I was taking a stroll down to town on a beautiful sunny day. Twice on my walk I encountered people spraying unwanted plants on their land. Twice I felt the toxic sprays in the back of my throat.
My immediate thoughts were, 'If you feel you want to remove unwanted plants, hey what's wrong with getting your hands in the dirt!'
The point was, sure, it may take a lot longer short term to physically remove the plants. It may also take a lot more physical work in the short term. But what about the long term?
What about all these millions of people across the world all spraying poison? What will be the cumulative long term effects?
I remember years ago, when I was working as a Park Ranger, the gardeners telling me how toxic all the chemicals were that they used. One said that years ago all the unwanted plants would be removed by hand. Now sprays were used to save time and money.
Again short term gains.
I feel that we are a World of 'Short Termers'.
I feel a real affinity with the Taoist way of going with the natural flow of life and to be very much living in the here and now.
However, personally, I don't take 'living in the now' to mean we should not also live a 'Long Term Life'.
By 'Long Term Living' I mean living with consideration for those who come after us, both the plants and all the animals.
To me living in the moment does not mean living for today with no regard to the future.
I feel the whole Planet benefits if we live with thought and regard to how our actions will cause reactions in the future.
For example- eat organic fruit and support a future organic paradisical orchard.
Each action we do now will have a whole series of reactions for the future planet.
There are so many positive actions we can do:-
plant trees; recycle; reuse; walk or cycle; smile at people; choose a diet that actually benefits the planet as well as you. For example eating organic fruit causes chemical-free orchards to be planted and so provides oxygen for the Earth and food and shelter for animals.
Sometimes short term can seem easy- eat fast food; drive instead of walk; throw out stuff rather than reuse or recycle; spray chemicals to clean instead of using elbow grease.
These actions may save time but will they save the Planet?
Everything we do does make a difference, however small.
I believe that even if a small action seems very inconsequential, it can have great effects.
Sometimes poeple say 'What difference can one person make?'
I think all the difference in the world.
We are only really accountable for our own actions.
If we live the best that we can, we can truly make a huge long term difference.
Two recent examples of how we can either live 'long-term' or 'short-term' came into my life recently.
The first is of very short-term thinking. I live in South-East Queensland. We have hot, humid, tropical summers. This is great for a fruit lovin' heat seekin' fruit eater.
It is also great for mosquitos. There are lots of them buzzing around at the moment due to the recent wet spell and the heat.
So one chooses to live in the tropics, with all its loveliness and lushness; and so do the mosquitos. Well if one don't like all of the tropics, including its insect life, then maybe live elsewhere.
Without the insects there would be no tropics, all life has a role.
So here is the short term thinking. Tropical living humans do not want to share their space with the mozzies so they are going to spray poisons from the skies, all over our beautiful land. Do they really think that this short term fix is without serious consequences. How much longer can we get away with poisoning our planet! If you have a problem with mozzies, cover up or stay indoors after dusk. I feel humans sure do not want to compromise at all. Insects are an integral part of the Tropics- if you don't like bugs go live in the Arctic.
Anyway now on to a tale of long-term thinking. This story was told to me by a guy who sells 100% fruit organic 'ice-cream'. A good person to know!
There is an ancient cathedral in England, called Wells Cathedral. Apparently, recently the roof needed mending. Anyway the church people go and look at the old parish records and find that special trees were planted hundreds of years ago just so they would be ready when the roof wore out.
How's that for forward thinking!
Each action has a re-action. Spray the bugs today, poison our world for tomorrow.
Love, Light, Peace, Power.
