The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice recently sponsored an Environmental Film Festival, showing a documentary film every Monday evening in March. The first was "Ingredients" - exploring the movement to eat locally to "create a healthier, more sustainable model for living and eating well." I missed the second week, but the film shown was "Tapped" - about "bottled water and the industry that thinks we should buy it." Next came "Trashed" - about recycling and where our trash goes. And finally, "Deep Green" - about "solutions to stop Global Warming now."
I learned things, of course. I've been going to Transitions meetings here in our area. And, I've been exploring shared housing and intentional communities. I know change is coming. For me and for us all. It's exciting, actually. I believe it's a wonderful time to be alive. Keeping our thoughts positive and within the realms of possibility, happiness, and positive resolution for all while learning about climate change and global challenges takes some focus, but it's worth it.
As I viewed these films during the month of March, I felt a subtle shift of new awareness open up within me like a lotus blossom. Each film presented another look at new movements taking hold across our planet. I felt pride for the people who are on the leading edge, people who are already changing entire companies and countries for the good of future generations. The interconnectedness of life, and of things, became even more apparent to me than before. Take composting, for instance, which I learned reduces methane gas in our landfills, thus protecting the atmosphere even in a small, individual way. I didn't know that. I thought composting was just for people who liked to garden.
I look at the baby hawks in the cypress tree in my back yard, and the new bud on an orchid that survived the seasons, and marvel at our beautiful world. We can do this. We can educate ourselves about energy efficiency. We can support local organic food growers. We can think about what we buy and what we throw away. We can bring consciousness to more of our environment and what we can do in our individual daily lives that will be good for each other. We can take responsibility for choices we make that impact our world and future generations. We can believe in the goodness of people. We can trust each other to cooperate and keep making changes that will help us all. One awareness at a time. One choice at a time. I have confidence in the human race. I believe in our global future.- Raphaella Vaisseau
