Sustainable Tarpon Springs - Transcendence Is...

It may not be immediately obvious, but I have kept a journal most of my life.  I’d say my collection of personal journals may rival Anaïs Nin someday, if I live as long, but unlike Nin, I weigh the legacy of words I leave behind, so I’m not as confessional or morally experimental in my personal writings.  

After a ‘near-death’ experience last year, my sense of the brevity of life and the value of my time / opportunity to make a difference on this planet has been much more pronounced.  My fast-paced, active life came to a screeching halt on April 9, 2011, and I had three long months to lay around, reflect, write, examine my purpose, asking myself why it happened, and why I survived an event that most people die from before they arrive at the hospital.  The theme of my journal evolved into recognizing what ‘transcendence is’ to me on a daily basis.  Annie Dillard so perfectly points out, ‘How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,’ and I realized ‘transformation’ has to be a moment to moment, day to day series of choices.

As I spend the cooler hours of the day getting our yard ready for a large, thriving permaculture garden - I’ve been slowly tackling sand spurs to prevent the massive plethora of stickers from reseeding.  They are a natural marvel of tenacity and creativity in propagating their species!   As I walk to the yard waste barrel I have to be sure I don’t plant them because they have generously accumulated on the soles of my flip flops!  Some days ‘transcendence is’ simply not losing my mind, my patience, my temper, or my gardening objectives as they painfully stick to my gloves, my hands, my feet, my clothes, and shoes.  Transcendence is knowing I can do hard things without losing heart.

Transcendence is overcoming the past to recognize each and every day as a fresh slate of creative opportunity for whatever dreams we may hope to manifest in the future.  I realize I may be ‘preaching to the choir’ about the dream of sustainability, but for our friends and family members who aren’t on the same page with us, transcendence is overcoming the barriers of our differences to build bridges of understanding.

In this election season, transcendence is building those bridges of understanding and recognizing our common ground.  If we ever hope to move sustainability goals forward, we have to transcend our inclination to be polarized by our differences.  It may mean starting the dialog with the simplest things we can agree upon, such as each person’s right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ - then build on that from ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ which are common to us all. 

Above all, no matter what labels we use to define ourselves, the common thread to every enduring (aka, sustainable) belief system has been, and always will be - Love.  And ‘to love’ in spite of differences is one of the greatest acts of human transcendence.  To quote and modify a wonderful song:  “Let Love begin on Earth, and let it begin with me.”  Let us all hold the vision of what we hope to see, and fill it with the power of Love. That is ‘collective transcendence’.