OCEAN Archives - Page 25 of 38 -

What is the Earth Worth to You?

By Simone Lipscomb | September 29, 2013

A few days ago I visited a high school classroom where I presented a program on recycling. The teacher sponsors recycling for the high school but when I asked the students how many recycled in their home nobody raised a hand. I was shocked. Usually there are at least a few recyclers.

After completing the presentation I followed up with this question: What would it take for you to care enough to take action? Blank faces stared back at me. I asked again and one student said somebody would have to pay him.

It felt like the air was kicked out of me. These past few months of wondering what was the root of the problem of our planet and it comes down to my worst suspicions: Greed. Is it true that people are unwilling to take action, even something as basic and simple as recycling, unless there is something in it for them?

What they can’t see the payoff for being a good steward is having a healthy life, a healthier planet. A future.

In a blog post from Bill Moyers dated yesterday he wrote that top climate scientists recently reported that the time for us to act to correct the downward spiral of environmental health of the planet is very small. The study stated that unless we make major changes within a decade it’s basically an accelerating scenario of a planet unable to support life as we know it. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) warns, in this report, of an alarming escalation of climate impacts (droughts, floods, storms) but also shows that preventing climate chaos is still a possibility.

If my suspicions about human nature are true, as the high school class modeled, the majority of citizens think only in terms of monetary gain, not planetary stewardship. Somehow people must began to see that their direct actions of caring for the planet is the only way we have a viable future. Why are humans unable to remove the blinders that keep them from seeing the truth about what’s happening on the planet? What will it take to create the shift in consciousness necessary to make a positive difference? Do they care?

Recycling is so easy. I can’t imagine why people will not make the effort. Every time I see an aluminum can being tossed in the garbage I think…. 95% of the energy it takes to make an aluminum can can be saved by recycling that one. Or paper….28% of landfill waste is paper and cardboard…recyclable. According to a report I read last week, almost 33% of food in the USA is thrown in the garbage. One-third! Can you imagine?? That’s enough food to insure almost everyone in the country had a meal but instead it goes to the dump. Plastics account for 13% of landfill waste….all recyclable and yet filling our landfills with trash that will be around for hundreds of years….or worse…our oceans.

Imagine explorers visiting our planet after humans have driven our species to extinction…finding plastic bottles littering beaches, roadways. Can you imagine the conclusions these explorers might come to by what they see left behind? When they see how we treated the very ‘thing’ that sustains life for us.

How do we get people to care?

How do we get people to invest in their future by caring for the planet?

What will it take to create a shift in consciousness?

I can only do what feels right for me and pray that enough of us will care, will love our planet and our children…and future children…to be responsible, caring stewards. I wonder if we could start by taking 5 minutes a day to sit in stillness, in quiet, and ask what we can do to make a positive difference. I wonder….can we give the earth just 5 minutes of our day to listen?

Fire in the Heart

By Simone Lipscomb | September 20, 2013

Sometimes the biggest lesson comes from the smallest creature.

Last night a sea turtle hatchling that had been attempting to crawl out of her nest…a nest successfully exited three nights prior by 99 brothers and sisters….was helped along by our sea turtle team as we excavated the nest to gather statistics for USFW Service. The sand was so wet and the empty eggshells so packed that she was stuck. As stuck as I’ve ever seen a hatchling.

For three days after the initial hatching, the massive boil where her siblings made it to the Gulf of Mexico, volunteers listened to her scratching. That may not seem long to us but imagine being in the dark, surrounded by empty shells. A brother nearby also struggling but not having the strength to survive. Another sibling stuck in her eggshell but losing the energy necessary to make it.

But one little hatchling was determined to live, to see her ocean home. Imagine what strength and willpower it took.

When she was removed from the nest there was only one intention….CRAWL TO THE SEA! She never slowed down. Never hesitated. She was focused in her spirit, in the instincts that called her home.

In putting together a short video on her journey I chose a song that illustrated musically her journey and while watching the finished product realized that she is an inspiration to us all.

Anchoring deep in our core….feeling the strength rise up within as we work to build resilience and power….oh, yes. She is a master teacher for us.

