dream with me

to paraphrase Ricky Martin, i'm a lucky guy. truly fortunate to live in such beauty, surrounded by forested mountains where rivers run free, blessed by sunsets over the Salish sea. to have friends who not only support me but aren't afraid to tell me when i'm being an asshole. to make a living doing things i believe in, with spare time for music, art, and contemplation. to have access to healthy food, clean water, and possibly the best oxygen in America. to live in a house with lots of interesting people...

although i don't have everything i want, i have everything i need. it is no lie that most people in the world are not so lucky. they might not have access to good food or water. they might not have a comfortable, affordable place to live. they might not have a close-knit community. they might face discrimination for their ethnicity, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. they might suffer war and famine through no fault of their own. this is the reality for many people on Earth right now.

there is a sense that the world's not big enough, that only the Chosen Few can live in comfort while the rest of us struggle to get by. they would have you believe that there's no way to meet the basic needs for all human beings on Earth, so we should only think about ourselves. this seems to be the consensus our world leaders reached at the Copenhagen Climate Conference.

i disagree. i am convinced that it is not an issue of ecological or technological restraints. it is a lack of Compassion and Creativity - unique qualities bestowed upon us by the process of evolution, or perhaps divine Providence. whatever the case, we are now experiencing pressure to evolve into a conscious planetary species. we're getting the cosmic wake-up call.

all the problems of today are interwoven - poverty, famine, war, pollution, climate change, disease - they all feed into each other like some kind of never-ending nightmare. we've discovered, to our dismay, that it's a small world after all and what goes around comes around dirtier and faster than you can order a double tall mocha and do you know how much coffee growers are getting paid in Ethiopia? because you should. as Bob Marley once said, a hungry man is an angry man. even if you don't give a damn about these people - who are our brothers and sisters - they have a right to their share of the pie.

one nation cannot solve its problems at the expense of other nations. neither can central banks and trans-national corporations provide for us indefinitely. indeed, these are the same institutions that perpetuate cycles of debt and exploit just about everyone.

"what can i do?" you might ask. if we want there to be enough to go around, we need to all have a smaller ecological footprint, particularly in so-called "developed" countries. this means providing our basic needs with the least amount of energy and resources possible, on our own terms, with our friends and families and a land base.

this isn't about giving things up (though i've been told it builds character). let's dream about the life we want. Imagine. your own personal utopia, your little slice of heaven on earth. An abode that not only sustains you but sustains Life. a lot can be done with a small piece of land, so dream big. no one will have the exact same dream, but there will be plenty of overlap, or what i'd like to call "Imaginal Resonance." Like tuning forks, these shared pieces of dreams build off of one another, becoming more and more intense in the collective consciousness.

At some point enough energy will be gathered to create a "paradigm shift." This is when the current world will end. which ain't that big of a deal. after all, we shape the world with our thoughts, emotions, and dreams.

it's easy if you try. here, i'll help you get started...

i want to live with my family and friends somewhere in the Nooksack Watershed (i.e. Whatcom County). i want to share a 2.5 to 5 acre property with 7 to 10 people. i want good neighbors who want to live together in an eco-village type settlement, perhaps 20 to 50 people to form a sustainable core group. our community will be self-sufficient in terms of water, food, construction materials, fuel, electricity, and basic skills, though we may need to band together with other communities for healthcare, childcare, education, technology, and culture.

the city of Bellingham will be full of communities like ours, including First Nations tribes that have lived this way for thousands of years (sustainable, perhaps?). in fact, the world will become a network of self-reliant, self-governing tribes and communities. This is hardly a new idea. during the days when European settlers first came to America, everyone lived in small, self-governing communities. the key difference now is a worldwide communication network that enables us to distribute information and resources very efficiently, making it easier to plan ahead and learn from our mistakes.

and the Nooksack River will be full of salmon once again, enough to feed the whole county. it's just a matter of time once we stop industrial farming and logging and reforest all the streams. indeed, Whatcom County will be renowned for its abundance of great food and friendly humans.

my dream was just a small seed, but it's growing. one day it will provide shelter for multitudes of living things. for it is not only my dream, but part of an old dream that belongs to the Planet, which is part of the ancient dream of the Verse.

friends, dream with me