Modesty when forced, then recognized and valued
In the first few months of 2020, much of the world has been (unjustly) coerced into quarantine, an unwillfull and – to many – a rather limiting home-stay. There are countless detrimental effects to this, but there are positive outcomes as well.
The silver lining being that we were all harshly reminded to what truly matters in life and to what extent. Not by the forces setting the rules, but as an unintended effect of the circumstances.
Living lightly, whether by choice or not, equals modesty.
And that must be a virtue in the books of all of us. Why? Because modesty sustains abundance. It cannot be any other way.
As an example, which amazes the majority of us, who care to lift our faces with those three eyes each into the clarified sky, the deeper-than-any-of-us-can-remember blue is so richly deep… It feels like we are at arm’s reach to the universe, the infinite cosmos. Yet, every one of us can only take as much of this depth and width as much fits in our three eyes.
The same holds true in the material world. Wildflower meadows are serving myriads of insects and as long as meadows stay meadows, no nectar collecting creature will go hungry.
The entire ecosystem of a wildflower meadow habitat feels the imperative of sharing.
The prolonged, ruthlessly honest experience of our homes reminds, or rather reconnects us to the same feeling.
Painful recognition
To many, this recognition comes with an excruciating pain, like that of a drug addict going dry. The day-to-day observing of how much less is actually enough and adequate for keeping us satisfied and happy…
First, much like caged lions whose hunting grounds were taken over by bars, we are pacing with those unsatisfied, but only perceived necessities. Much of them pure desires of a seemingly boundless modern human psyche.
We are (or have been) a society driven by desires. A monstrous beast conditioned to be insatiable.
It’s high time to notice that both the conditioning and the conditioner are phony. In no way connected to the real world.
Perhaps standing hours and days on our balconies, leaning out of our windows, we can recognize in the distance, if nothing else by the third eye, that we are all on and not above the Earth. Regardless how many floors separate us from it.
It is now worth shedding cleansing tears for all those tiers we have forced in between nature and our vantage point.
There is light to light
Then, being rationed – again, in an indirect way – one starts to befriend, value and even like the fact that there is enough, now, for everyone to go around. Filling a cart a quarter of the way or to a more insignificant fraction of that how one used to, has an overall positive ripple effect throughout provision systems.
There is a great beauty to behold in living lightly, applying now voluntary self-moderation to the way we cater to ourselves. Whoever or whatever our teacher happened to be.
And that’s because you start making do with what you already have.
You will seek out sources previously unvalued, too ubiquitous to consider (as if we had been ill-attracted to what is relatively scarce to begin with).
In a foodstuffs sense, for instance, you will now joyfully make the effort to bend down for the dandelion, the plantain, and not avoid the stinging nettle. For it turns out they are so good for you, it’s a disgrace to yourself and nature not to have interacted with each other in this intimate, life-affirming manner.
Living lightly utilizes many of these life-affirming sources that are free of charge, free for the taking. Where solely an inner ethical boundary applies: to leave aplenty, because besides yourself aplenty live.
Slimming beauty
Forced to traffic past the mirror, soon you’ll notice the attractive change of slimmer and slimmer figures. You have reconnected with land, moved about on it with higher consciousness, learned self-moderation and respect for the other. As a now direct result, you have lost weight, became lighter yourself.
How could one not be overjoyed by a slender body full of vitality?! Let alone when more and more “slimmies” walk about. Walk and talk about. It feels good. Like a new generation, a new kind of mankind, a kind one who has learned its lesson. Even if it happened to be sparked by the actions of some shady characters.
Light, shedding for the future
Living lightly now, embetters the livelihood tomorrow in every possible way. Both the action and the conscious intention is set, both of them benevolent, imbued by love and care. It is a sure sign of a noble sense of responsibility for an all-animate world and its well-being, perpetuated in time indefinitely.
This applies to our consumption of all sorts, tangible or not.
It refers to our proliferation as a species. If it translates to some as a determination of not producing offspring, then be it. If it is the case with some others that they only desire to have one child – very well. Two of them – fine. No political agenda persuading its citizens otherwise has higher moral value than the self-risen predication with a healthy and bountiful planet in mind.
A sustainable future is spacious.
By slimming ourselves and our numbers voluntarily, willfully, with dignity. Not through fear-mongering and harmful technologies.
Space renegotiated
Windowsill and balcony gardens ought to become gardens of a forest floor, as multi-stories shrink to ground and concrete, asphalt crumble into fertile soil.
Be instrumental, you too, in the dissolution of urban traps into rural freedom. Windows mirroring windows are quickly becoming outmoded reflections, constructs of human society in grave need of change.
Living space is one aspect that has to undergo a huge overhaul, enabling people to have affordable access to land.
The more comfortably one can spread out her/his higher and higher consciousness in a real spatial sense, the lighter human life on earth can be. That is not and should not – in my belief – ever be the matter of pusillanimous negotiations.
Never carve your living space too tight, or else the whole planet, present and future will suffer.
If you will, you can use it as the motto of living lightly and a great teaching of the first world-quarantine craze.
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