Moving Forward, Together with Barry Ebert

[00:00:00] Hey welcome to the Mile Hi Podcast. So happy that you've joined us. If you're

[00:00:05] liking the content that we have, you're gonna love our guest speaker who's

[00:00:09] coming to Mile Hi Church on April 26th. Koot Blaxen is coming to speak about his

[00:00:14] great book The Magic of Surrender. You can purchase tickets and be with us live

[00:00:18] by going to our website and you can also join us via livestream. We hope

[00:00:22] you'll be with us. Thanks. So welcome. Just so glad you're here today and

[00:00:27] thank Reverend Josh and Michelle for inviting me back to be part of Earth Day

[00:00:34] here. I've been working with the, yeah, thank you. I've been working with the Sacred

[00:00:41] Earth Ministry since I retired last summer. Dr. Paddy and I have been working

[00:00:45] with that. Today is just a great thing. We got some great stuff coming up in

[00:00:49] the community center after service day. I'll be telling you more about that.

[00:00:52] But it's just great to celebrate Earth Day together today and to bring our focus

[00:00:58] and our attention to this beautiful planet where we live. And there are a lot of

[00:01:02] reasons to celebrate Earth Day. I have a couple specifically that I bring it in

[00:01:08] here. These guys here, my granddaughters who are Ruby and Ivy and they're

[00:01:14] snowboarders already which makes their parents very very happy and they're

[00:01:18] already rocking it. And so they're looking further to still be snow in the

[00:01:23] mountains as they grow up. So that means we got work to do to make that happen.

[00:01:28] So I just have to bring, I have to bring my updates from the grandkids to get

[00:01:33] that going. Yeah. So my talk title today is Moving Forward Together and

[00:01:43] that's the thing for Earth Day because even though we know that there are a

[00:01:46] lot of differences, a lot of things that we don't agree on, there's one thing

[00:01:50] that we all have in common and that's this planet and sharing the resources

[00:01:54] on this planet. So that's where we bring our attention and our focus today is

[00:01:59] moving forward together. And I love thinking back to the beginning of

[00:02:07] Earth Day. I remember actually remember it. I was in college in Earth Day.

[00:02:12] The Earth had just cooled then. And so but there was a lot going on at that

[00:02:20] time. There was a lot of people protesting. There was a lot of sit-ins and

[00:02:24] teachings at college campuses and there was a rising social awareness.

[00:02:29] There was a lot of awareness about the war in Vietnam, about the draft,

[00:02:36] about social change. There was just a lot of upheaval and it was a very active

[00:02:42] time and the consciousness was really being stirred up. And there was a

[00:02:46] senator from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson who was a junior senator from

[00:02:50] Wisconsin who was very concerned about the environment and was one of the

[00:02:54] first true environmentalists who wanted to get something going and he

[00:02:58] thought maybe he could harness some of that youthful energy that was

[00:03:02] happening on the college campuses and get something going. So he started

[00:03:07] preparing for Earth Day. He got some of the college people who were good at

[00:03:11] organizing to help him out and they started planning to do an Earth Day

[00:03:18] in 1970. And some things were up. A lot was up in the street with

[00:03:25] people protesting and also and the environmental thing. He had been

[00:03:29] flying in a helicopter to survey a giant oil select that had happened

[00:03:34] recently from an oil spill and also just the year before, just outside of

[00:03:39] Cleveland, the Cuyahoga River had caught on fire once again and the fire

[00:03:43] raised five stories high before they got it put out. And it's really

[00:03:48] never good when a river catches on fire. It just is a sign that

[00:03:53] something is really wrong. So he felt that this was the time to kind of

[00:03:59] gather people together. So the first Earth Day was on April 22nd, 1970.

[00:04:07] There's 20 million people that get out in the street. Think of that. 12

[00:04:11] million people get out in the street. It was planned in between

[00:04:15] spring break and finals and college so people would have the room to get

[00:04:20] into it. It was also during the middle of the week so a lot of kids in

[00:04:23] high school could get out and be participating in Earth Day as well.

[00:04:30] So it was the beginning of that movement, beginning of the

[00:04:33] environmental movement in a way that a lot of people were conscious of.

[00:04:37] And it made a difference because by the end of the year, the

[00:04:41] Environmental Protection Agency had been created under the Nixson

[00:04:45] Administration. And also the Clean Water Act came in 1972 and the

[00:04:51] Endangered Species Act came not long after that. And our attention

[00:04:56] and our focus went towards protecting the Earth and our

[00:05:00] consciousness went in that direction too. Some of you

[00:05:05] remember those great ads that were on television about

[00:05:08] recycling and taking care of trash. And we just began to

[00:05:13] shift in that direction. It seems like a long time ago.

