We can't breathe...
We can’t breathe without the rainforests.
We can’t breathe unless police officers receive consequences faster.
We can’t breathe unless we see how these two things are connected.
Because of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro’s plan to expand cattle ranching, which has already led to 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, and his plan to isolate the indigenous population, the Amazon rainforest has been on fire for weeks, causing the world to lose access to its own lungs aka 20% of the world’s oxygen.
And then there is Eric Garner, a black man who was murdered by NYPD police officer Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo was recently fired from his job five years after this incident. Is this justice? It took five years to get someone fired after video footage of his chokehold (which was banned) was public to the world. This on top of desperate protests of “I can’t breathe”, international uproar, and multiple investigations.
The value of one man’s lungs was deemed less worthy than others.
This makes me wonder who has value? Who doesn’t? Who allows life? Who doesn’t?
The lungs of nature are not too dissimilar from Eric Garner’s. While these raging fires affect the globe and all that inhabit Earth, the stratification in this world shows who will benefit from access to healthcare and resources more than others. Deforestation only reinforces these inequities.
It isn’t until these grave injustices are exposed that we see what matters: the people we love, the creatures and nature that give us an ecosystem, and the planet which houses us.
I have been meditating daily since August 1st. Whenever I notice the mental chatter in my head, I always come back to my breath. Inhaling and exhaling centers me. It keeps me present. It keeps me alive in more ways than one.
There are so many differences in this world to celebrate. And there are so many that condition us to create and “other” because of ego and power. But the one thing we have in common is our breath. No one’s is better than anyone else’s. The bronchioles in our lungs look just like the roots of trees and plants! They are both our life source, and that is where we must start.
I don’t have a solution to the world’s calamities, these have been in the making for centuries upon centuries before us. But if we stay present and connect to ourselves and to each other, I think we can see how humanity has hurt nature and vice versa. How the only race is the human race and the rest is made up. And maybe we can acknowledge our place in creating these divisions. What is our privilege? What can we learn from those who have less? How have we not listened?
I don’t have it all, and I don’t want it all. Instead, I think it would be beautiful for us to put our false idea of achievement aside, root for each other, and simply compete against own ego.
I hope, this way, we can breathe.
With love,
Nisha
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