Am I Inconvenient To You?

Tonight I was sitting on a curb feeding a cat who spends the majority of her life hiding under cars to keep safe from people, other animals, the hot sun and rain. As I sat there, a man walked by with his friend, pointing to the hood of his car, “see where the cats have scratched my car," he said. "It’s terrible". He glanced over at me, as if because I feed these homeless cats, it's my fault that nature effects his car. Basically he'd rather they not be alive so he does not have to be inconvenienced.

Most likely his car has also been effected by branches falling off trees, debris from driving on the road, etc. And might I point out all the things his car does to nature? Or that our species has invaded this entire ecosystem, brought cats to this island, created pollution, imbalance, and an unlivable ghetto-like environment for many native and non native animals in this region?

Kindness. Compassion.

We are all living here together.

Sorry Earth has inconvenienced you, sir.

So many humans believe Earth is an inconvenience. Nature is not convenient. I understand. I get frustrated with things too sometimes. When it rains and rains all day. Hurricanes.. so incredibly inconvenient. Cockroaches the size of a mouse. The nature of some personalities that I don’t resonate with. Intense hot humidity or intense cold. The nature of some of my own needs and emotions. Having to pee when I am in the middle of something I can’t walk away from. The nature of certain sounds or smells. The nature of fear. But we don’t own this place, we just get to experience living here. We are renting a life here. And when we leave, the Earth will devour what is left of us and make something new.

Sir, you are inconvenient too. And yet, the Earth tolerates you.

I was giving a reading to a woman recently whose whole session was focused on her feeling like she was an inconvenience if she relaxed into authentically expressing herself. She was taught at home, in her childhood, that her parent's discomfort with emotions made human nature really inconvenient, so she made it part of her life mission to eradicate them out of her life. To be so neutral that no one would know, not even herself, that naturally produced feelings like anger, excitement, fear, etc. lived inside of her.

Children are not convenient. But all of us were once a kid. Many children know how it feels when their needs and desires and fears are inconvenient to their parents or teachers or societies norms? Maybe this happened to you as well. Maybe you learned to hide under emotional cars, from storms of judgment and anger and frustration. Often we grow up a little inflamed. A little twisted. A little out of touch with our own nature. We learn not to trust our own natural instincts. And often, we repeat patterns of feeling inconvenienced. We feel like our own selves, our bodies needs and desires are inconvenient. And we stop listening to ourselves and to each other. We talk over. We make assumptions.

Those cats are not intending to scratch a car. They just want to have a different view. But how would that man know? Does he even know his own nature? He certainly doesn’t know anything about the very block and ecosystem he lives in. He was taught to be unconscious that he is standing on the Earth, a living, breathing “organism” that gives him life. He thinks that he somehow is owed this life and because he can cultivate fire, speak words out of his mouth, eat with utensils, drive a car, and have the potential to learn how to not react to his feelings and physical instincts, he is not an animal and not of this Earth. But I beg to differ.

Honestly,

to me,

sir,

you are inconvenient to the evolution of humanity and this planet.

I understand how important your car is to you. You might want to consider a cover or finding a garage to store your car in. Your lack of compassion and awareness and understanding honestly makes me really uncomfortable too. Humans pollute this Earth knowingly, in full consciousness, making this place more and more unlivable for all of the creatures here, including ourselves and our children. Our very existence creates change. Even just the chemicals that a car exhales into the air is leaving scratches on this planet.

Over-building on Earth makes certain animals unsure how to eat without depending on humans. Valuing things like cars over life on Earth even makes it more difficult for humans to survive here. Feeling threatened by something that is non-threatening to your life (an animal that is merely scared, hungry, with a weakened immune system) is a really inconvenient perspective for the evolution of humanity and our relationship with the Earth. Why sir are you not pointing out all the trash around your car, and how people are dumping their unrecyclable waste all over when their is a garbage can directly across the street?

Maybe we are biologically programmed to fear and be repulsed by that which needs our help and attracted and wanting to give to something that is abundant? It's definitely easier. You have to be strong to be able to look at dis-ease and not judge it. To see the thing or person or animal as it truly is, it's light, it's true nature when in integrity, and not as the dis-ease it is being effected by. To have or start to create boundaries with dis-ease and be compassionate enough to help transform it into a healthy ecosystem if we or that person or animal or thing chooses to heal, and to let it be devoured if that is what it chooses. In my opinion, if we help the cats who live in the street have healthy lives, it creates a healthier neighborhood, city, and society.