[00:05:20] But now it's our turn because Earth Day isn't really about the

[00:05:25] past at all, it's about the future. So we're moving into

[00:05:30] that time today of looking at Earth Day and looking at our

[00:05:35] relationship with the Earth. Earth Day 2024 is devoted to

[00:05:40] specifically planet versus plastic. So we're trying to

[00:05:43] bring our attention. There are so many things to focus on. If you

[00:05:46] notice that there's a lot of stuff going on. So there's

[00:05:50] plenty of things to focus on, but we're in Earth Day this

[00:05:53] year focusing on plastic. And so we're just all going to

[00:05:58] commit this morning that we're done with plastic bottles

[00:06:00] with water in them. Are we all done with that? Are you

[00:06:04] with me? Okay, so we're done with that. So it's not

[00:06:08] going to be long just in the next couple of weeks. All these

[00:06:11] convenience stores are going to be calling up their suppliers

[00:06:14] going you got to get these bottles out of here. Nobody wants

[00:06:16] them. And we're going to make them into houses or streets or

[00:06:20] something else, but we're going to get rid of putting plastic

[00:06:24] bottles full little bits of water in our refrigerators and in

[00:06:30] our life. So we're going to let that go. We're going to move

[00:06:33] on to something else. So commitment, collaboration are big

[00:06:41] things that we're going to be talking about today. But I want

[00:06:43] to begin with another word, another C word consciousness. I

[00:06:47] think we need to change our consciousness. We need to begin

[00:06:51] there. There are so many things that we see on

[00:06:56] television and media and social media that divide us. We

[00:07:01] are very much fixed on division and criticism and blaming other

[00:07:07] people for things. So the division game that's going on now is

[00:07:12] the biggest thing that we've got going whenever somebody comes

[00:07:16] out with an idea, there are plenty of people to put it down.

[00:07:20] But we've got to work towards collaboration. And our

[00:07:24] consciousness has to shift towards the idea of

[00:07:27] collaboration. Consciousness is the business we're involved in

[00:07:33] here at Mile High Church and the New Thought Movement. And I was

[00:07:36] thinking as I was preparing this talk about Emmett Fox, who

[00:07:40] was a metaphysician in the 1930s. He wrote a small book

[00:07:43] called The Mental Equivalent. Most of you have it or you've

[00:07:47] seen it. It was one of those homework assignments you had,

[00:07:51] some of you did. But he talked about how if we want to

[00:07:56] change our life, how do we approach that from a mental

[00:08:02] perspective? He said this, form a mental equivalent of the

[00:08:06] thing which you want by thinking about it a great deal. By

[00:08:09] thinking clearly and with interest. Remember, clarity

[00:08:13] and interest, those are the two poles. Well, that sounds

[00:08:18] simple enough, doesn't it? Clarity and interest, there's

[00:08:21] nothing to that. But it's really a big deal. Because we are in

[00:08:27] such a time of environmental crisis and we see so many

[00:08:31] things are bad and that are going wrong, we can lose hope.

[00:08:37] We're clear about the problems but we're not clear about

[00:08:40] where we're trying to get to. So we've got to start

[00:08:43] creating a mental equivalent of what the earth is going to

[00:08:46] look like when it returns to balance and start moving in

[00:08:50] that direction. And accept that that's what's happening now

[00:08:54] and that we're a part of it. That's what we're about here

[00:08:58] this morning. Are you with us? We want to start building that

[00:09:03] idea in our minds that we can do this, that we can have hope.

[00:09:10] This morning over in the community center, we've got a

[00:09:13] lot of people from different environmental groups who are

[00:09:17] set up over there. It's a great time to go over to

[00:09:19] learn and to get involved. The Sacred Earth Ministry that

[00:09:24] we've got going, we're wide open to get more people involved

[00:09:27] for other ideas of how we can contribute. That Mile High

[00:09:33] Church can really be a hub for environmental work. So I

[00:09:39] hope that you'll stop over there afterwards. And one of our

[00:09:43] co-sponsors today is a place called the Same Cafe. And

[00:09:47] that's a cafe on East Colfax. And the word Same stands for

[00:09:51] So All May Eat. And they have a place where you can come in and

[00:09:55] get a meal no matter how much you pay for it, that it's

[00:09:58] available there. So I hope that you'll stop over and support

[00:10:02] them as well. Because a lot of what today is about is a

[00:10:06] collaboration about turning our consciousness towards

[00:10:10] collaboration. Collaboration with each other and with

[00:10:15] the planet. Because it's a reciprocal relationship that's

[00:10:19] going on between us and the planet. We've done a pretty good

[00:10:24] job of taking things from the planet, taking resources, using

[00:10:28] resources, and the planet has given them to us pretty

[00:10:32] freely. And now it's time for us to keep our part of the

[00:10:36] deal and be giving back. They have a higher sense of

[00:10:41] awareness of collaborating with the planet. And you know, there

[00:10:46] are more scientists on the planet now than there ever been.

