Last week I attended a discussion and Q&A by a pre-eminent scientist and a theologian on the issue of climate change. One of the best things about the evening was that everyone there, of which there were around 100, seemed to accept that the science was settled and that it was critical that we act quickly to stop reaching irreversible tipping points. Permafrost melting, ice shelfs disappearing, the acidification of the oceans, extreme weather events, sea level rises - these are just some of the things happening right now. One of the strangest and most disturbing things about our current Australian federal election is that climate change is just not in the debates in any meaningful way. There are many reasons why this has ended up being the case. Over ten years worth of climate change policy being a political football and a bat to beat your opponent with hasn’t helped. Nor has the way meaningful discussion in the media has been hijacked by either well funded skeptics or ideologically driven pundits. I suspect too that in wealthy Australia, the land of sweeping plains, relative peace and world isolation, we are disconnected from those places and people where the effects of climate change are much more real and dire. I live on the southern east coast of Australia. It is utterly beautiful. A paradise of sea, river, forest and bush. It is also peaceful and resource rich. It is all too easy to feel safely cocooned in this earthly paradise. However, the interdependence of life means that my cocoon is an illusion. We are all connected to each other. We all depend on each other as does the whole created order. Our western culture is trapped in the prison of individualism and consumer addiction. Our hearts are atrophied and our minds captive to fears about not being enough and never having enough. With the cacophony of desires, terrors, self-conscious feed back loops, entertainment and distraction we are deaf and then dumb. We find it almost impossible to truly see and hear the other because we can cannot even hear ourselves think deeply and truly. As many other writers have said, we need to rediscover the art of listening. I would suggest that listening is not just a luxury for those who have the time and patience. It is a matter of survival. True listening comes from silence. The letters that make up silent and listen are the same. This is coincidental but it does help us remember that the two are closely related. To hear properly we must first be silent. Not just in our speech but in our inner attitude and being. We need to let go of the inner chatter of our heads that weighs and analyses everything and attend to what is being said. It is also how we can most fruitfully engage with the natural world. Walking through a forest simply attending to the shapes and colours, the movement of the breeze, the sound of the ocean and birds nearby is to walk knowing that you are on holy ground and all things are connected and as one. In any healthy relationship between two human beings listening is vital. Listening that gets the ego out of the way and makes space for the other is the way to strengthen and build capacity for those times when the connection is challenged - and it will be. Paradoxically it is by getting out of the way that we stay together. That we are one and dependent on each other seems sadly lacking in our political debates. In Britain, America and Australia we are having important elections. Great Britain has just voted to leave the EU. America is voting for not just the next president but candidates in both houses. In Australia we have the federal election next weekend. I have been tracking these events and what I mostly hear is a lot of noise and shouting at each other. I hear a lot of nationalism, fear-mongering, protectionism. I hear lies, bribery and xenophobia. I hear a lot of sound and fury - and then commentary on the sound and fury. I long to hear genuine dialogue. I long to sense genuine respect. I long for the art of listening to be part of all debates and engagement. Yet I know that listening must begin with me. My own sound and fury must be given up so I can attend to the echoes of God’s love in the world and in other people. I must become silent in that way that goes to the place of unknowing, beyond my old tired ways of reacting and responding, so I can discern the next right and loving action. This is a daily, moment by moment practice. I think the earth is waiting for our silence and our listening. Peace Rebecca ________________________________________ The conclusion is always the same: love is the most powerful and still the most unknown energy of the world. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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Rebecca Newland:
Exploring balance, silence and contemplative living Archives
November 2016
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