© 2007 Corinne McLaughlin
Droughts, floods, hurricanes and melting ice caps are increasing
everywhere as global warming shakes up our planet. Can we affect the
weather by prayer or meditation? The Prime Minister of Australia, John
Howard, thinks so, as his country is experiencing a six year record
drought. When asked what should be done, he asked the whole country to
“pray for rain” and told reporters he made the request without a hint of
irony. And guess what? It actually started to rain—but not enough yet.
Perhaps they need to pray more.
Is this
surprising? It reminded me of the Hopi Indian creation story, where
their tribe wandered over the continent until the Great Spirit guided
them to the arid desert of Arizona. Living there, they’d have to
remember their connection to Spirit and do their prayers and sacred
ceremonies regularly if they didn’t want to perish from drought.
Although global
warming is being caused by human pollution, is Spirit allowing these
crises to wake us up and remind us of our connection to Spirit and to
all living beings?
In many spiritual
traditions, water symbolizes Spirit and purification. Our planet is a
water planet, and our own bodies are more than 60% water. Lately I’ve
been noticing how many spiritual messages are coming to us through our
connection to water. Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto has found
that human thoughts and prayer affect water. When water is frozen and
photographed under a microscope, beautiful or ugly crystals result,
depending on the quality of the thoughts projected onto it.
As I went through
airport security on a recent international trip, everyone’s water
bottles were taken from them. We were told this was to stop
explosives, and that we could buy more water on the other side of
security before we boarded the plane. However, I noticed that the
only bottled water available at any stores after the security point
was ordinary filtered tap water bottled by the same big corporation.
I couldn’t help wondering if there was something else behind this
latest security fear. It also reminded me that many developing
nations are being pressured to privatize their free public water
supplies—so citizens would have to pay for drinking water.
As I flew into
Greece on my trip, I noticed that plastic water bottles are ruining
the crystal clear beaches, as plastics are carried by wind currents
and pile up on the shores. I saw this as a message that each
individual citizen can do something to help protect their national
environmental treasure--simply by recycling plastics and picking up
litter in natural places. A beautiful, pure environment begins with
each of us. As consumers and investors, it’s essential we support
businesses with environmentally sustainable practices.
But we also need
to lobby local and national governments for stronger environmental
protections, guaranteeing the right of people everywhere to clean
water—one of the key Millennium Development Goals of the United
Nations. This is essential if we want to avoid further wars over
increasingly scarce resources like water. Exercising political will
for the good of humanity is a spiritual act.
