Green Living Thanksgiving

Sometimes while writing, I toss paper scraps to the floor where I later pick them up to recycle.  Recently I picked up two sheets on which there was empty space.  Should these be cut into squares and reused for taking notes so I'm careful to not waste this paper and indirectly a tree?  I really just wanted to toss them into the nearby garbage can.  If I do will I feel guilt for not taking ten extra steps to recycling?  In the quiet, I realize I'm to choose the reuse or recycling options only if I can do these in love and not with the heaviness from doing so tired and begrudgingly. 

When I recycle out of have-to, I'm only contributing to the greater quantum level of have-to, force and control while making myself feel guilty and compulsive.

Beneath the suppose to, have to and need to I hear: Whatever you do, do it in love.  The tree from which this paper came doesn't grow because it has to. It does what it came here to do because that's what it loves in all its tree-ness to do.

This creates such a shift. I pick up the scrap of paper because that's what I love and love doing.

How often have I run myself ragged trying to get it all done, be a good steward of Earth, recycling, composting, not wasting, donating, saving seeds, signing petitions.  Anytime, at least for me, when these things are done with have-to, I'm fueled silently by fear.

In the quiet, I realize more important than being a good steward of the environment is being a good steward of my inner environment, my heart's energy and presence. If I'm an awake, aware steward of my insides, then my outer actions are born from a greater awareness.

Maybe this is really what's meant by "green living." Green's not only the color of tree leaves in Spring but the color of the heart chakra's energy.

This makes me smile inside.  Whatever I do, however I be, if I "be" in love I'm more likely to "do" in love too.

I Imagine the Shift of more and more people this holiday practicing green living from the inside out and the green change that brings.

-Dawn! The Good News Muse, 23 November 2011

dawn@imaginetheshift.com