The most precious jewel we have is Mother Earth. At a recent symposium I attended entitled “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream,” I felt all the more the importance of being a good steward of the earth.
A dear family friend, Hong Kong-based Therese Necio Ortega, invited me and my sisters to this event. So fired up was she upon attending one before in the former Crown Colony that she signed up for training right there and then with noble intentions of bringing it to friends in the Philippines.
So there we were one afternoon at the R.O.X. on Bonifacio High Street to attend the symposium “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream” delivered by Therese and co-hosted by Dr. Alan Stewart.
What dream was she pertaining to? And why is there a need for change?
In the mid 1990s, according to Therese, through a mysterious set of circumstances, a group of North Americans visited a remote and intact group of indigenous people called the Achuar located deep in the Amazonian region of Ecuador.
This relationship, which was to become the Pachamama Alliance, was actually initiated by the indigenous elders and shamans themselves. Out of their concern for the growing threat to their ancient way of life, and their recognition that the roots of this threat lay far beyond their rainforest home, they actively sought the active partnership of committed individuals living in the modern world.
“From the beginning, our indigenous partners have reminded us that one of the most powerful actions that can be taken in support of the rainforest and its inhabitants is to change the dream of the North — since it is our dream, our desires and appetites that are driving the destruction of rainforests around the world,” said Therese. The dream of the modern world, Therese continued, is our culture of consumption and acquisition, where our latest purchases devastate the land and exploit the less privileged, where our waste poisons the rivers and skies.
“This is not the kind of world any of us dreamed we would be leaving our children. We want to give them a world in which human beings live in harmony with one another and with the entire community of life. Yet the collective dream of the modern world, our dream of progress through endless growth and rapid destruction has become a nightmare that is threatening life on earth,” Stewart said.
Therese added: “Is it possible to change that dream? We used to think it would be too difficult or too late but not anymore. Right now around the world people are gathering together and discovering how they can participate in creating a new future. They are taking part in this powerful experience called “Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream.”
The purpose of the symposium is to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.
We learned that the symposium, a live interactive group experience led by trained volunteers, is spreading rapidly across the globe. Powerful documentary modules designed with the collaboration of some of the finest scientific, indigenous and activist minds in the world. They reveal the current state of our planet where we are and how we got here, then illuminate us on what is possible for the future.
Hence we attendees found ourselves engaged in some very powerful thoughts that really hit me. Here are some thought-provoking excerpts from the video shown to us:
From Julia Butterfly Hill, author and activist: “When you say you are going to throw something away, where is away? There is no such thing.”
From Van Jones, president and founder of Green for All: “We have a society that believes we have throw-away resources, throw-away species and throw-away people.”
From Noble Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “Every single one of us can do something to make a difference.”
From Lynne Twist, co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance: “If we work together, we will come up with exactly what we need to do to create a sustainable future for our lives. Together we are a genius.”
From Mother Nature herself: “I am Mother Nature. Whatever you do to me affects my sons and daughters.”
Through guided group discussions, interactions, quiet self reflection, shared feelings and ideas, participants gained powerful insights to generate hope and inspiration and a commitment to individual and collective action.
Therese urged us to join a growing global movement of citizens who are awakening to the urgency of our situation and are taking action to change the world by changing the dream.
Stewart said: “Our ability to respond effectively to all that’s occurring increases with our learning. When we know the impact of our choices we can choose more wisely, when we get the impact of our behavior we can use it to reinforce the sustainable, the just and the peaceful.”
“And beyond that,” Therese said, “we can learn to see the old dream for what it is, a short term mistaken belief that consumption and excess will give us satisfaction. Then we can see where we are still caught in that dream, and disengage ever more to live in the new dream of connection collaboration and harmony.”
It is indeed not an easy task but with committed people, there is hope. For as long as that hope is committed to action, yes, there is always hope.
Ironically we parents work so hard to accumulate material wealth for our children forgetting that there are more vital needs that money cannot buy. Clean air, unpolluted skies, oceans and rivers teeming with sea life, verdant forests where exotic wildlife thrive. Sadly these are rapidly turning into vanishing scenes.
Did you know that if you throw a piece of plastic into the ocean and a turtle mistakes it for a jellyfish and eats it, the turtle will be dead in a year because it has no way to excrete the plastic? One plastic alone can kill a turtle that’s been around for a hundred years.
Also, it only takes a few minutes to cut down a tree that takes years to grow.
If you walk into a forest, a fully-grown tree can yield the temperature of a one-horsepower air-conditioning unit.
Therese, who is also the communications and promotions manager of The Peninsula Hotels, said her teenager daughter Margaret refuses to step into restaurants that serve shark’s fin soup in defiance of shark killing.
A world of peace and harmony with nature and with one another is what God intended and that is what we need to preserve.
It’s time to rethink our dreams, refocus our priorities and reprogram our activities. Now is the time to do our part, to heed the wounded pleas of Mother Nature and save her in order to secure our children’s future.
(For more information, log on to www.awakeningthedreamer.org. Would love to hear from you at miladayjewels@yahoo.com)