[00:10:51] And there's an opportunity now for us to collaborate and

[00:10:55] bring all of our gifts of science to work for solutions.

[00:11:02] I've been working, spending with a book called Drawdown,

[00:11:07] The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse

[00:11:10] Global Warming. It was edited by a guy named Paul Hawken, who

[00:11:14] is an environmentalist who's been at this game for a long

[00:11:17] time. We did in this book was he collaborated with a lot of

[00:11:23] different scientists and came up with like 100 different

[00:11:26] ideas that could help with the process of drawdown. Because

[00:11:31] the truth is, with this problem of carbon in the

[00:11:34] atmosphere, we not only have to slow down and eventually

[00:11:38] stop putting carbon into the atmosphere, we've got to begin

[00:11:42] getting it out of the atmosphere. That's a process too.

[00:11:47] And he's got these solutions in this book, 100 of them about

[00:11:52] about farming and about solar energy, about wind power,

[00:11:56] about the things that we eat, transportation, housing.

[00:12:03] And there's a sense of hope in it. There's a sense of hope

[00:12:07] that we can figure this out. If we can bring our focus to it

[00:12:14] and focus less on our sense of division, and about who's right

[00:12:20] and about this being a political problem. It's a people

[00:12:25] problem. We're the problem. And so looking for a political

[00:12:30] solution is keeping us in a sense of division. We need to

[00:12:34] create more of a sense of us working together. This is one of

[00:12:39] the things that this guy Paul Hawkins said, what individuals

[00:12:44] can do is become a movement. The United States was founded on

[00:12:48] the premise that there are truths that are self evident.

[00:12:52] And one of the unmentioned truth is that we only have one

[00:12:55] home. If we are to remain here, we must together take great

[00:13:01] care. To do that means we must become a we, a movement that is

[00:13:06] unstoppable and fearless. Movements are dreams with feet and

[00:13:11] hands and hearts and voices. So are we ready to be a part of this

[00:13:18] movement? What do you think? Yeah, I think so. There's a

[00:13:25] website called drawdown.org that has just loaded with ideas

[00:13:31] and it's a place to to research and learn and to grow. One of

[00:13:35] the things that they said is that there are five basic facts

[00:13:38] about climate change. It's real. It's us. It's bad. Scientists

[00:13:45] agree. And there's hope. I think that's the most important

[00:13:51] part.

[00:13:54] We can stop arguing about whether it's happening. And we

[00:13:57] can turn our focus towards creating a world that works for

[00:14:01] everybody. Because most of the people who are most at effect

[00:14:05] of global warming and climate change are poor people. We

[00:14:10] can't really do anything about it. And so the industrial

[00:14:14] nations like ours have to commit ourselves to doing this

[00:14:20] work. It's our time for that. That's my last point today

[00:14:24] is about commitment.

[00:14:28] About bringing a sense of commitment to this work. And

[00:14:32] it's about more than science and engineering. It's about heart.

[00:14:38] It's about love. It's about that reciprocal relationship

[00:14:43] between us and the earth in this amazing, amazing place where

[00:14:48] we live.

[00:14:49] And it's about the same time when Earth Day was being created.

[00:14:55] We're starting to see pictures come back from the earth

[00:15:00] about the earth from outer space, Earthrise, the pale blue

[00:15:04] dot, the earth out in space. And it began to change our

[00:15:10] consciousness and for us to see that we are a pale blue

[00:15:15] dot floating in this incredible sea. Beyond our wildest dreams,

[00:15:23] we looked at the earth with no borders, with no flags, with no

[00:15:27] boundaries. It gave us an opportunity to see that we were

[00:15:31] all part of something, all of us. A bigger dream was

[00:15:36] unfolding through us. And I think now we can start to

[00:15:41] connect once again at a deeper level with that relationship

[00:15:45] with the earth.

[00:15:50] You know, another book that I've been diving into lately is a

[00:15:54] book called Braiding Sweetgrass. And I know a lot of you have

[00:15:57] read it.

