Ethics for Graham Creek Nature Preserve
Reflective Thoughts for Community Dialogue
Graham Creek Nature Preserve… let us always remember the meaning of the words: creek, nature, preserve… and use them as a basis for the ethics we choose to live by.
Graham Creek…
creek… all local creeks (including their surrounding lands), are essential to the flourishing life of this estuarial – life replenishing – space of inter-coastal waters.
Nature…
nature – the whole of life, the life of the whole. We, humankind, are not separate from, but intentionally created as members of the whole of life. As such, we have (and are intended to take up) work and roles in sustaining the life processes of earth, and in helping in the intended ongoing upward unfolding of life.
Preserve…
Preserving the ongoing unfolding processes of life…
Developing and preserving the understanding of and the appreciation for life – the amazing intentional interconnected run-up processes of life…
Developing and honoring our responsibility for this land in which we live…
Preserving for future generations – generations of humanity, and generations of the whole of life of which we, humankind, are a part…
Preserving that which works for the whole of life and the life of the whole… with the clear and certain understanding that what works for the whole of life works for all children – all children in the world.
And let us always remember that…
Ethics are higher order than what is legal, than what is possible… Ethics are above self-centered, human-centered causes… Ethics are what we the people wish to live from and hold one another to live from… Ethics lead to us all becoming a better people.
We cannot get to value by starting thinking from economics (what’s possible for some)… Value, enduring value, comes only through starting thinking from virtue… Virtue of the land always being a good place to start.
About Virtue of the Land…
The organizing of earthly life is within energy fields. The oceans, the mountains, the prairies, the forests… each energy field has an essence virtue… a virtue that organizes us and all of life within it… essence virtue imbedded within by the Creator… virtue intended to be ongoingly – eternally – manifested on this earth. We sometimes reflect our understanding of this working of life energy fields with the words, “We go to the mountains to build the mind; we go to the ocean to soothe the soul.”
Through reflective dialoguing here in Foley, we have come to see the essence virtue of the Gulf of Mexico and its surrounding estuarial lands as being rhythmic soothing, life replenishing, intent remembering. While living in or doing something that will influence or change the intended way of working of the land, if we wish to co-operate with, become helpers in the work of the Father, the Creator of Life, we ask ourselves, while holding a whole of life, not merely human-centered, perspective, “Is this which we are about to do and the ways of our doing, rhythmic soothing, life replenishing? Do they enable the remembering of intent?” Dialoguing these questions, with love in the process, leads to planetary ethics that the earth as well as the community now need. For example, one can readily see that the oil spill in the Gulf interfered with the unfolding virtue: rhythmic waves, laden with oil, were no longer soothing, the ocean no longer life replenishing, and all creatures experiencing the changes and the “solutions” were not being led to a reflective state of peacefulness within which the intended ways of working of life would be seen… intent of our life, intent of the whole of life.
Yes, the virtue of the land is a good place from which to start our thinking.
