Do we recognize the preciousness of life?

Many of us don’t see, breathe or feel life anymore. We see, breathe and live only economics. 

I think you’ll agree with me that your life is precious. Yes?

Do you think that every other being on this planet believes that their life is precious too? Probably? 

In my experience I’ve come to realize that all life is precious. All of life. In every form. Plants, Animals, Birds, Humans etc. That doesn’t mean that we don’t rely on other life for our sustenance. In fact, we very much do. It’s just a fact that life supports other life on this planet.  

When we see all life as precious, we can recognize that another life form has sacrificed itself for us. We can honor the sacrifice that gives us life. 

Though we know that life is precious, society caught in its economic addiction has fallen out of a healthy relationship with life. We’re forever looking to extract more from life and grow our digital wealth regardless of its impacts. 

Homo sapiens, as we are called, is supposed to be a human species with deep wisdom and  understanding. We are supposed to be a species that can take account of the whole and act through wisdom to be protectors of life. 

However, under the forces of unchecked capitalism, we’ve become home economicus, a species motivated by self-interest to maximize utility and profit only with little regard for other life. 

Many of us don’t see, breathe or feel life anymore. 

We see, breathe and live only economics. 

By maximizing and staying fixated on economics, what we are doing is actually destroying the fundamental wealth of life which we have in the form of this planet. We seek to grow our personal wealth, our companies and our GDP forever into the future. We are quite literally converting the Earth and our natural resources into dollars in a bank account with no end in sight. If we leave it all to the laws of finance, it will convert all of life on Earth to GDP and call it a success. 

We all know very well that it will be far from it. Greed is not good. Greed is guilty. 

The signs of our overconsumption and ecological distress are everywhere if we pay attention. From terrible glacier floods in Nepal to flash floods in Grand Canyon and Utah to the horrendous fires in Spain / France and hurricanes in Hawaii. There’s a major natural disaster unfolding on our planet almost every week! The Earth has been talking to us for a while but we are not paying attention. 

I feel it’s time there was active dialogue around this foundational disconnect with life that we are living through. And that we begin to realize the preciousness of life. The sacredness of life that we must return to if we are to inhabit this planet with grace. 

I don’t have all the answers but I do see the problem and it’s many facets. And perhaps through good dialogue we can all see more clearly (including myself) and find a better way forward for all of us and our children. 

What’s one thing we can all do starting right now? Start by slowing down. 

Yes, we need to slow down the race to nowhere. The rat race as they appropriately call it. 

Slow down your pace through life, take care of your body and heal your body where needed. There is a need for great healing on this planet. 

The body of Earth upon which we reside is in deep pain. It’s sharing its pain with us in many ways but we won’t see it unless we really pay attention. 

We must first reconnect with the pain in our own bodies and pay attention. We must slow down and allow our own bodies to heal. Then we will have the capacity to be with the pain of the Earth and recognize life again.

- Nitin