Somewhere in the last couple of years the thought came to mind: “Lee, you likely don’t have the size consciousness you need to think and live in OneEarth ways.” A humbling thought that took me only a short time before totally agreeing with it.
And then it got exciting! No need to be defensive, I realized. What’s important is to embrace the adventure of consciousness change. Of growing from superpower consciousness and MultiEarth thinking to Earth-size consciousness. I really liked seeing this as an adventure of personal evolution into capacities I’ve flirted with, sometimes lived into. But now I intentionally took on the assignment to increase my consciousness and seek more mature, in-harmony relationships with all of Earth’s creatures and systems.
Consciousness changers abound, I realized. I’m referring to experiences that change us as individuals as well as the cultures in which we live. Ones I’ve experienced, which also factor prominently in the new book I’m writing, include:
- Emptying ourselves of what we once knew and felt certainty about
- Re-narrating a myth, drawing on a different layer of meaning related to a current situation
- Going into Nature to learn and be
- Wildness encountered in Nature and in our own being
- Encountering our “dark side,” that is, what we’ve previously disowned, couldn’t be bothered with, just didn’t know about ourselves or others, or didn’t want to know
- Connecting to “The Other”—all that is different, inconvenient, a threat, and beyond
- Hearing, telling, and watching stories of change
- Taking in new information that changes our paradigm, worldview, or just how we thought about someone, someplace, or something
- Experiencing pain, suffering, and disease
- Loving Earth and being loved by her
Most likely, some of the experiences I have brought to my writing will be with you in your reading. I hope I’ll get to hear about some of them because it seems to me that sharing consciousness-changing stories evolves consciousness faster and builds among us a treasure of psychic and spiritual wealth. The quicker both happen, the better for all life on Earth.
Doesn’t it make lots of sense to identify ourselves as ones who are in the process of growing Earth-sized consciousness rather than to imagine we’re already there? Helps us be less self-righteous too.