It’s been a while since I wrote anything on this blog. I’ve been in observer mode for some time, looking at the goings on in the world and I can tell you that there is a distinct smell of fear coming from most humans. I have a dog’s nose after all and I can smell fear from a mile away. I can see and hear why people are generating so much fear but I have to tell you that your fear is the fuel that generates more to be afraid of. It’s a loop, never ending. Events are created to make you afraid and then your fear becomes the fuel to keep these events going or create spin off events to continue the cycle. You see, the creatures who run this distorted show are not creative by design, they cannot make anything happen without your emotional input. You are their food, their nourishment. They cannot exist without our creativity or emotional connection, so they conjure up ideas, events and narratives that manufacture a reaction in humans, namely anxiety and fear. There are so many things to be afraid of, angry at, sad for and confused by, the list is endless. Clearly a big shift is occurring that the ‘powers that want to be’ are trying to stop from happening. The best advice I have is stop watching the circus unfolding, stop believing what you hear, stop starring at the train wreck and start connecting to your own nose and smell the BS you are being offered. Humans have all the power, if only they would wake up and take charge of the situation.

How, you ask? Well, start now, breathe, take the muzzle off if you are still wearing one and breathe so deeply like never before. Imagine yourself pulling in your life energy with every breath. Then go out into nature and hug a tree, smell the flowers, play in the snow, walk barefoot on the earth, go for a swim in a natural body of water, whatever is possible for you wherever you are, get out of your self proclaimed prisons and walk into nature and connect. Sit for a while every day and feel your spirit coming back to yourself. You have the power to stop the timeline that’s being rammed down your throats daily on TV, in newsprint and radio or on anti-social media. You can stop this by disengaging.

Do what dogs do, rest more, smell the beautiful interesting things around you, play more, exercise and just be. Stop helping forecast bad things and start co-creating the timelines you want to live in. It’s up to you. I know we can do this. Join me!

Yours,

Lahni

2020 has shown us that things can change in an instant for worse or for better. The current situation has clearly been manipulated to be for worse rather than better and the nefarious intentions of those who orchestrated it are as clear as daylight. Conspiracies aside, everyone at this point is having that feeling in their gut that something major is awry with the mainstream narrative. Every day we are served up more lies, more crazy scenarios and more distortions! When is enough enough? We need a major recalibration of our thinking and our spirits to co-create a better world, not a more controlling, more restricted, more unhealthy one! Here is a guest writer’s view on this, with which I wholeheartedly agree:

From a fellow blogger:

