http://www.care2.com/greenliving/grief-for-the-planet-how-to-heal.html
Grief for the Planet? How to Heal
I am a bleeding heart when it comes to the Earth. I well up with tears when I see a deer dead on the side of the road, when I see a pond choked with algae from fertilizer runoff, when I hear of a newborn whale too entangled in plastic to drink its mother’s milk, when I think of polar bear cubs drowning without icecaps, when I think of maple trees dying.
The truth is, my grief about the disintegrating environment is overwhelming sometimes, it just seeps out of me. This must be what it means to be a bleeding heart. You feel like you are losing your life blood about something.
I am not sure how to manage the grief I feel for dying trees, when I hear that the songbird population is dwindling. It crushes my heart so that I can hardly breathe.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief as a way to help in the process of recovery from terrible loss. When it comes to the losses on the Earth I have long since evolved past the first stage, the denial stage. The “this can’t be happening,” stage. H-e-l-l-o. I read the newspapers and witness the destruction with my own eyes. I’ve also gotten past the anger stage, the “I can’t accept this” stage. I made that transition when I went from the rage I felt from being poisoned by pesticides that were so neurotoxic they were eventually taken off the market, to wanting to help others avoid being damaged by the accepted policy of putting products on the market until they are proven unsafe. I will forever be a proponent of The Precautionary Principle.
OK, so what about the third stage, the bargaining stage? In the case of the Earth, maybe the bargaining stage manifests in haggling with a school board to stop toxic VOC use in the schools, or with a neighbor to stop spraying their lawn with herbicides. I am not sure I am over this stage, because I know every little bit helps, and I will speak up when I am threatened or asked to help, yet in the end the greenhouse gases relentlessly keep growing and the haggling didn’t really make much difference.
I presume I am at least partially in the fourth stage, the depression stage, hence my need to share my feelings in this forum. I dip in and out of this. “We’re not going to be able to fix it, so give up.” Actually, I never dip into the “give up” part, so maybe I am not as depressed as I thought. Actually, that isn’t true. I am very depressed when I see a well-intentioned mom put toxic insect repellent on her child thinking she is doing the right thing. I am very depressed when I see politicians blindly squander our Earth’s resources, all for money in the now, not thinking of the future.
And the fifth stage of recovery from grief, acceptance? I wonder if I will ever be able to accept how human beings are degrading the Earth. But I know someone who has reached that high pinnacle of grief and been able to move on productively. I once went to hear the primatologist Jane Goodall speak. If anybody knows about the grief felt because of humans’ impact on the Earth, it must be her. How can she bear it when she hears about her beloved chimpanzee’s being slaughtered? How can she stand to hear about the bushmeat trade? When someone in the audience asked that question, she answered, “I just do the best I can every day.”
I had placed that quote on my desk for a number of years. I need to put it back, so I, too, can remind myself to just do the best I can for our planet. Every day.
Please share how you cope with this difficult time in human history.
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39 comments
add your comment »I am like you ... depressed about the way our planet is treated and the fact that no one seems to care (well, some people do care; but you know the quote about a drop in the bucket ...)
I recall in the late 1970s when I was in elementary school -- on every lightswitch plate was a sticker that said "Conserve Energy: Turn the lights off when you leave the room." Ever since the third grade I have been doing just that. In fact, I often don't turn the lights on in my house if I can help it.
I find myself preaching to my family and friends about Earth-saving measures, only to realize that it falls on deaf ears.
I'm certainly not perfect and don't do as much as I could, but I do what I can to save the planet and its non-human inhabitants. Even if I know that it won't make a difference (or that I'll live to see it if it does), at least I'm not adding to the planet's destruction. It's very sad in this day and age that people still think that saving the planet is someone else's problem to solve.
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when i get too depressed...i don't come here or anyplace like it for awhile. these things have bothered me since i was 10 yrs old...i am now 51 ( my family laughed at me ) its hard to accept..that sometimes it just sucks dust ... when i am healthy enough again, i am back..
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hey Annie...I liked your entry...I too have experienced all of this and am up to acceptance...I find that it helps when dealing with horror on a personal or global front to remember the easten wisdom(and western quantum physics) take on the situation...this is that it is all just an illusion designed to help us elvolve...
