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| credit: Zazzle |
Who loves this Planet? A bit of a strange question, seeing that it is the only habitable one the we know of within 20 light years. However, I declare that I do love my planet.
I believe that as Burt Bacharach wrote “What the world needs now, is love sweet love”! Yes, really, love! Not in the physical sense, but in the community sense. Things like pride of place, which is a sense of community love or to put it in a better way, pride of where you and others around you live.
I have described previously I believe that to live a fulfilling and sustainable lifestyle, you need other like minded people to share the journey with you. It is a lonely place to be in if you attempt to down-shift in isolation or take steps to build a sustainable community without others to help and to share the passion and to bounce ideas off of.
I have found that people who attempt to live this kind of lifestyle, usually are involved in at least one community group, sometimes two or three depending on their interests. This is a great way to meet like minded people, learn new skills and to build long lasting friendships. However, with these connections there comes a greater responsibility to other than self.
You have the needs, desires and well-being of others to contend with. I liken it to an extended family, who care about each other, which I believe leads to a deep sense of belonging. Humans want to belong, otherwise we would not have congregated into hamlets, village, towns, cities or megalopolises over the last 10,000 years.
With these communal structures in place other needs begin to become fulfilled, like security of food, water, shelter and the like. Even in bad times, a tight knit community looks out for one another.
Now, having a strong, and dare I say, loving and caring community is a great goal to strive for and reminds me of the country town I grew up in.
Personally, I for one will not stop caring for my community, the environment, all creatures, and our home, planet Earth. I believe we can create a sustainable and peaceful future together because I truly believe in human nature. We cannot possibly be that stupid to let it all go to rack and ruin?
I know we can show this planet that we love and respect it, and lets start with our very own communities. Group Hug!
hugging right back at ya, community is the best glue to hold our crazy lives together!
You’ve nailed it – if people care about and for each other and the place and life they share, then looking after it all is just comes as a result of that. Shared responsibility seems abhorrent nowadays, yet less than a century ago, it was what made life possible for most communities. Yup, I love our planet too! Hug back…
Hey Gavin- just on my summer vacation- quilting on the sewing machine with solar power!! Yay, we can finally charge up all the stuff-electric boat motor (hate the smelly gas ones), electric bike battery (my DH just got a BionX upgrade to his pedal bike, as he sold the car!!), and the camper battery. Most of our stuff is gently used, or bought for good quality, and we have scaled back in a big way. If it weren’t for blogs like yours, we wouldn’t always know or realize how being different is good for us all (and the planet of course).
Take care
Barb