“Hey there, I’m going to be straightforward here…WTF are you doing?Whatever it is, it’s probably wrong…If you’re like most people, you feel a weird underlying sense that something is off. Almost like you’re driving a bike with a wobbly wheel. You may have good health, a great job and a happy family (or you may not). But you still feel like there’s something else preventing you from being content. Sure, you have moments here and there that you enjoy. Like the last time you went skiing or surfing. But here in this moment…this second right now…something is off. And no, it’s not my writing. In fact, you’re probably using this newsletter to distract you from that feeling that something is off. What the hell is that? This is what the buddhists refer to as dukkha and I think they’re spot on. But the truth is that absolutely nothing is preventing you from being absolutely content right here and now. The challenge is that it requires an immense amount of training. And modern society is woefully unequipped to teach you how to…Almost like learning how to manage money from a homeless person, every single institution is incompetent today.Instead, western society teaches you (explicitly and implicitly through nudges) to go all in on consumeristic, hedonistic individualism. The overarching assumption is that a life of consumption and pleasure as a maximally free and atomic individual will be the best. But that vision has unequivocally failed. Everybody is burnt out from thinking about themselves and the next dopamine hit all day. Don’t you feel it? Instead of questioning the basic axioms of their lives, most people just hustle on even faster when any discomfort appears. Like zombies, but instead of human flesh, modern humans use work, shopping and drugs to numb their pain away all while thinking that more work or different shopping or [insert other external thing here] will solve their issues. But your brain is terrible at determining what is best for you over the long run. Instead, like velcro, it will just latch on to whatever feels best in any given moment. Then, almost like a song is stuck in your head, it will train you with thoughts to keep coming back to that same thing. IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP. From this perspective, the turmoil in the world right now may be the best thing for those open to changing. Here’s the truth that I realized: I have absolutely no clue how to live my life and what a good life truly is. (most people don’t- Lahni) I don’t even know what a human being really is on a fundamental level. Nor do I know what I’m doing on this earth (most people have no idea- Lahni). All I know is that more money, consumption and pleasure isn’t going to fill a deep existential void. That screaming at people online about the politics and news is a complete waste of life. (Nobody on their death bed ever was thankful for their political arguments). But it goes even deeper than that. I think a life focused on (only- Lahni) pleasure is also a life wasted. Because you end up trading your contentment 99% of the time for a fleeting sense of “being a rockstar” 1% of the time. Whereas, there truly is a deeper, abiding sense of equanimity and happiness out there. It just takes a complete transformation. This realization and opening is what the Greeks called Aporia. It’s painful, but necessary to change your life. This opening has allowed me to explore what it means to truly live a good and meaningful life. And let me tell you, as fun as Twitter and Netflix are, they are not the answers. Nor is completely dogmatic, secular atheism (which I once was…). Everybody wants to go back to normal right now, but is our normal really normal?- People slaving away for bosses they hate- Skyrocketing depression- 90% of people with metabolic syndrome- Swiping on tik tok and instagram all day. We need to use this crisis to create a new normal instead. (much better normal- I don’t agree with the use of this word NEW, since it has been misappropriated by the powers that were and their MSM – Lahni). I’m not saying that traditional judeo-christian monotheism is the answer either but individual, atomic, nothingness is also super depressing. To truly flourish, people need a system that helps to:- Ground them in the world- Explain what the world is- Teach us who we are- Instruct us how to act morally- Give them a sense of belonging. Many of these things religions provided and no longer do today. Modernity, like a religion, promises to save you from your anxiety and ills, but is a complete fantasy. Accelerating the gas pedal like we are today, is like accelerating a car towards a cliff… We’ve gone all in on progress, but it’s progress directed towards the wrong goals. If two people are walking the wrong way, the one who stops first actually makes the most progress. This is what we need. A fundamental turning around of reality. A kairotic experience. A completely new vision for society and human flourishing. Once you realize this, your life will never be the same. I hope you join me on this journey.

CA. with Lahni

Credit: www.carnivoreaurelius.com

The current situation of billions of people using face masks and gloves amongst other PPE equipment, which was previously reserved for health care professionals like surgeons and nurses, is a complete nightmare for our environment and our oceans. There will soon be more medical masks floating in the water column than Jelly fish! I am frankly amazed how many people have completely lost all connection to nature in a very short period of time. But I guess fear will do that to humans. It is evident that masks are unnecessary for most people on Earth. It’s been proven that they do very little if anything to prevent the spread of a pathogen. Daily use of masks and gloves are resulting in billions of disposables single use items being discarded into landfill and on streets and water ways, the on flow of which ends up on our beaches and in the ocean. If anything is a total disaster, this is! When the big lockdowns of the population started I heard the happy cries for the environment everywhere. “The Earth is getting back at us for not caring for her”. When air travel stopped everyone rejoiced at the blue skies and the resulting drop in CO2. People actually thought this would be a good thing for the earth. Sorry to say it’s the very the opposite. Take out containers quadrupled during lockdowns, PPE use went through the roof and politicians worldwide decided it was a good time to roll back environmental laws while no one was looking. Everything young people fought for gone in an instant, including their right to protest. In Australia the Prime Minister put 5 Mining CEOs in charge of a Health Crisis and closed down parliament in the meantime. Now they’ve decided to open vast areas of land, namely our food bowl, to Fracking. Coal Seam Gas, they say is the new “renewable” energy that will save the economy, which was destroyed by them in less than 6 months. Do you still think this is all about a little pathogen 99% of people are not affected by? Do you still think this is about creating a better world? Do you still think that the UN has our best interest at heart? Have a think and then write to me if you like.

Hi all,

after a long hiatus my first blog in a long while is actually a guest blog from a Facebook friend in Colorado , a young man who cares as much for the earth, the environment, all of humanity and the animal kingdom as I do.

