Awareness

We intend to create a national debate over the coming months: what are the most effective actions that we can all take in this Action Area? Together with our Ambassadors, we will then synthesize and distil the most credible and popular ideas into the core 999 Manisfesto, mobilizing as many people as possible to get involved. To start the ball rolling, 999 It's Time founder Rory Spowers has presented some of his own ideas below.

"In contrast to the eight other personal Action Areas, which all advocate a more proactive engagement with the major issues of our time, I see the Awareness area as a counter-balance, an opportunity for us to take time out for ourselves, go for a walk and reconnect with natural world. As John Muir, one of the forefathers of the US conservation movement, once said, 'going out, I found, was really going in'. By immersing ourselves more deeply in nature, we can live with her cycles and become more in tune with our surroundings. We see what food is local and seasonal; understand where our water and our energy sources come from. This is the essence of 'bioregionalism'. I see this as fundamental in redefining our current relationship with the planet.

Also, as activists or 'agents of change', we need to balance our concerns with the external world with our own inner peace. As the mystic Thomas Merton pointed out, 'The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.' I hope to use this forum to debate and discuss various paths, techniques and practices that can help us nurture this reconnection with the natural world."

Suggested Actions
 

1. Join and support an NGO: The Web of Hope
   
   
2. Perform an easy 'one-click' action:
   Donate to 999 It's Time
    
3. Take a 'real time' practical personal action:
   "Get on yer bike" - here's a some good information on Why Cycle?
    
4. Engage in a 'group action' as a family, a community, a business, etc:
   Find a local natural 'sacred site', be it a river, a woodland, an old oak tree, and gather there as much as possible with friends and family.
    

Have Your Say

Respond now by adding your views to this page (see the comment link below - you need to login first), by visiting our discussion board on Facebook, or by send an email to actions@999itstime.com with Awareness in the subject line.