I have returned from six days of silence and solitude.
As I paddled in the last mile, I realized what I seek so deeply, so passionately, sometimes so desperately is aliveness.
I want to feel alive!
I want to be connected to life!
I want to be connected to what is alive in me and everything around me!
And through being vigorously alive and connected, I want to wake society up from our current path of destruction.
The way we live today is destroying Earth as we know it…. Taking the lives of millions of our plant and animal relatives… Taking the life right out of the lungs and veins of our Mother Earth…
I come out here to reconnect. To reconnect with Earth. To reconnect with myself. To connect so deeply that I can bring this connection back to humanity and show that another way is possible.
I felt the life out here.
The sun beat down upon me.
The tides exhausted me at times.
The five days straight of strong wind challenged me to find peace amongst the aliveness of the ocean.
The biting insects drove me into my little tented refuge, and they got me in there too.
And the three days of unexpected diarrhea and the difficulty to stay hydrated…
I was a guest in these lands and I accepted each of these challenges as a gift.
No doubt these gifts reconnected me with Earth and with myself.
Now I bring this connection back to you.
To reconnect with what is truly alive in you…
To reconnect with our plant and animal relatives…
To reconnect with our community, our global humanity…
To remember that we are all a part of all life on Earth. Not separate. Not better. Just part of it all.
Love,
Robin
Robin Greenfield’s work is Creative Commons and this content is free to be republished and redistributed, following the terms of the creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license. Learn about Creative Commons and see the guidelines here:
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Robin Greenfield is an activist and humanitarian dedicated to leading the way to a more sustainable and just world. He embarks on extreme projects to bring attention to important global issues and inspire positive change. 100% of his media income is donated to grassroots nonprofits.
His YouTube channel is a source to educate, inspire and help others to live more sustainable, equal and just lives. Videos frequently cover sustainable living, simple living, growing your own food, gardening, self-sufficiency, minimalism, off the grid living, zero waste, living in a tiny house and permaculture.
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Foreign Ers Is with me now My worry Nothing To do No longer is Sorry Happiness Is with me now I have drawn My worry Somewhere to go Something to do But not in a hurry Those were my first words in six days 144 hours And Wow it feels Joyous joyous I'm celebrating I'm celebrating my own voice It feels It feels beautiful I feel such a a warmth And a love inside And I feel Grateful Of course Six days alone in solitude in the Everglades And It was a There was there was a lot of difficulty
A lot of biting insects Um Hot sun Oh the wind five days straight of 10 to 15 mile per hour wind the over Stimulation that I was experiencing when I desired silence so much and the ocean Was fierce The insects came to me with fierceness I Experienced diarrhea for a few days I Was struggling But amongst the struggle was such a Level of joy And aliveness out here There's so much life I've realized that What I seek so deeply is aliveness Foreign It's what I want I want to feel alive And the climate control the air Conditioning in the homes and the Offices and the cars to me I feel dead inside when I walk into Those places There is no life the life has been Removed through this climate control of Course we are in there but all other Life is gone And out here there is life there is so Much of it and yes it bites you and it Wants to eat you and it's hard But I'm alive out here and Oh it brings me back It brings me back to society with the Strength that I need the
Okay The resilience that I need I get it out Here I am fed my soul is fed out here And I come back and I can handle the Hecticness and the busyness of life and Even the bit of the Rat Race that I live Trying to accomplish so much And I'm happy to be doing it but Sometimes I feel In a state of Chaos And it's a struggle And I know I have another Hopefully 30 40 50 years dedicated to Being of service to Earth to humanity Into our plants and animal relatives and I will continue to come out here in Silence in solitude wherever I am so That I have the strength the energy the Vision the focus the clarity that I get Out here to bring back to society to Help us to break free to liberate Ourselves To liberate ourselves from this societal Design that is destroying Life as We Know It I hope to bring back life into the Society that is so Sleepy and in so many ways dead and I Want to bring that life back to society So we can wake up and we can see the Nightmare that our consumerism and Capitalism and colonialism is For the world the nightmare it is for so Many people
For so many of our plants and animal Relatives and for this Earth And so I want to come back with life With Vigor with excitement To show that another way is possible and That way Is through reconnecting with the Earth Reconnecting with ourselves reconnecting With our community a community of humans Our community of plants and animals To realize that we are all connected we Are all related Because when we realize that the water Is Us We realize that We are just a part of everything We look at everything differently we Walk differently we speak differently we Relate differently We connect differently And I come out here To remember that myself To reconnect reconnect with Earth Reconnect with myself so that I can Connect more deeply with you I'm so happy to have had this Spontaneous moment to To share with you I hope that this receives you well And I'm sharing some of my joy and my Love and my connection with you I love you all very much dear friends And I'm here with you
And I will stay here with you And let's just take a moment of silence Together