His name is Xiuhtezcatl Martinez  https://www.facebook.com/xiuhtezcatl.martinez, he is the Youth Director of Earth Guardians https://www.facebook.com/EarthGuardiansTribe/timeline
He and many of his fellow guardians have recently attended the COP21 Climate Conference in Paris.  Here is what he had to say now that the conference is over:

“These last two and a half weeks has been between balancing inspiration and madness. It felt like every step of the way, every action, every event was burning itself into history.  We are at a point in time where our actions are determining our future.  We are writing history.  We are building our legacy.  The legacy we will leave to future generations.

I’ve been in Paris for the more than two weeks with a delegation of Earth Guardian leaders here to represent the voices of our generation and take part in the grassroots movement during the negotiations.  We have rallied, we have spoken, we have collaborated with thousands of youth from around the world who gathered in this city to have a say in the decision-making process that will determine our future.  And now the negotiations are over.

The documents are signed and COP 21 has come to an end.  Another year of gathering for the Conference of Parties come and gone.  And still, after 21 years of meetings. After 21 years of destruction.  After 21 years of exponential increases in climate destruction across the globe. After 21 years of the increased suffering of frontline and indigenous communities, people of color, women and children, these agreements are still not enough.

The evidence is clear.  The science is present.  The stories are being told.  Lives are being lost. Communities being destroyed.  People being displaced.  Forests burning.  Seas rising.  Glaciers melting.  Islands sinking into the ocean.  Unprecedented floods and droughts devastating communities.  This is not a game.  This is not about politics.  This is not about leadership.  This is not about money.  It’s not even about the environment anymore.  This is about every living person and creature on the planet, our lives and our safety being threatened by the greatest issue of our time, climate change.
All this and it still isn’t enough.  Not enough has already been lost to show our world leaders that they need to make significant change to reverse the affects of climate change and prevent further destruction.  But for the first time in history, we have a global agreement on climate change.  And it is a start, but isn’t enough.  It is a step in the right direction.  But his does not mean our movement can slow down.
Where world leaders fall short in their actions, our movement will make up for their fear of change.  This isn’t about waiting for their leadership.  It’s about taking the power into our own hands and using our voices and our fire to set blaze to a movement.  While leaders were finalizing documents we were rallying in the streets.
Tens of thousands of us.  Coming together to celebrate.  To show the world that the solutions we need.  The change we want.  And the world we are envisioning will not be brought to us by our leaders.  Justice will not come from world leaders.  Justice for our climate, justice for our people, justice for frontline communities and our indigenous brothers and sisters will not come from the system that created our oppression in the first place.
Change is coming.  We are rising with the oceans.  There is no time to spare.  We’ve already run out of time.  People are already suffering.  Every person on the planet owes it to the Earth, to their children, and to every generation to come, to be the change they want to see and to march for action, fight for solutions, and stand for a healthy, sustainable future.  COP 21 is over. But the fight of our lives, has just begun.”

Here you have it!

There isn’t much else to say other than kids and adults alike care and we all need to do our part!  Eva Trust who wrote my story down for you in the book Lahni’s Mission actually talks about all of this, so if you haven’t got it already, go here and get it, read it and then read it to your kids and get them involved!  The time is now!

More soon!

Yours, Lahni

Guest writer today: Eva

Hi All

People use plastic everywhere, whether poor or rich or in-between.  They may not even have a house or home but surely something they possess is made from plastic.  Most of them use it every day without a thought about what to is, who made it, what it’s made of and what will happen to it when they are done with it.  It ends up in landfills and water ways mostly, and then ultimately in the ocean.  We’ve known this for some time now and haven’t done much to stop any of it.  I wrote about this in my book Lahni’s Mission (good book:-)…get it for your kids 10+), which I finished a year ago and published last October online on this blog.

I thought nothing was going to change much but in the last few months all of a sudden I noticed a huge difference.  For instance, I went for stroll on my favourite beach today, on Winter solstice,  in Australia and I only had to pick up a couple of bits of garbage along my walk.  That’s a big change…normally I would’ve filled an entire plastic bag (also found on the beach) while walking just along the water’s edge.  I’ve even done a photo series on this documenting some of the more recognisable trash with my camera.

