Sunday, March 21, 2004
Life and Death
As Winter gave way to Spring this year, I experienced quite an interesting balance of Life and Death.
On Friday, the last official day of Winter, I participated in a Die-In. We held the Die-In on campus in recognition of Saturday's one year anniversary of the Iraq war. The theme was "WMD? A LIE!" If you look at the picture, I'm the dead body that forms the up-and-down part of the letter "L."
Lying dead on the concrete for an hour gave me plenty of time to meditate on the natures of death and war. Even though playing the part didn't require any physical acting other than laying still, I did my best to radiate compassion and sorrow over all of the lives lost in the senseless brutality of war. I also thought about friends and loved ones who have had their lives touched by war and the military. It was a powerful experience -- and I could hear discussion sparked around me, so I feel that the demonstration definitely went some distance toward achieving its purpose of raising consciousness about the war.
Then on Saturday, the day of the Spring Equinox, I celebrated life! In the morning, I got to walk to work through a wonderful Spring rain -- an experience that would have annoyed many, but which I took as a wonderful experience of the dawn of Spring. Then at 6 PM, I gave a presentation about LIVE FOODS at the Interfaith Center!
The presentation was called "Our Living Earth: The Ecology and Ethics of Live Foods." In this presentation, I started by talking about various forms of conscious eating -- vegetarianism, veganism, raw foods, etc. Then, I went on to offer a definition of live foods that seeks to transform our very society with its life-affirming characteristics. Ideally, these are foods that are not only raw, vital, and healthy, but also bioregional, permaculturally grown, and harvested in a socially and ecologically friendly manner. Simply by defining live foods so thoroughly and ecologically, I hope to create a way of lving that naturally improves the world's ecological health as much as it improves our own personal health. That's synergy for ya!
I've already been hearing positive responses to the presentation, and community members have thanked me for what I have to share. Therefore, I'm happy to say that I feel like the presentation was a success! What a way to start the new Spring, eh? I've spoken in public more than a few times before, but this was my first professional speaking engagement. Now that this has gone well, I feel that much more confident in finishing up my book and working on a career in writing, public speaking, and possibly teaching.
These two events allowed me to experience and communicate the sorrow of death and the abundance of life. This movement from death to life was quite an appropriate way to recognize Spring Equinox -- and I didn't even plan it that way! It just goes to show that sometimes synchronicity reveals the significance of the season.
After all of that was said and done, I met with fellow Wiccan to celebrate Ostara [Spring Equinox] in a more private and personal way. That, too, was a wonderful experience -- more so than I could describe in this blog entry.
So, even though we've had one last cold spell set in today, I still feel that Spring has sprung in a wonderful way for me. I'm feeling more alive and active by the day, ready to learn and grow through the actions and relationships of the coming months. As all of the newly sprouting seeds in my life begin to take root and grow into the sunshine, I'll be posting more about them here soon.
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On Friday, the last official day of Winter, I participated in a Die-In. We held the Die-In on campus in recognition of Saturday's one year anniversary of the Iraq war. The theme was "WMD? A LIE!" If you look at the picture, I'm the dead body that forms the up-and-down part of the letter "L."
Lying dead on the concrete for an hour gave me plenty of time to meditate on the natures of death and war. Even though playing the part didn't require any physical acting other than laying still, I did my best to radiate compassion and sorrow over all of the lives lost in the senseless brutality of war. I also thought about friends and loved ones who have had their lives touched by war and the military. It was a powerful experience -- and I could hear discussion sparked around me, so I feel that the demonstration definitely went some distance toward achieving its purpose of raising consciousness about the war.
Then on Saturday, the day of the Spring Equinox, I celebrated life! In the morning, I got to walk to work through a wonderful Spring rain -- an experience that would have annoyed many, but which I took as a wonderful experience of the dawn of Spring. Then at 6 PM, I gave a presentation about LIVE FOODS at the Interfaith Center!
The presentation was called "Our Living Earth: The Ecology and Ethics of Live Foods." In this presentation, I started by talking about various forms of conscious eating -- vegetarianism, veganism, raw foods, etc. Then, I went on to offer a definition of live foods that seeks to transform our very society with its life-affirming characteristics. Ideally, these are foods that are not only raw, vital, and healthy, but also bioregional, permaculturally grown, and harvested in a socially and ecologically friendly manner. Simply by defining live foods so thoroughly and ecologically, I hope to create a way of lving that naturally improves the world's ecological health as much as it improves our own personal health. That's synergy for ya!
I've already been hearing positive responses to the presentation, and community members have thanked me for what I have to share. Therefore, I'm happy to say that I feel like the presentation was a success! What a way to start the new Spring, eh? I've spoken in public more than a few times before, but this was my first professional speaking engagement. Now that this has gone well, I feel that much more confident in finishing up my book and working on a career in writing, public speaking, and possibly teaching.
These two events allowed me to experience and communicate the sorrow of death and the abundance of life. This movement from death to life was quite an appropriate way to recognize Spring Equinox -- and I didn't even plan it that way! It just goes to show that sometimes synchronicity reveals the significance of the season.
After all of that was said and done, I met with fellow Wiccan to celebrate Ostara [Spring Equinox] in a more private and personal way. That, too, was a wonderful experience -- more so than I could describe in this blog entry.
So, even though we've had one last cold spell set in today, I still feel that Spring has sprung in a wonderful way for me. I'm feeling more alive and active by the day, ready to learn and grow through the actions and relationships of the coming months. As all of the newly sprouting seeds in my life begin to take root and grow into the sunshine, I'll be posting more about them here soon.
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