Positive evolution is happening now

Social walls are crumbling. Especially when we face change, we want to know what a positive outcome looks like.  Positive evolution includes aging well, embracing diversity, and building sustainable agriculture.  That means we need role models for aging well and good parenting. We need movies and media that show us what sustainable agriculture around the globe looks like.  We need to learn how an economic system that respects and cherishes natural resources including the plants, animals and people of our planet will work.

Healing our bodies, our societies, and the planet is all part of the same energy just on different scales – like fractals. And we do best with some kind of idea map showing the way into the new territory.

Small steps you take such as drinking water instead of soda, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and going to bed 30 minutes earlier each night gradually increase your personal momentum toward better health. Each improvement makes subsequent improvement easier. And small improvements add up to big ones.

I think of the power of a small bud pushing up through the pavement and breaking it apart. The force of paving – cutting down forests, commodification of water and natural resources that our planet provides freely for all for the profit of a few; patenting seeds and engineered body parts; disregarding the big-picture ramifications of our actions as long as there’s profit in it – is facing challenges from every quarter and will soon become outmoded, because it has to.  We are sharing positive ideas and building hope because our planet is worth it and we can evolve positively.

Positive Evolution can start with you

I look for these positive signs constantly and amplify them wherever I can.  I was sitting in a small, family-style Vietnamese restaurant sharing the table with a girlfriend and a young man I didn’t know. The man excitedly jumped into the conversation I was having with my friend to tell me about his honeymoon on Maui last year and his planned return this year. He went on to tell me about that his husband is a police officer and he’s a make-up artist. (He liked my “friendly” eyeshadow.) A guy at the table next to ours then leaned over and started giving me advice about how to eat my pho [1] and generally cheerleading me through the meal. We were the only caucasians there and it felt like the whole place spontaneously adopted us. (I guess I did have friendly eyeshadow!)

Even though I tend to be comfortable striking up conversations with most anyone, this was a spontaneous, collective, interracial sort of bonhomie that I hadn’t experienced before. I loved that the make-up artist felt secure enough about his marriage to talk about it with a stranger. I also loved the “we’re all in this pho-eating business together” attitude of the others. My point is, I don’t think that whole scene would have happened even five years ago. Here was an example of what positive social evolution looks like.

Attitudes shift

I tear up every time I watch it. LOVE is so simple. Not trite. Critical. Wherever it exists, we need to celebrate it. 45 million people have watched it so far and that number continues to grow. That video is a policy-shifter and we can see people’s attitudes shifting from shock to surprise to acceptance as the video plays out. We are heard animals, after all, and we watch the reactions of the people in the crowd to gauge our own. I looked at the black couple and their son and thought he gets not one but two strong, loving dads! What a score for him. In our society that could use more loving, dedicated dads to watch and emulate – whatever shape, size and color they come in.

We have more visible examples of what is broken about our world than examples of what’s working well and the wonderful directions we can move into, however some inspiring examples do exist. Watch this TED talk about sustainable and big-picture fish farming. THIS is what a positive future looks like. Look around you for more examples. Collect and amplify them. Our energy goes where our attention goes and with an eye on positive change, that’s what we’ll get.

#embracediversity   #socialevolution   #love    #sustainablefarming  #positivechange

[1] Vietnamese soup.