July 07

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (Times Books, 2007).

Author Bill McKibben, the Harvard-trained economist and activist who's forged a career reporting on such hot-button topics as overpopulation and global warming, wants to send a shock wave through our retail-addicted culture. "The idea that more is better, which has been orthodoxy for the past 50 years, no longer matches reality," McKibben tells me from the rural Vermont home he shares with his wife, author Sue Halpern, and their 14-year-old daughter. "More stuff doesn't make people happier." In fact, once our basic needs are met, the very opposite seems to be true.

In the past decade the burgeoning field of happiness studies has overturned many of our basic assumptions about where satisfaction comes from, how long it lasts, and where we should focus our energy. The results of our choices are not as life- changing as we think they'll be (the novelty passes; the credit card bills remain), and many of capitalism's long-standing assumptions-that acquisitions improve our lives-turn out to be a load of hooey.

Studies suggest that today's average American child reports suffering higher levels of anxiety than the average child under psychiatric care in the 1950s. "All that material progress-and all the billions of barrels of oil and millions of acres of trees that it took to create it-seems not to have moved the satisfaction meter an inch," says McKibben. "It's as if we've done an experiment in whether consumption produces happiness and determined that it doesn't."

The reasons for this paradox are complex. Now we need to find our way back.

This connection was mailed to me by KC Miller at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. Fire the Grid comes from a woman in England who had a near death experience. Her story and journey, though long, is interesting. Her mission is an hour of synchronized focus on healing Earth.

She identifies three types of humans today that will bring power to this project.

"First, we have those of you already practicing in an organized religion. I am not asking you to change any of your faiths or truths, just know that if the God of your understanding is truly omnipotent, then all things are possible - so why not this. What better use of our human energy and prayer than to heal the earth and unite mankind with God's grace and goodness.

Then we have those who have been searching outside the organized religions to find a different, more individual way in which to believe and live in the light of our creator. We each search for a more individual way in which to know God. These people will simply know deep inside that the plan of which I speak is indeed a truth, a clear direction in which you can be of assistance to the Earth.

The fence sitters make up the third type. I call you fence sitters because you truly wish you had faith but the state of the world has beaten any faith out of you. Two and a half years ago this was me. I had become hardened to the reality of the world and had no faith that God would ever intervene and save us. I was angry at God for letting us down and delivering us such chaos. However I have seen that God has only provided us with that which we desired. We were lost to the fact that we are a piece of God and therefore able to participate in our lives with the Creator.

Now to all of you who were like me, I issue a challenge. Suspend your scepticism for just one hour of your life, and just sit, alone or with others, to think about the beauty of this planet, to appreciate all that you have and all that you are, and to give hope for an improved future for us all.

This plan involves only one hour from each of us. Our combined energies will work to direct energy to the Earth and to each other. I ask you to choose the way in which you deliver your intention. For those of you that pray, then pray for the hour asking for the faith and power to accomplish this tremendous task. Those of you, who meditate, meditate and see the intention of your thoughts swirling deep inside our earth delivering the love and healing. Those of you who have no ritual of faith may simply develop one that works for you. Perhaps sit quietly and repeat a phrase of your intention such as "I offer you my energy to heal this world and its people." Join me for one hour"

Email me if you would like to join me for an hour of meditation and healing.

At Dynamic Pathways Wellness Center we realize that we are what we eat and we become whatever our energy is focused on.

If you are eating a healthy balanced diet, you will be transforming the energy of that food into health and balance in other areas of you life.

If you are focusing on positive people, positive activities and positive happenings, that is what you will find.

Be well until our next visit