IN THE BEGINNING…
A Creator God and Mother Nature are the two realities that have a huge influence in developing who I am:
I believe when God created the earth the first process He installed was interdependence. He told us to take care of the earth and she would sustain us.
Interdependence is one of the most difficult processes for us as humans because we want to ‘play God’ and serve our own interests first at the expense of all else.
This morning as my dog woke up the first thing she did was connect with me, then she groomed herself.
Animals live according to what I call their God-created, species-specific ways with an innate intuition, and find interdependence, connecting with, and protecting their clam, their pack, and their community a natural primary
focus. Indigenous people are the same:
"In 50,000 years of existence they have destroyed no forests, polluted no water, endangered no species, caused no contamination, and all the while they received abundant food and shelter. They laughed a lot and cried very little. They lived long, productive lives and were left spiritually confident."
Marlow Morgan, Mutant Message Down Under, 1997
Mother Nature is a place I go to feel unconditionally loved and find harmony and balance. The animals, plants, and insects who live there are magnificent role players who have taught me how to adapt, relate, survive, and have good relationships - like they do within and between species.
It is said the whole ecosystem is affected if one bird, animal, plant, or insect becomes extinct, and we are:
“…pushing 100 species a day, 4 species an hour into evolutionary oblivion!”
Richard Swift, Endangered Species, July 2000
And that was 22 years ago!
Richard Attenborough says that 60% of the world’s wilderness places have been lost in his 70 years of being an observer of the many species that span her mountains, hills, seas, and sands. And Richard Leakey, an anthropologist, identifies two ways in which species become extinct:
‘…they either fail to adapt over time to the demands of their changing environment or they disappear en masse...because of some cataclysmic evolutionary event like a geological eruption, climatic shift, or some space junk slamming into the earth. This time…Leakey marshals a growing body of evidence that another mass extinction of species is currently underway, this time…human fingerprints are on the trigger".
HOW I MET THE WILD DOGS
Each species of animal I was drawn to observe had something to teach and transform in me. The experience began with my heart and then an understanding settled cognitively in my head.
For example, when I was drawn to observing wild dog packs in South Africa and Zimbabwe, I noticed how they bonded together as a pack. They nurtured their connections daily with their mouth-pressed salutations and nuzzles that said, “You are my pack, and we are going to play, hunt, feed, and chase together, as well as look out for one another”.
My heart longed for the same sense of clan and belonging, and my head learned that early man and emerging wild dog species only survived because they took care of being a team.
WHY ARE WILD DOGS EXEMPLARY OF A BUSINESS OR TEAM MODEL OF INTERDEPENDENCE AND INTEGRITY?
Please join me on the next free online Fireside Conversation to find out”
WHEN: Wednesday, 10th August 2022 at 5 pm UK time