“No problem can be solved with the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein

My favorite example of someone engaged in a clean water project is Biologist Willie Smits who is reforesting land in Borneo. His fabulous Ted talk relates the importance of addressing environmental issues holistically. In relatively little time ecosystems may be restored toward natural balance. As Smits reforests the land, he works with local people to create sustainable food and cash crops. By "following nature" he used various recipes which are specific to the soils, terrain, species of vegetation, etc., to plant a bio-diverse forest. In just 3 years, there was a decrease of temperature 3-5% Celsius, there were 137 species of birds, an 11.5% increase in clouds resulting in 25% more rainfall.

As an enthusiast of Traditional Chinese Medicine and other ancient healing modalities, I learned years ago a great metaphor for the work with lay ahead for each of us: If we are serious about cleaning up our waterways and providing ourselves with good water, we need not start any further then beginning to clean up our personal waterways--our blood stream. Our blood is polluted by the lifeless, processed food, and chemicalized pollutants which we consume, breathe, and in which we are surrounded daily. As we begin to be aware of how the choices of our out-of-balance, divorced from the natural world, daily lives are intrinscically related to our environmental problems we can more easily reconnect to the natural environment and heal ourselves and our planet. Quoting photographer Chris Jordan who doc**ents the artifacts of our choices: "Our (individual) unconscious behaviors are adding up to catastrophic consequences....I fear we're not feeling enough. We've lost our sense of anger, outrage and grief... and there are very real social consequences...if we feel these issues more deeply and they affect us… finally, we will find within each of us how we change..."