Our need to belong gives me faith for the future
Our future as living beings on this earth is far from certain. This reality was highlighted by a recent warning to humanity issued by more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries around the world. These scientists said humans had unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years wherein many current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of this century. Sobering stuff.
Yet in the face of this warning I have faith. I have faith that the need for us living beings to connect and to belong will ensure that we will work together to take the urgent steps needed to safeguard our imperiled biosphere.
What evidence do I have for this faith? I offer a couple of pictures.
The first picture is a scene I see most days as I drive past this sheep and horse duo. They seem to symbolize what is so powerful about relationship and belonging. On first glance you would wonder what they have in common, yet their connection persists day after day, week after week and to my passerby knowledge, year after year.
The second picture is of a Sri Lankan woman, her husband and a Queenstown local. After eight years in New Zealand, Dinesha Amarasinghe, her husband and her three sons have been told they will be deported back to Sri Lanka because Dinesha has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Queenstown locals took to the streets this week to protest this threatened deportation. Several hundred people marched through the centre saying the family was a valuable part of the community and urged authorities to re-think their stance. Dinesha’s reaction was to say“It means so much to me. Now I know we are not alone.”
That is the crux of it all I think. We are not alone. We living beings have each other and we have the possibility and opportunity of working with each other to navigate the mess we humans have made. This will take pursuit of relationships.
By relationship I mean the three layers of relationship:
- Relationship with self
- Relationship with others
- Relationship with the world around
How fortunate we are to have these options. We are not locked alone in a bare room rather we are operating in a landscape rich with possibilities to connect and work with others.
Take heart and take action today at all three layers of relationship.