What is your goal? What is your passion? What do you want to bring to this planet? What is stopping you?

(Thank you baby turtle and Pure Barre Eastern Shore for helping me feel my strength and realize I’m so much stronger than I knew!)

Infinite

By Simone Lipscomb | August 28, 2013

Nest sitting for sea turtles has the reward of helping insure baby loggerheads find their way safely to the Gulf of Mexico. But there are other reasons I volunteer for this work of love. This evening reminded me of the value of spending time outdoors, not for the hoped-for end outcome but for everything else that happens.

Six p.m. to nine p.m. was my shift. It was still sunny and bright when I arrived at the nest but the air was dryer than usual and the sky was clear…an oddity this summer after forty-something days of rain. I set up my beach chair and reclined so I could gaze into the cerulean sky.

Within minutes I relaxed and felt myself unwinding. Tension drained away as the waves gently sloshed onshore. Gulls flew west to their roosting place for the evening. The space of quiet in nature was mirrored within me. Everything within became incredibly still. I didn’t sleep but simply found myself in a place of perfect peace.

As the light gradually faded tiny stars began to emerge from the darkening sky. That time of transition from day to night is most magical, most powerful. As other team members gathered I moved to sit on the sand at the water’s edge so I could experience just a little more time of inner quiet and stillness.

I felt clean on the inside….really clear and clean. Open, expansive and yes, even infinite like the night sky. The fuzzy part of the Milky Way was easily seen in the distance in the open sky over the Gulf and I pondered the immensity of it all but mostly I just sat and looked at the now-black sky sprinkled with shimmering stars…..and the night-black ocean.

The best word I know to describe the evening is infinite. I’m learning to appreciate stillness and silence and I’m learning to be receptive to the bounty of blessings that are waiting to fill me and my life….and yours, too…wherever you are and whatever is in your sky this night. May it bring the experience of the Infinite.

A Healthy Dose of Nature

By Simone Lipscomb | August 27, 2013

Sometimes a bit of nature helps me find balance, especially when I have sudden and unexpected emotions pop up. Things have been going well for weeks with my heart opening with feelings of it delightfully expanding in unconditional love and all the good stuff. Then for some reason, around lunch time, it was like poof! And I felt off balance.

It’s normal to have ups and downs. Being human and living life guarantees emotional tides. But when they bounce in and jump out, like my orange boy cat trying to scare me, I don’t get it.

It was like a dark cloud hanging over me. But I went on with my day–shopping at the natural food store in Pensacola, planting veggie seeds in the garden, potting plants for the courtyard fence and I still felt weird. So I decided to head south.

Our sea turtle team has a nest very close to hatching so I drove down to the beach for sunset with my camera and tripod and visited with folks and took photographs. At one point I sat on the damp sand near the water’s edge and just allowed the motion of the waves to cleanse the cloud from around me. I sang a while to the sea and by the time I left, was feeling better. Still a bit ‘off’ but lighter.

No matter what I’m going through, a healthy dose of nature seems to make everything better.

What Magic!

By Simone Lipscomb | August 25, 2013

Today was the last of the 2013 Sea Turtle patrol walks for me. My Sunday morning strolls looking for mother sea turtle tracks and picking up trash are done for this nesting season. And what a beautiful day it was!

Storms were just offshore and provided a glorious display of nature’s power. There is something about a storm out over the Gulf….they key word being ‘out’ as in offshore and not over the beach.

It’s difficult to believe that another nesting season is starting to end. Of course we still have nests that will be hatching throughout September but as far as the females nesting…out team walks will be done at the end of this month.

I enjoy the Sunday morning walks…those sunrise excursions where the elements and I are one. Where wind and sea and sun and clouds affect me so deeply, so powerfully. I will miss this time alone on the shore.

It’s rather amazing how something so simple as a walk along the beach at sunrise can set the intention for the entire week. How it can open a person to the wonder of nature and the wild elements of it..birds, waves, sun, lightning, sand, salt, dolphins, sharks, rays, jellyfish, fish, seaweed, turtles, shells….what magic. What a treasure. May we honor it as such.