What if just by being alive you could participate in the greatest gift exchange of all time? That is exactly what is happening each time you breathe — you inhale the oxygen you need for life, freely given by the trees, flowers and other plants all around us. By breathing out, you offer the carbon dioxide these very plants need to sustain the cycle of life on our beautiful planet. How astonishing; and how rarely do we pause to acknowledge just how amazing this gift exchange is, how deeply integrated into our beings, if not our awareness.
Thich Nhat Hahn’s final book, “Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet,” compiled and augmented by some of his closest colleagues, is a challenging and inspiring look at how being aware of breath is crucial to our survival — not just moment to moment but into the future and through all time.
As we come to the unavoidable recognition of the climate crisis our profligate culture has wrought on the world, it is easy for sadness or anger or despair to prevail. And yet with every breath we take, we have a way to make amends. If we use our breath to energize, we can focus action on the harder and less instinctive efforts we need to take, now, to rectify the disaster we face.
It is second nature to hold our breath when startled or frightened, or sometimes in the face of wonder. But now we need to breathe ever more deeply and deliberately.
Breathe deep when justice is done, as with the sentencing of Ahmaud Arbery’s cold-blooded killers; not to savor the moment or to relax, but to fortify the exertion needed for all the other injustices, large and small, individual, collective and systemic that we must summon the bravery to fight.
The just-signed Inflation Reduction Act, however flawed, is a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, but only a moment. The Act incorporates a number of measures that support fossil fuel drilling and pipelines, and such misguided “fixes” as nuclear power and woefully inadequate carbon capture technologies. These elements are part of the compromise “two steps forward, one step back” dance we are in with the corporations and individuals who have had our country in a choke hold in their greed and fear about losing their domination. But there are enough powerful incentives included in this bill to raise the tide of truly sustainable energy, hopefully to the level that it cannot be held back, despite the dead-ended detours included. Given how long it takes to build a new pipeline, open a new drilling site, or construct a new nuclear plant, and how quickly mini-splits, electric cars and trucks, batteries, windmills and solar panels can be built and deployed, the balance should continue to tip green. If we decide to invest in our own lives, we can tilt the scales.
Right now, at this urgent point, it is time to go beyond the simple reciprocity of breath. Breathe deeply and energize your steps — small and then larger and larger as you are able and as support becomes available to us from the Inflation Reduction Act or the powerful new legislation just enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature. These legislative actions underscore the need for a strong majority of informed, energized reps and senators, at the state and national level — enough so that every vote is not endangered and the full weight of the public consensus is reflected in our laws and programs.
And what can you do before the next election? Plant trees, lots of trees. Invest in a heat pump or three (fantastic high-efficiency cooling during heat waves, plus a nearly complete replacement for oil or gas heating). Get a solar expert like Greenfield Solar — we are lucky to have a lot in our region — to come assess your options for solar generation. The subsidies and tax credits for electric cars, solar, batteries, induction stovetops and heat pumps, plus the free technical support and 0% loans from Mass SAVE, can put these options within reach. In short, let’s breathe deeply, push up our collective sleeves and take the actions that will truly reciprocate the astonishing gift of life from Gaia.
Judy Wagner lives in Northfield.