I have also read websites suggesting that the power structure on the planet is such that energy is drained towards the top of the pyramind...and that stress over planetry conditions is one way in which this is done...your 'bleeding heart' and 'losing your lifeblood' is actually what is happening and I humbly suggest taking a leaf out of Buddha's book and stemming this outflow of your vital energy
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Diane: A late response to your suggestions in dealing with the neighbor's dog situation, I have called the local police department twice (because there is no local SPCA in the Denver area) but only after as a last resort. They have come out and I know that they only make sure that the dog has water and food and shelter. My issue is that the dog is kept in the back yard 24/7, snow, rain or heat, and has little interaction with any other being except occassionally with my dog or me through the fence and when the neighbor comes out to feed him. The dog is so friendly and happy,and amazingly,his disposition never changes. He is a yellow lab and my understanding is that those breed of dogs are pack animals and need interaction with others be it dogs or human. He must be so lonely. So I try to talk to him through the fence as much as I can and give him a treat.
Diane, apparently we share something else in common...I also have fibromyalgia. I have been dealing with undiagnosable pain for about 15 years. It wasn't until about three years ago that I finally diagnosed it myself (I also saw a specialist who verified my diagnosis). Specialist recommended Myrapex. It only helped my restless legs and made me extremely sleepy. Discontinued and now just dealing with the pain. There's another thing that people cannot relate to with me except those others that I have met that have it too. (I have met about 4 others that have it.) Ah, but this could be a whole other blog subject...
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Traveling has brought forth much intellectually, and evolving is the process. While praying for our planet is beautiful, too remember we are the prayers for our planet. Individuals are the answers to prayes, one another, and united we are the cure. This article is inspirational and well appreciated.
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Yes, those polar bears get me every time....
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Hi again Been following the comments very carefully and thank heavens there are at least a couple of males represented here. I live in Spain and I am partly here because of my MS (healthy food) and partly as an escape from people pain and their sense of powerlessless. As a social worker and counsellor I am very aware of the Kubler Ross five stages of grief. "Healthy" grieving, say, for a loved one should allow the individual to be able to start functioning again without forgetting. I am of course paraphrasing here. Here in Spain I have had to deal with hunters, the loss of five of our pets in less than two years two of which had been poisoned and a whole host of other problems. A microcosm of the real world. There is no way we can bury our heads - somehow you have to be able to do small things that make a difference and hope as others have alluded to these differences connecting with others to fundamentally make a difference otherwise the depression that I feel in this thread for many will win. We are never powerless - we can get caught into thinking we are.
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Hi Mark and Janet--whoever was speaking in your post brought tears --my sister suffers from depression,too.She has a lot of really wonderful people helping her and she is now off meds--I thank God for that. Just a thought---do any of you think that we could make more of a difference if we had a single focus as a group?I've no idea what that would be;perhaps you might think of something.I'm not very computer savvy yet so I'm not aware of what can be done using this medium.
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Oh my...you speak for so many of us who feel the suffering of the earth to our very bones. The pain is palpable. For me, I discovered that I had clinical depression and truly needed the right meds to be able to function, and it has made the pain much more bearable. I'm able to breathe, and fight on for what's right. Before that I could barely move, and was achieving nothing for the earth. My negative energy was damaging to me and all those around me. Now I keep on keepin' on, and try to enjoy the miracle of being alive. Every creature, or wetland, or tree I speak up to save is one more reason to go on. It all matters. Who can know what effects our efforts may have down the line? Maybe not today, or next week, or next year, but every pebble you throw in the pond sends out ripples. The world needs people like us. Keep on keepin' on, kindred spirits.
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Claudia--ran out of room on previous post.Have you tried calling the S.P.C.A.?Perhaps you could see if your other neighbours would be willing to help you.A dog in the village I live near was being maltreated and it wasn't serious enough for the Humane Society to get involved because of the currrent animal protection laws so my friends and I are circulating a petition to demand that the laws be made tougher. Hi Heidi----thanks for the info on the monkeys and apes and how they learn new things even though they are far apart.This jibes with experiences I've had with various people I've met who,on their own,have such similar experiences to mine but we've all gained insights without any direct teaching.It is very encouraging. As for the deer---I live in a rural setting and we have a lot of deer,primarily,I think because their natural enemies [cougars,coyotes and wolves]have either been eliminated or had their numbers drastically reduced.What to do?I honestly don't know.They cause a lot of damage to grain and hay crops here so the farmers want something done about it and perhaps hunting by responsible people is part of the answer.What do you think?
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