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Lady Peace Project Day4: The Query  is: What would you say to the United Nations?

This is a day when I am tending the classroom again so I work as quickly as possible reflecting. The inquiry takes some time to digest and process (ongoing). Here I share a bit of prologue and my (still in process) 3 sentences.

Shiloh has asked us to view Severn’s speech to the UN. I was loathe to do so as I remember it well from 1992. I too am from Vancouver and I met Severn when she was younger even than then. In the time before and since Rio, her father and I were sustainability colleagues; in a way by our ongoing efforts we are still.

I knew at 5 years old that Earth was sacred. I knew because She revealed this to me. It was then I knew I would have no children. There were 3 billion people on the planet and, from what I could see, that was too many. Now it’s 7 billion. Oh dear.

I was 38 when then 13year old Severn spoke at the UNCED Conference in Rio. Severn spoke of her fears and concerns and wondered if we, the adults, her elders, had the same worries when we were her age. My answer: Yes! Absolutely! And even before then.

Now I am past 60. I devoted my life to sustainability, most particularly to the environment, to creatures and to water and, therefore, necessarily, to social justice and equity. Although I found hope along the way, I have also and ultimately been much saddened by what I now see. A wasted life I judged mine to be for still we are not whole and free.

I have emerged from the dark despair, as I do again and again, but my warrior cloak is worn and faded and now I walk more tentatively. If I could speak 3 SENTENCES to the UN and at large they would be:

1. Earth, hir life-giving and life-support systems, and all Life, are Sacred.

2. The ‘ideals’ of peace, justice and sustainability are the only practical reality.

3. Openness, listening, truth, integrity, freedom, caring, sharing, loving, preserving, protecting, cherishing, and celebrating, are some of the core essential practices for healing and our return to our wholeness, each one belonging, purposeful, safe, joyful and free

[artist uknown but fitting – and I may want to paint someone like her too! <3]