In the Nick of Time

Yesterday, from the Denver Post, disgust and frustration.  Today, from last month's issue of Orion, perspective, and hope:

"With one frame for each year of the Earth's 4.6-biollion-year history--there are twenty-four frames in a second--a film of that history would run for six years, all day, all night, every day of the week....   And in the last three seconds of the last night of the last month of the last year would arrive and pass the great events of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first.  That's it.  Three seconds out of six years.

Such perspective nurtures sanity.  So does this:  99.9 percent of all species that have evern evolved on this planet are gone forever.

Civilization is not a given.  Extinction is.

[...]

Here's what I know:  I know that when you find yourself free of the poisons that too much angst can cultivate, then something marvelous happens.  You can sense how very old the planet is, how very old life and death are, and you can keep going on, you can keep doing the work you do in this universe, feeling despair when you feel despair, feelilng--amazing--joy when you can feel joy."

--From "The Consolations of Extinction" by Christopher Cokinos

 

Breathe.  All is Eternal.  And everything in life is only for now.  Breathe

 

"Extrapolating from the records being accessed, I realized that the initial estimate of a hundred thousand organizations was off by at least a factor of ten.  I now believe there are over one million organizations working toward ecological sustainability and social justice.  Maybe two.

[...]

What does meet the eye is compelling:  tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."

--from "To Remake the World" by Paul Hawken

Breathe.  You are not separate, not alone, but a part of everything.  All is divine. 

Breathe.