauty of the Gulf of Mexico

unsullied by the toxic waste of karmic residue.

May my thoughts, words and actions

align completely with the Plan for Earth's becoming.

May my eyes be opened to the full vision of Earth's precious healing,

and may I see with clarity Her pristine beauty restored.

May all the goodness I have generated in all my living upon Earth

be concentrated into my service for the planet .

I offer the full measure of my spiritual aptitude

to the healing and wholing of planet Earth.

As a child of the Light, and on the basis of the light within me,

I now request forgiveness for the carelessness and negligence

humanity has wrought upon Earth.

With every breath I take,

I will powerfully affirm the healing process

now in progress for planet Earth,

and I dedicate every beat of my heart

to the healing and wholing of precious Earth.

We are on the edge of a precipice. Within the next few years, we will have made irrevocable decisions regarding where we get the food we eat here in America. The responsibility of growing, supplying and distributing our food has fallen into the hands of those who value profits over nutritional quality. Food that has been genetically altered negatively impacts our health and that of our planet.

While we were sleeping, a quantum leap was made by the scientific-corporate-industrial-agricultural-complex that created the possibility of a total commercial monopoly on our food in this country.

Do we allow the conglomerates pushing genetically altered food, and the huge agricultural corporations running factory-farming, to walk away with a monopoly on our food and how we access it, or do we stop this insidious commercial enterprise in its tracks, now, and save ourselves, our planet and all who live on Her?

According to Jeffrey Smith at the Institute For Responsible Technology, the leading proponent for a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)-free planet, genetically altered foods have already flooded the market. 80 to 90 percent of all the food we purchase in the supermarket contains GMO ingredients. The food you buy that is not actually certified “Organic” has probably been genetically tampered with.

And, according to the Organic Consumers Association, "The future of life on this planet may depend on what we eat. Factory farmed junk food is the #1 cause of climate change…”

How did we get here? What can we do to take our food back into our own hands?

The genetic food revolution is an incredibly long, convoluted and complicated story orbiting around the chemical giant Monsanto. If you are interested in how the wool was pulled over our eyes, you should look at these links:

http://www.organicconsumers.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/genetically_modified_food

http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/documentFiles/144.pdf

This revolution is a cynical, profit-driven corporate exercise, just as factory farming is.  The truly terrifying aspect is that we have no idea at all what long-term ramifications this will have on the genetic makeup of consumers, or the planet.

What does it mean to be eating “RoundUp-ready” corn? Well, it means the GMO corn seeds cannot survive without massive applications of the carcinogenic and mutagenic chemical, RoundUp. It means the corn you are eating is actually, officially a pesticide. There is definite evidence connecting GMO food to sterility and infant mortality.  This GMO corn is, in fact, simply a sales tool for the pesticide RoundUp, Monsanto’s big money maker. In order to maximize profits, Monsanto created a genetic mutation, by actually tinkering with the fundamental DNA of corn seeds. That is why I call this horrifying development, “cynical.”

How, also, does the industrial farming industry justify the production of beef, for instance, when each pound of beef consumes ten times the land and resources as would non-GMO corn, soy and alfalfa.

What about the human genes spliced into bacon to make it leaner?

What about rat genes spliced into tomatoes to increase shelf life?

What about the mantra in GMO food creation circles, “Soil is what holds the plant up?”

All of this is an indicator of our complete disconnection from Mother Earth, each other and all the sentient beings who also live on the planet with us?

What can be done?

Choose what we buy very carefully.

It is as simple as this: Don’t buy anything that is genetically altered. Buy only Organic products. Read all labels. And, carry the Non-GMO Shopping Guide with you every time you enter a store. Download that guide right here:

http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/documentFiles/144.pdf.

Let’s take a page out of the playbooks of both Europe and Japan. They banned GMO foods. How? By simple grassroots action: Nobody bought them. If we do the same we will be healing Mother Earth and ourselves. The law of supply and demand will apply to organic food, here in America. When we start buying organic food instead of being force fed GMO- and industrial-farm-foods, the price of organics will drop. That, in turn will increase demand, and, “Presto!” We have saved the family farm, our genetic resources, and Mother Earth’s soil, in one fell swoop.

© 2010, Paul Martin. All Rights Reserved. Published with permission of author.

One of the more esoteric writings in spirituality is a poem, Song of Solomon, wherein this line appears,

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; (Chapter 2, verse 12)

Song of Solomon

During this time of trial and tribulation for dear Mother Earth due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, maybe we ought to edit that line to read,

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the SEA turtle is heard in our land;

Have you seen photographs of magnificent sea turtles coated in crude oil lying dead upon the gulf shores? Even though those once vibrant critters of the sea are now dead, their voices still are speaking to us. Can you hear what they are saying? It is this:

“Look what you have done not only to me but to Creator’s handiwork, your planet and its oceans.”

If one cannot interpret the sign language being imparted by thousands of forms of sea life, then, perhaps, one is not attuned to Gaia, dear Mother Earth, a truly magnificent living creation upon which we all live.

Gaia is one with all of creation—including us humans—something very few really understand and can equate with for if they did, technology would not rape her every chance it gets.

When Creator endowed humans with stewardship of this planet, did He/She truly expect the assaults that would be perpetrated upon the lovely Blue Jewel of the Cosmos?

