Breaking News: Glorious Sun Rise This Morning

Sunrise from home at 5:46 AM this morning - the proverbial crack of dawn.

A sunrise is a majestic thing to witness. Here it comes! 

Heat. Hope. Light. Life. 

Each morning we have an opportunity to welcome a new, fresh day in which anything could happen. The possibilities are infinite. But we need the sun to make it all happen.

A recent solar eclipse made headlines recently, like eclipses always do. But what a dark and foreboding thing, the sun disappearing in the middle of the day. 

Total eclipses aren't even that rare. Approximately once every 18 months (on average) a total solar eclipse is visible from some place on the Earth’s surface. 

Like a sun set, an eclipse is a more somber, cautious moment. They have a hint of dystopia about them.

Sunrises, on the other hand, the moment when the sun comes to us instead of going away, are full of hope and joy. They are utopian. An inhale rather than an exhale.

Imagine a morning the sun didn't rise, or an eclipse that didn't end, and you begin to feel how our ancient ancestors felt about the sun coming up every day. 

A miracle!

Still, sunrises rarely make the headlines, even if they are as striking as this morning's was over my little part of the world in Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada.

I have enjoyed the sun rise over pristine and remote mountain lakes in the Rockies. Sitting on the porch of an Ashram in Rishikesh, India, I watched the rising sun begin to bake the Ganges River valley as the previous night's cremations smoldered on the banks. 

What I have learned over the years, is that there hasn't been a sunrise I haven't felt deeply, and with gratitude. And that goes for watching the sunrise this morning right from the comfort of home.

Have a joyous light-filled day.

Ruins: Impermanence In Action

"A ruin is not just something that happened long ago to someone else; its history is that of us all, the transience of power, of ideas, of all human endeavours."     

- George Schaller

Sometimes I wonder how best to take down the system that is rapidly destroying the planet. Then I pause to consider that it seems like the system is doing a pretty good job of destroying itself, and all I need to do is breathe, and be patient.

"Slowly, painstakingly, like ants, men would make their paths and civilization and their wars once again, only to have it wash away again."

- Kiran Desai

"Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant."

- Donna Farhi

"One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world."

- Dogen

"Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Nonresistance, nonjudgement, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living."

- Eckhart Tolle

"In our instinctive attachments, our fear of change, and our wish for certainty and permanence, we may undercut the impermanence which is our greatest strength, our most fundamental identity. 

Without impermanence, there is no process. The nature of life is change. All hope is based on process."

- Rachel Naomi Remen

Change is the only constant in our Universe, and impermanence is the way of things. Nothing lasts forever. Dog eat dog capitalism, and blatant consumerism won't either. 

Indeed, they have been crumbling and dying for some time already. What you are hearing is a dirge for the system as it decays. Layered under that are the celebratory sounds of a new way coming into being.

The Satirical Art of Steve Cutts

Warning: viewing these images may cause discomfort, ennui, and a deep desire to live simply.

Some people are able to highlight uncomfortable truths more effectively via visual art. Artist/illustrator/animator Steve Cutts is one such individual.

Steve's art doesn't hold anything back in his assessment of the state of the world infected by consumerism. Psychopathic billionaires, getting trapped in the rat race, phone zombies, office escapees, conspicuous consumers - they are all addressed in this painful portfolio.

The artist describes himself as a "self taught hermit who occasionally likes to make animation, illustration, sculpture and cake - mainly cake". You can see his short animated piece about the destructiveness of consumer culture here.

No Dystopia Monday

Are we already living in a dystopian system?

Common Traits of Dystopias

The following is a list of traits familiar to dystopian literature, movies, or a present day society near you.

• a hierarchical society where divisions between the upper, middle and lower class are definitive and unbending
• a nation-state ruled by an upper class with few democratic ideals
• state propaganda programs and educational systems that coerce most citizens into worshipping the state and its government, in an attempt to convince them into thinking that life under the regime is good and just
• strict conformity among citizens and the general assumption that dissent and individuality are bad
• a fictional state figurehead that people worship fanatically through a vast personality cult, such as 1984's Big Brother
• a fear or disgust of the world outside the state
• a penal system that lacks due process laws and often employs psychological or physical torture
• constant surveillance by state police agencies
• the banishment of the natural world from daily life
• a back story of a natural disaster, war, revolution, uprising, spike in overpopulation or some other climactic event which resulted in dramatic changes to society
• a standard of living among the lower and middle class that is generally poorer than in contemporary society (adapted from netcharles.com)

Wow. That sounds disturbingly familiar...

"War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent."  - George Orwell

"Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities."           - Aldous Huxley