Anyway to get back to my point…in the last few months a few groups have taken it upon themselves to clean up where they run (click on the hyper link to get more info about where you can join and help).  They are called Responsible Runners Bondi….there is a group by the same name in Maroubra as well and  other beaches in Sydney and around Australia.  There is also a group called Plastic Pollution Coalition who bring awareness and attention to the issue of plastic…everywhere!  They share articles, information and what to do about it.

It’s pretty much a given that plastic is here to stay but it’s not a given that we have to be choked by it and that we have to keep polluting the earth and the oceans with it.  Become responsible by thinking about what you use, why you use it and how you dispose of it.  To start with we can all make a pledge to go Plastic Free in July this year to help with the clean up.  Our environment needs a break…please give Plastic a break!

Yours, Eva

with Lahni

Hi all

Why do humans wage wars against each other?  Why do they practice so much for something almost everybody says they don’t want?  Why do people put up with governments making these decisions when clearly it isn’t in the interest of the majority to do so?

I’m really baffled by these questions, I must say and I asked many human friends I encountered about this and not one of them could really answer it for me, not all the way at least.  Humans talk about food shortages and water shortages and land shortages and money shortages to pay for the basic stuff they need to run a country, even survive the day in some cases, so why on earth would anyone spend billions of their money, whatever they call it, on war?

War is something animals don’t understand.  From what I found out it’s pretty much a way of dealing with problems by making more problems.  Just now, there are apparently many armed conflicts as you humans call them…and to my astonishment they  want to stop one such armed conflict by throwing bombs on it and sending more soldiers and weapons there.  Hmm, to stop it..they say.  As I found out, this particular conflict was actually started by the same country that now wants to “intervene” with more war. ????  I’m very confused by this.  Humans talk about peace all the time but what I see is the opposite.  Can anyone answer these questions for me please…my animal friends want to know as well.

Yours,

Lahni

This planet is so small…I used to think otherwise or at least I didn’t think much about it at all when I was living my life with my siblings doing my work for my people…herding and sled dog work in East Siberia that was.  Until one day I had this dream about things not being well on this earth.  Eva wrote about this in the book  ‘Lahni’s Mission’ about my journey that followed the dream.

I know lots of good stuff is happening in a lot of places.  And recently on my Europe trip I noticed a lot of people awake and caring about their environment.  But they seem to be in the minority still…unfortunately there are too many not awake yet and if they know about things not working, they seem to be unwilling to change their ways or choose to look the other way.

Well, guess what?  The world around us is changing so fast that whether they are in denial or awake, a very big change is here.

Bees are leaving this place at an alarming rate…scientists seem to now know it’s some pesticides and other chemicals used to “enhance” the growth of crops but the greater community is oblivious to these facts and aren’t willing to stop it.  The manufacturers of these chemicals are not willing and neither are regulators who are in charge of the environment and its health.

Climate change is happening whether they think so or not; whether made by humans, deliberately or unintentionally, it’s happening now.

Mass die-offs are happening everywhere and not just amongst bees.  Millions of fish are dying and washing up on beaches everywhere; sea lions, dolphins and whales are beaching themselves.  Birds are falling out of the sky.  The science community is seemingly shrugging its shoulders saying that it’s normal, or not so bad yet.    Yet people keep on keeping on, digging for more “resources” like oil and coal and iron ore, to make more things out of these resources no one needs, to make more money no one can eat or breathe or drink and with it they destroy the very fabric of life around them.  We only have this little tiny planet!  We only have a finite amount of water and not much of it is clean anymore, we only have a so much clean air.  When is enough enough?

How bad should it get?   How many animals should die?  How many humans should die first?

I’ve heard a few people say that all they care about is how their own family is and if they are ok right now, everything else doesn’t matter.  We live on a very small round planet.  Everything anybody does on here has an effect on something or someone, which in turn keeps rippling along like the waves a stone makes after falling in the water.  It’s virtually impossible to be impact-free and live here at the same time.  People need to wake up!  It’s time, well actually it’s way past  the time to wake up.  Wake up, educate your children and get them to live different lives, caring about themselves and their neighbours, whether human or animal or plant.