Earth lives, just as we do. She is alive and gives life energy to all who dwell within and upon her loving and lovely body. How many times have humans and our technology ravaged her? Consider this:

• Atomic bomb testing in the deserts of southwestern United States with actual atomic bombs dropped on two cities in Japan;
• Nuclear waste that awaits a final disposal, something she may not want;
• Earth and Nature know how to deal with fusion, not man-made fission;
• Exploitation of her inner resources of coal and oil that just may act as ballast for her as she orbits space, or may determine her inner core spin or tectonic plates floatation;
• Compromising her capacity to provide fresh air by destroying trees, forests, and, particularly, the Rain Forests of South America;
• Polluting her waters with toxic chemicals;
• Killing her sea creatures with discarded plastics that float at sea;
• Robbing her ability to replenish the soil with nutrients because of high phosphorus fertilizers and other chemical enrichments when all She wants is our recyclable wastes;
• And, finally, almost total disregard for Her air space, which humans pollute with toxic factory emissions and jet chemtrails.

Mother Earth is ailing and we need to help her get well again. Mother Earth needs her children, which we are, to stand up for her and say, “Enough pollution; enough fossil fuel exploitation; more renewable energy; more clean water; more clean air; more respect for the Earth.”

We will have a chance to do that on Sunday, August 15^th, 2010, Earth Healing Day. Let everyone hear the voices of all the sea creatures—and humans too—who are affected by the environmental disaster of the epoch, the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Let us join our hearts, minds, and prayers into one cohesive uplifting of Gaia, our planet, whom we should love dearly. After all, we don’t have another one that we can move to.

Let’s place our thoughts, meditations, and prayers before the Creator of us all and ask forgiveness both of Creator for messing up His/Her handiwork, and of Gaia for polluting her beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. Let us ask for guidance how we can co-exist with each other, Mother Earth, and Nature as one happy family so that all can be one with each other and in so doing, become whole again in body, mind, and spirit.

So be it. Amen. Namasté. Shalom. Om.

Gulf Oil Spill Devastating for Sea Turtles "For the moment, the gushing oil has stopped but this oil spill will have long-lasting impacts on sea turtles and the Gulf of Mexico marine ecosystem" said Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign director at Oceana. Turtles can come in contact with oil when they surface to breathe, by eating contaminated prey, and on soiled beaches. Turtles are vitally important to keeping marine ecosystems in balance, so by devastating turtles, the oil spill is wrecking havoc throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
Download our new report on turtles»

This is a message to all who want to be of service to Earth at this time:

To those of you already applying your meditations to the disaster now taking place in the Gulf of Mexico, a huge Thank You. While it may be tempting to become complacent at the enormity of this event, please be mindful to avoid this trap. Rather, redouble your efforts by sharpening your concentration when offering your prayers and meditations for Earth. For visualization images, use a stream of vibrant white light, or the “Fire of Transformation,” or the “Violet Flame” to aid you in this focus. It is important to use the imagery of burning in your meditation, since there has been so much literal burning going on in order to burn off the oil residue. Thus, use imagery that will connect your spiritual efforts with the physical efforts now underway. In fact, burning at the spiritual level can have real benefits, since it does not generate the pollution of smoke to contaminate the skies.

Those of you who are schooled in tonglen meditation practice may want to use it to reduce the suffering now spreading throughout the whole area. Please direct a special flow of white light to all beings trying to live in the ever-expanding oil. Also include in your projection of white light, or transformative images, a field of protection for all living beings in the area, and offer a prayer of protection as well as a flow of deep appreciation for the humans who are working tirelessly to clean the oil from the birds and animals they can catch. Theirs is not only a tireless service; it is physically exhausting and devastating, emotionally, and damaging to their bodies.

One of the devastating side effects of the oil is those tar clumps that are washing up on beaches. While tar clumps could be harvested by workers picking them up, such will prove to be an impossible task in human work hours. Further, the tinier clumps will find their way into the digestive cycles of birds, fish and sea mammals. Not only will these beings be ingesting the tar, they will also be ingesting the chemical dispersant. Such has already had severe effects upon, not only the mortality factor of these beings, but, also, in their chromosomal constitution, as well.

In your prayers and meditations, do not forget to bless the fishermen, and those who harvest other foods from the sea, including crabs, oysters and mussels, and further out, sea kelp. Because the need is so great now, keep your prayers and meditations powerful and regular. Use the full force of your concentration in this effort. Indeed, this is truly a huge wake-up call for all of us on planet Earth. Be grateful that you are able to perform this service, and let your efforts be dedicated to easing the suffering of those who are most afflicted from this calamity.

Know that every task you do can in some way be dedicated to clearing the fouled waters of the Gulf of Mexico, even though you may live a long way from the area. Dedicate your work, even your play, to repairing the continuing damage in the Gulf. In so doing, you are contributing to the overall cleansing of this planet.

May each of you be blessed a thousand-fold for your loving service, and may Earth have the energy and the where-with-all to rejuvenate her physical body from this grave insult. May your efforts to spiritually cleanse the Gulf of Mexico expand all around the planet, and may Earth’s points of toxic waste, radioactive waste and places fouled by the spilling of hydrocarbons and petrochemicals, be returned to beautiful, fertile lands that can grow food for all Earth children.