With awareness comes responsibility. At one time eating fast food was really cool and something new. Now we are more aware that it is not good for your body, especially not on a regular basis. At one point recycling seemed like a genius idea, now it has created apathy around creating waste, and we can't possibly recycle as much waste as we create. At one point there was a huge rat problem in Miami Beach, so people brought in a bunch of cats to take care of the rats, but did not spay or neuter these cats. And those cats had babies and those babies had babies. So now the cats are a part of this ecosystem.

At one point we didn't have tools to deal with our emotions, with trauma, with grief, with fear, with having a lot of energy, or wanting to do something outside of what our family desired. And now we have all sorts of tools and modalities and permission to express who we truly are. Experiences have changed our internal and external ecosystem. So to shift how we feel, to be able to have what we want, we have to clean our energy instead of trying to eradicate ourselves, so we can be more clear and focused and create new ways of being. That is evolution. A spiritual evolution inside a planet that is physical in nature, but is also run by the same thing our spirit runs on... energy.

You cannot ignore the current reality and be upset that it isn't how it used to be or a picture of how you would like it to be. Look at what is right now straight in the eye, acknowledge it, and if you don't like it, think of compassionate ways to shift that reality considering all of the parts, not just yourself or one part of yourself. No ecosystem would work if it was all about just one small part of that ecosystem. Communication is essential. If one thing is not in balance, the whole is out of whack. How that energy get's fed into the entire organism gets out of whack.

We have to find a way to work together. That includes finding ways for all of these parts of ourselves to work together; emotions, physical needs, spiritual desires, mental thoughts. If one part of the system is out of whack, you can't just eradicate it and make what is out of whack go away. It will just show up in another way. You cannot make change go away, you cannot make who you innately are go away, you can only start to change your perspective of reality and begin. It may not seem convenient at first. It may take some work. You might have to grow and change. You might have to let some things go and add new things into the mix. But it will be worth it! For you. For how you feel. For the world you live in and how it feels to live in the world.

So if you see an animal suffering, feeling out of place in the environment it is living in, maybe try to help it out. Maybe you are scared at first. Maybe it is scared of you. See what happens. When you give to life, it often gives back to you. Maybe not in the same way you gave. When I started feeding cats outside, it changed my life. It changed my perspective. It changed how I saw the world. I expanded. I evolved. When I give myself new information, cook myself an amazing meal, wake up early and go for a sunrise swim, I expand. I feed and nourish myself, and that reflects on my day, my life. It shows in the way I feel which reaches out to the people I interact with and the way they interact with other people and their environment. When I complain about how life has gotten me dirty, or "inconvenienced me", I contract. And I feel it. I feel the expansion and I feel the contraction.

Our ecosystems are changing. Earth is constantly changing. That is how it survives and thrives. It has to change. We can either help each other out, or not. But it's not one man for himself. When there is a natural disaster, people come together to help other people and animals. You realize, crap, I am this vulnerable. I am as vulnerable as that cat living under that car. I am so small. And then when the danger is over, we forget. Humans have over populated almost the entire surface of this planet, and yet we complain when other animals need to live on this planet as well.

News stories recently: "Iguanas are taking over South Florida".

You know who is taking over South Florida and has no predators?... Humans. Who is more detrimental to life in South Florida, humans or iguanas? Hmm...

We are living in a new ecosystem. Give to it. If we are dumping fast food into our internal environment every day, our body will not feel good. If we dump toxins into our Earth and take away it's resources, we will suffer. If we know something doesn't feel good, and we don't change our behavior, we suffer. When we resist change, we cannot evolve. When we resist our needs and emotions, we create toxic waste inside of us. Our own emotions can create evolutionary change inside of us. They can be a compass to change behaviors or the way we act and feel. Isn't that convenient?! Give them room to exist. Feel how you expand. Watch how you evolve!

We cannot change the fact that all of life changes. But we can be in charge of how we change and how we take care of ourselves and our environments as we change. And that is really powerful, as powerful as the sun, the moon, the stars, and how all of the elements in the universe interact and evolve with each other. Dare I say, that is extremely convenient!