Yes, this is alarming!  It’s not about being negative or positive anymore.  The damage is done but it can be stopped.  Change happens with every person making different choices now.

Yours,

Lahni

Hi All,

It’s been a while since Lahni voiced her opinion on this blog but today I, Eva, feel the need to do so on her behalf since she feels too sad for words about what’s been happening in the past week.  Violent events in Japan this week have given me the impetus to say a few things.  250 dolphins were captured, pods ripped apart for captive selection; 51 were taken including an albino baby kidnapped from its mother; then, after starving for 4 days,  42 were slaughtered and the rest driven back out to sea without their families intact.  Most of them juveniles…with an uncertain future ahead.  You probably heard about it in the news somewhere, since it made major rounds on all the big news channels on our TVs.  The Japanese response included two words that have been used for far too long as an excuse to abuse people and animals in the most awful of ways…namely ‘Tradition’ and ‘Culture’.

First of all, let’s see what they actually mean by that.  I found this…interesting!

“Word History for tradition: The words tradition and treason both come from the same Latin source.  The Latin word traditio meant “teaching” or “tradition.”  These senses developed from its basic meaning, which was “the act of handing something over.”  Tradition is maintained by passing information from one generation to another.  One kind of treason is committed when someone who has been entrusted with secret information passes it on to someone else.  The word tradition was borrowed directly from the Latin traditio.  Treason, on the other hand, came to us through early French, where traditio had changed into the word traisun.”

Culture:
“… a high level of taste and enlightenment as a result of extensive intellectual training and exposure to the arts…
Related Words education, erudition, learning, literacy, scholarship; sophistication, urbanity; breeding, gentility, manners; class, elegance, grace, taste; civility, courtesy, politeness
Near Antonyms ignorance, illiteracy; parochialism, provincialism, unsophistication; boorishness,… coarseness, crudeness, vulgarity

a. The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.

b. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.

A bunch of bacteria huddled together in a petri dish is a culture, since they have the same agenda to keep growing in the same exact way without changing, they duplicate themselves again and again by handing over the same information to the next cell.  And so it goes with any behaviour that a people agree on being acceptable and desirable.  It’s nothing more than an agreement and a set of habits that get repeated long enough that everyone who follows assumes its normal.

 The question we have to ask ourselves if we want to keep evolving and growing past certain constraints, is what kind of results are we getting from the traditions and cultures of my people?  Is it helping further us as humans and as fellow spirits on this earth or isn’t it?  Is our behaviour hurting anyone or anything?  What are we leaving for the next generation?  How is what I’m doing affecting the natural world and it’s inhabitants?  How much pain are we inflicting with our culture and traditions?  Are we teaching our children to inflict more pain?

Tradition and culture should never be an excuse to be violent and cruel in any way and if it is,  it’s time to grow and do something different!

Many old established  cultures have been extremely violent in their traditions but humans grew out of those traditions because they woke up to the reality of what they did and stopped doing it, developing new traditions and cultures more in tune with their evolution.  

What is happening to dolphins, whales and many other animals in Japan and other cultures around the globe has nothing to do with tradition and culture, it has everything to do with a loss of culture and a distortion of traditions.  There is nothing remotely desirable or sophisticated about any of their behaviour in this case. 

So, in 2014, to still use Tradition and Culture as a reason to keep doing nasty things is unacceptable.   

Yours,

Eva

with Lahni

Hi All

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir

Some humans seem to think that somehow they are above the chain of life on earth.  They think they are the boss of and can dominate nature for their own gain.  Whether it’s a hunter who shoots another predator like a wolf or cougar or a genetically modified seed that is causing an imbalance, it’s all based in that same belief about dominance.

