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Thank You for Caring About Us, Michael Schmidt

We live in a world where the laws are getting so tight that management has changed to micro-management to quantum-management to paralysis. The farmer who is not allowed to butcher his own meat for health regulations and then reads about abattoirs being fined for unsanitary conditions.
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When you go to a medical clinic and see that the doctor is a young man, do you feel relieved? I do. Why? Because I think there is a greater chance that they were raised by conscious mothers. Which means they might have a more holistic respect for health. Which means they might know that the underlying cause is the thing to address, not the symptoms. Which means that they might not sniff dismissively when you inquire whether cutting out dairy foods (mucus-forming) might help with the sinus drip and ensuing chronic cough. Which means they might feel as Thomas Edison did: "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."

I will also say that this thought has crossed my mind: 'Hurry, conscious younger people! Get to power quickly so political decisions can be based on the greater good for all rather than the greater gain for few. Hurry, before it is too late!'

And about our 'younger' prime minister. Where was your mother? Of course, I rescind for this is unfair. But his choices seem to reflect that of the more bullish patriarchy than the new consciousness we so greatly need.

While governments posture to each other, forgetting who they are working for, one of our esteemed citizens is on day 35 of a starvation strike fighting for fellow citizens' rights to self-government.

Let's clean up our own backyard before we take ownership of our 'adulthood' on the world stage. Let's clean up our own dirty blood before offering it for transfusion.

Michael Schmidt is in Canada's backyard.

I see more people taking on the cloak of accountability, more people tiring of the blame game. If we are all connected and our actions in Australia affect us in Istanbul, then we are ALL to blame and ALL to be healers. We can't blame lawyers anymore for the 'liability' vs. common sense imbalance. The dark forces would rather we be disempowered by believing fault is elsewhere. An old trick.

Michael Schmidt's tale is a tale of two forces. And he is just one of many fighting for us while we live our tiny, self-absorbed lives. Fighting for the greater good and that of the planet.

What can we do? We cannot stamp into the offices of the powers-that-be and grab their ear, marching them to sensibleness. Letting others know about these struggles is good, certainly, moving awareness to some kind of tipping point. Beyond that, in the fight between common sense and insanity, all I know is to do small things with great care.

I spoke at a school in Brittany, France while on tour last year. We were finished early and I suggested that we go outside and sit on the lawn by this magnificent tree. It was the first gorgeous day of spring and we were all starving for sunlight, earth smells and bird songs. 'INTERDIT!' I was informed. If a branch falls from the tree and hurts someone, the school is liable. I said that they were to not take these kinds of rules to heart because someday things would be more sensible. And that this would be part of their wonderful work as adults. Outside, I showed one child how to walk toward the tree until they felt its energy. Next thing I knew they were all cued up in excitement. Later, two little girls came over to me and quietly asked if I would teach them to meditate. I spoke to the principal about it for a long time during lunch. This week I found and forwarded the school a link from the David Lynch Foundation whose mandate is to take meditation into schools. The results are astounding. And sensible. Imagine seeing a classroom of young people sitting quietly for 10 minutes, not fidgeting and bored, but instead serene as they go deep within to release stress (which is significant even at their tender ages) and to reconnect to their higher, ageless selves.

Myriad unarticulated battles ring the world like an uncomfortable necklace. The clash between common sense and nonsense. The Japanese countryman coming to Tokyo, crouching to light a few twigs for tea-making and warmth, is chased out of the park. The housewife whose apron pockets remain coin-free because it is now illegal to sell eggs that haven't been graded. The farmer who is not allowed to butcher his own meat for health regulations and then reads about abattoirs being fined for unsanitary conditions. We live in a world where the laws are getting so tight that management has changed to micro-management to quantum-management to paralysis. Acceptable food rots while we are chased from bins behind restaurants, chased from sleeping on the street, chased from relieving ourselves unless we pay for food or gas, until finally we are so hungry, sleepless, smelly, constipated and beaten-down that we simply die of lack of will to live. If we are unlucky, we are rushed to the hospital and chastised for being a nuisance rather than thanked for almost saving taxpayers a lot of money. I feel for kids growing up today.

Meanwhile, here, in good ol' Canada, a highly-respected farmer is on the 35th day of a starvation strike. And he is not doing it for himself, he is doing it for the good of us all and that of the planet. In such selfish times, this is hard to comprehend.

Let us all think on a small good deed to do today. Let us pronounce upon the air, "Thank you for caring about us, Michael Schmidt, and all others that fight for our rights to choose greater harmony with nature." For if we are, in fact, all connected, this will be felt on the other side of the world. Which means here, also. In front of this page.

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