Like many sensitive souls around the world, I am feeling overwhelmed with the suffering and turbulence that is our lived experience at this time. To give some perspective – there are people that I know, you probably do as well, who can ignore the raucous sounds around them and filter them out with relative ease. The radio or TV can be blaring and overwhelming to my ears when I walk into their space, but they don’t even hear it and begin carrying on a conversation. I cannot filter noise in that way. It is painful to me.
In the same way, when there is great suffering on the planet and great loss of life, particularly the loss of animal and plant life due to natural or human-made events, I FEEL it in my soul. It is a weight and a pain in my heart that I cannot lift or ignore or deny. This, I know is the shadow side of being able to feel the beauty of nature to such a profound level… it is the cost, the price of that gift. I know most folks can feel a certain sense of loss for human life when tragedy strikes some person or group of people…and we all mourn these losses together especially if we feel identified somehow with the loss. For me, because so much of my heart is wrapped up in the natural world, I feel the grief more acutely than most when Nature is in pain and struggling.
When the Tsunamis hit Indonesia and Japan, I was in deep despair for a long time. When the oil well burst in the Gulf of Mexico deep sadness prevailed for many weeks. When Hawaii was altered by the volcano burning and birthing the land it affected me too. The same thing can happen to me when I hear of massive agricultural losses due to flood or fire…it is a strange form of suffering that affects me and mostly I don’t speak of it much…but try just to work my way thru the passage knowing that all things change and that no matter how dark and gloomy it may feel now, it will be better eventually… until the next thing arises…but it too will pass.
But things are speeding up now it seems. The pauses and respites between calamities and disasters seems to get shorter, the tragedies deeper and some of the losses, due to extinction level events are almost impossible to bear. What is happening now in Australia is hitting me (and MANY people like me) extremely hard … and I live on the other side of the planet! I cannot imagine how those on the front lines of this devastation are coping.
So, to turn my grief into action (always a good healing tactic) I have created a small piece of art which you are welcomed to share and use if you like. In addition, I’d like to share some reputable charities that could use our help if you have the means to make donations. If not, Prayers from the heart are equally valuable if not more so and cost nothing only a moment of your time. The power of Prayer cannot be discounted… there are many anecdotal stories and actual scientific studies that affirm the power of prayer, especially collective prayer… so perhaps this is a good time to be reminded of that power and participate if one can.
Here is a list of organizations that are in need:
Kangaroo Island holds a special reserve where rare species are nurtured and helped towards recovery. Unfortunately they were his hard by a big fire. You can read about their sanctuary and their efforts HERE and donate HERE
The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital specializes in Koala rescue and rehabilitation. You can read more HERE.
WIRES native animal rescue has a useful information page with many ways to donate HERE
The RSPCA of New South Wales is fighting to save wildlife, pets and all domestic animals who have been affected by the fires. HERE
Once the fires have passed there will still be years of recovery work ahead for these organizations. The land will not be able to support the animals for a long time ahead, so expensive restoration and relocation projects will be needed. Please do not be swayed if it seems they have already received considerable support – the need will be ongoing. Or you can find other organizations that perhaps are not as well advertised that still need help. And equally important is to pass along this information to your own social networks, it really makes a difference. Thank you.
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