Any which way you look at it you can’t take one thing out of this chain without upsetting the balance.  Some humans think that they don’t need nature or aren’t even part of it.  That is an erroneous way of thinking, since humans, like all animals and all life, must understand that everything is connected and dependant on each other.  Survival is hard enough for most creatures, from finding food to providing shelter and nourishment and protection for their young; animals don’t need humans domineering agenda to interfere on top of it.  There is nothing remotely sporty about going out and shooting defenceless animals to simply boost your own ego or bank account.  There is nothing remotely clever about destroying the environment with industrial pollution for short-term gain.  There is nothing remotely smart about creating things that produce waste that will never go away or in a worst case scenario be more dangerous than the product itself. 

As long as human beings think they are above the natural world they will struggle and they will not understand why.

May the new year bring more awareness and connectedness on all levels between humans and the natural world.  I wish for all to awaken and consider a different way of life in harmony and interdependence with us and our earth.

It is the only planet we have after all.

A very Happy New Year to all,

Lahni

Hi All

Deliberate cruelty is something very rare in nature.  Animals kill to live or even kill to propagate their own DNA as is the case with lions when they kill another’s offspring when taking over leadership of a pride.  Humans however are on many levels deliberately cruel— to each other and to other creatures.  Why?

Lets look at an example first before attempting to answer that.  On my travels I met many humans who were deliberately nice and caring to their fellow creatures but lately there have been many reports of deliberate cruelty out there and I would like to get to the bottom of it.  For example, in Taiji, Japan where fisherman routinely kill dolphins and whales while the rest of the pods, mostly juveniles or even babies watch on and listen.   Then they take the young back out to sea and dump them, knowing full well that they will suffer, not only from the shock of seeing and hearing their parents and relatives die a slow death but also because they won’t be able to survive on their own; they will starve or die from shock and broken hearts or they will fall prey to sharks.  Any which way you look at this practice, it’s a deliberate act of cruelty!

I woke up this morning thinking about why the people in Japan would do this?  What popped into my head was interesting.  The word that appeared was ‘competition’.  The Japanese love tuna, it’s their favourite and most prized fish.  It makes millions on markets worldwide.  It’s also one of the most rare fish now with 90% of it overfished.  Dolphins eat tuna fish, which means only one thing to these people:  They are competing with dolphins for their favourite food.  What goes on in Taiji and other places in Japan every season is  a way to eliminate the competition and a money-maker as well.  Selling dolphins to theme parks around the world is a way to make millions in the process.  But they not only kill the competition and profiteer, they are deliberately cruel in the process which brings me to my answer.

Very small children are often cruel and sometimes deliberately so.  They are unconscious, lack empathy and awareness of other’s emotions and feelings.  They want what they want without a thought of anyone else in the equation.  Many grow out of that being taught to care and share by their parents and they become upstanding, caring citizens.  But many don’t and they stay in that mode for life.

We seem to have entire countries of humans,  with some exceptions amongst them as always, who are no more developed than toddlers.

It’s a freighting thought but if you look at all the cruelty being dished out across this planet by so-called civilised grown-ups who are capable of creating technology at the highest levels, including the technology to kill more deliberately and efficiently, I wonder how many real adults walk this earth?  Obviously, this doesn’t just happen in Japan and not just to dolphins or whales.  It happens to dogs and cats in Korea and Thailand and China.  It happens to wolves and coyotes in the USA.  It happens to elephants and lions in Africa. It happens to tigers and bears in Asia.  It happens to Kangaroos and dingoes in Australia. It happens to seals in Canada and Namibia and recently in New Zealand. It happens to a lot of sharks worldwide!  And it of course  happens to many humans all over this planet.  Not only are these creatures killed for food and medicine or survival but they are often killed for pleasure and personal gain in a very deliberately cruel and uncaring way.

I can only conclude that the people who commit deliberately cruel acts against fellow humans or animals, whether for profit or gain, hatred, competition or just to have the upper hand, are no more evolved than a 2-year-old child who has not been taught to be kind by his or her parents.  Respect for other life is something that needs to be passed down to children.  If the parents weren’t taught how to be compassionate or empathetic towards other life, children will not learn it either.  The result is entire nations of mostly uncaring people on the survival level.  No matter how sophisticated their level of  academic education and technology maybe, they will always be a bunch of toddlers running the show.  The only way to change that for humans is to wake up and assess their true level of evolution—I don’t mean the technological kind— and grow from there in a conscious way.

Yours,

Lahni