[00:16:01] And it's a beautiful book written by a lady named Robin

[00:16:04] Walt Kemmerer. And she's a Native American woman and also a

[00:16:13] teacher of environmental studies in the university. And she

[00:16:18] does a great job of bringing science together with

[00:16:23] indigenous wisdom. And we can see that indigenous people had

[00:16:28] so many things going right with the way they interacted

[00:16:31] with the earth by the way that they observed it and the

[00:16:35] traditions that were handed down between people to give back to

[00:16:40] the earth. She has great things about plants and about the way

[00:16:45] that we can interact.

[00:16:48] E.B. in a Gardener, I love that.

[00:16:52] I just love the reciprocal relationship between us and the

[00:16:55] earth. And another thing that really brought me into

[00:16:58] connection with this book is the indigenous tribe that she was

[00:17:03] a part of was located in an upstate New York near where I

[00:17:07] grew up.

[00:17:11] She talks about, here we go, she talks about Annadago Lake,

[00:17:18] which was a lake outside of Syracuse by I grew up in a

[00:17:21] place called the Swigel, which about an hour from

[00:17:23] Syracuse. And we used to drive to Syracuse a lot and

[00:17:26] we would go by this lake.

[00:17:28] And I remember my dad's a fisherman and he would say,

[00:17:33] well, you can't fish in that lake anymore. You can't bow down

[00:17:36] it. You can't swim on it because the lake is dead. It's

[00:17:38] been dead for years. And she talks about that lake because

[00:17:44] her people lived around that lake.

[00:17:46] She said it's estimated that 165,000 pounds of mercury

[00:17:53] were discharged into the lake between 1946 and 1970. And you

[00:18:01] couldn't swim in the lake after 1940 because since the late 1800s

[00:18:05] they've been dumping industrial waste into it. But the people

[00:18:11] who lived around there, her people, the indigenous people

[00:18:14] didn't give up on the lake. They kept trying to reclaim it.

[00:18:19] They filed a federal injunction to write so that they could

[00:18:24] reclaim the lake and have ownership of it. That got

[00:18:27] dismissed, of course. But they stayed with it. Eventually it

[00:18:31] got put in as a superfund site. And a good deal of money got

[00:18:37] thrown at it from the federal government. And they've been

[00:18:40] working on it for a couple of decades now to clean up that

[00:18:44] lake. And I went online this week and looked up a local paper

[00:18:50] from Upstate New York, and they said the lake is cleaner now

[00:18:52] than it's been in 100 years.

[00:19:01] Now to me that's a love story. That's a love story about

[00:19:05] loving something so much that we can restore it to the beauty

[00:19:09] that it came with. And I love that her people are still

[00:19:13] involved in it. And the thing is they think of that as their

[00:19:17] home. And she calls that being naturalized to place, being

[00:19:24] naturalized to place. And here she says about it. Being

[00:19:28] naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land

[00:19:32] that feeds you. As if these are the streams from which you

[00:19:35] drink. That build your body and you fill your spirit. To

[00:19:40] become naturalized is to know that your ancestors lie in

[00:19:43] this ground. Here you will give your gifts and meet your

[00:19:46] responsibilities to become naturalized is to live as if

[00:19:50] your children future matters, to take care of the land as if

[00:19:54] our lives and the lives of our relatives depend on it because

[00:19:58] they do. So here we are now. And we have our opportunity.

[00:20:06] No Carl Jung said that crisis brings clarity. It shows us

[00:20:11] where we stand, who we are. And we are in a crisis. Make no

[00:20:20] mistake about that. But there is hope, there is possibility. And

[00:20:26] we were part of a movement that is going to turn this around

[00:20:30] and restore our relationship with the land. That's what

[00:20:33] we're about. Let's pray about that.

[00:20:42] So we open right now to the possibility that lives within us.

[00:20:53] We're not helpless here. We are connected with the power and

[00:20:57] wisdom.

[00:21:03] Sacred intelligence that created all things that brought all

[00:21:06] things into being that awaits our recognition of it. And as we

[00:21:13] turn to it, it turns to us.

[00:21:18] So we allow that power and that wisdom, that sacred love to

[00:21:22] fill us right now.

[00:21:25] Fill us with hope.

[00:21:28] Fill us with an intention

[00:21:30] to rise up and solve our problems. I give thanks for each

[00:21:36] person right now within the sound of my voice, for the gift that

[00:21:40] you are and for the difference that you make. We commit ourselves

[00:21:45] right now to this beautiful sacred work in this amazing,

[00:21:51] amazing world where we live.

[00:21:56] Thank you spirit.

[00:21:59] We are blessed beyond measure.

[00:22:05] And so it is.

[00:22:14] Thanks for listening to the Mile High Church podcast. This

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