There are eleven instead of ten because 1) I want to avoid any hint of religiosity and 2) I like the number 11; I think it is auspicious. So here, in random order, are my Eleven Imperatives:
1. Show gratitude and give thanks to the Great Source of All/God/the Great Spirit/the Great Energy for life and all that is good.
2. Be compassionate and kind to all living beings.
3. Thank a tree (for oxygen, shade, beauty). Save a tree. Hug a tree if you’d like to. Trees like hugs and they are good listeners if you need someone to talk to.
4. Be loyal and kind to that special human with whom you are in love.
5. Become an environmental activist—Save honeybees, bumblebees, crickets, praying mantises, stink bugs (friendly), cicadas (friendly and attractive), beneficial lady bugs, and necessary earth worms (after a heavy rain, I often rescue those who get stranded on pavement and put them back in the grass). Do not let insecticide companies spray your yard with poison. Pick up and properly dispose of litter.
6. Become a humane activist—Save domestic animals (dogs, cats, horses) in our country where they are often neglected and intentionally hurt and in other parts of the world where they are raised in brutal circumstances to be eaten or otherwise exploited by humans. Appreciate and re-establish predator animals such as the majestic wolf to restore what humans have destroyed in Nature’s balance. Leave wild animals such as bears, horses, deer undisturbed in their natural habitat and do not harm or mistreat them. Help legislate for cows, pigs, sheep, chickens who are victims of a brutal industry and are not protected from cruelty by any laws. Consider switching to a diet that is largely plant-based.
7. Send vibes of civility out into the world. Love is the only way to conquer hate. Love is the ONLY antidote for hate.
8. Celebrate music, the true universal language. Even the planets sing as they spin and rotate in the heavens. Join in and play a musical instrument. Drum on a hand drum. Sing and give it your best effort. Tap your foot.
9. Speak out for peace for our planet. Peace instead of war should be the motto.
10. Do aerobic dancing every day. Dance, dance, dance!
11. Meditate. Breathe deeply … inhale, exhale. Do it unhurriedly. Meditation can involve spoken prayer, silence, surrender to the will of the Universe, gratitude.
Showing posts with label wild. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wild. Show all posts
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Bumper Stickers, Messages, and the Quality of “Wild” –
Today I saw a truck in the shopping center parking lot that was loaded (as is mine, though at the opposite side of the spectrum) with bumper stickers. I did not want to stick around until the truck’s owner showed up – to see his/her face and eyes and countenance.
The messages were pregnant with blatant and bold hate and intolerance. The one that hit me first and hardest was "Liberals are terrorists". Others included a little rhyme, "I won’t hide my white pride", "Seal our borders", and a message that was nastily directed (in a racial sense) at those who voted for President Obama. It saddened me to read them, so I made a conscious effort to re-direct my attention and thoughts to the quest for positive and longed-for solutions to this kind of blind hatred and intolerance. What a wonderful world we could have if we were to replace all hatred with compassion. Picture it!
Bumper stickers are the one way we can and do "advertise" what matters to us, what we believe, the way we think, where our spirit resides. Bumper stickers do affect people who see them. How often have you giggled when you found yourself waiting in traffic in back of a vehicle with humorous bumper stickers? Or shifted your thinking while viewing profoundly inspiring bumper stickers? Seen any political bumper stickers that were either to your liking or kind of got your hackles up?
Most of my bumper stickers are about kindness to animals, compassion in general, love, and beauty. One of them has an inviting message about Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Another of them (one of my oldest and original bumper stickers that I’ve had to shellac to help preserve it from the elements) says "Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues" (though I assure you they definitely do get the blues). Women tend to like that bumper sticker and view it with humor, sort of in a way that is equal to a wink. During the first couple of years my truck wore the message, I had two incidents involving gentlemen who were incensed by it. One shouted to me in traffic on the Kingston Pike, "You will burn in hell!" The other said something equally harsh about damnation. Another time, in front of the post office on Sutherland, a young man asked, in a very sincere tone, "Is it true that wild women don’t get the blues?" I replied, "It’s not true". He responded in a thoughtful tone and with downcast eyes, "I didn’t think so...wild men get the blues, too". Poor kid, I thought – he must be going through something.
Those zealots of judgement (I like the "e" in the word "judgement") among us who see things totally in polarized black and white – superior and inferior – bad and good – those who put disparaging labels on others for the sake of elevating themselves, apparently equate the word "wild" with "immoral" or "wicked". No! "Wild" means wild – untamed, free, natural, able to make one’s own decisions and travel on one’s own path, able to respect, honor and be at one with nature, able to be humane and human, able to recognize one’s interconnectedness with the rest of creation, able to err and forgive oneself (and others). I will strive to live out my days as a wild woman in all those ways.
The messages were pregnant with blatant and bold hate and intolerance. The one that hit me first and hardest was "Liberals are terrorists". Others included a little rhyme, "I won’t hide my white pride", "Seal our borders", and a message that was nastily directed (in a racial sense) at those who voted for President Obama. It saddened me to read them, so I made a conscious effort to re-direct my attention and thoughts to the quest for positive and longed-for solutions to this kind of blind hatred and intolerance. What a wonderful world we could have if we were to replace all hatred with compassion. Picture it!
Bumper stickers are the one way we can and do "advertise" what matters to us, what we believe, the way we think, where our spirit resides. Bumper stickers do affect people who see them. How often have you giggled when you found yourself waiting in traffic in back of a vehicle with humorous bumper stickers? Or shifted your thinking while viewing profoundly inspiring bumper stickers? Seen any political bumper stickers that were either to your liking or kind of got your hackles up?
Most of my bumper stickers are about kindness to animals, compassion in general, love, and beauty. One of them has an inviting message about Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. Another of them (one of my oldest and original bumper stickers that I’ve had to shellac to help preserve it from the elements) says "Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues" (though I assure you they definitely do get the blues). Women tend to like that bumper sticker and view it with humor, sort of in a way that is equal to a wink. During the first couple of years my truck wore the message, I had two incidents involving gentlemen who were incensed by it. One shouted to me in traffic on the Kingston Pike, "You will burn in hell!" The other said something equally harsh about damnation. Another time, in front of the post office on Sutherland, a young man asked, in a very sincere tone, "Is it true that wild women don’t get the blues?" I replied, "It’s not true". He responded in a thoughtful tone and with downcast eyes, "I didn’t think so...wild men get the blues, too". Poor kid, I thought – he must be going through something.
Those zealots of judgement (I like the "e" in the word "judgement") among us who see things totally in polarized black and white – superior and inferior – bad and good – those who put disparaging labels on others for the sake of elevating themselves, apparently equate the word "wild" with "immoral" or "wicked". No! "Wild" means wild – untamed, free, natural, able to make one’s own decisions and travel on one’s own path, able to respect, honor and be at one with nature, able to be humane and human, able to recognize one’s interconnectedness with the rest of creation, able to err and forgive oneself (and others). I will strive to live out my days as a wild woman in all those ways.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
