Days in Indonesia: 2012

I love to collect pieces of wisdom. It's not that I'm looking for them. I feel they just come to me and, somehow, at the right moment. Today I received a piece that I want to share with the eco-warriors. I've been meaning to write about them because they'll soon be heading back to the jungle of Borneo for 80 days. Until now it seemed that I hadn't the right words, maybe these won't be either yet I feel inspired.
I feel inspired by them and by their full engagement to make it work. It's not about just a project. It's about empowering young people to take care of our "home". Since the moment we're born we're told what's good and wrong. Then we continue our path, through school and then work where we're given instructions how things should be done (the right way) and where the outcome is usually right or wrong.
In a couple of weeks they'll be leaving their homelands and dive into a completely different environment for 80 days. They'll be diving into real life, where there's is no right way, no right answer just this urge to attend to a cry of help, to reach a livelihood and to surrender to a call, a call from their hearts. I cannot even imagine the whirlpool of feelings inside them. At this point, doubts and insecurities may arise but I believe that "their very own inner wisdom should be valued more than any other and will always guide them in the direction they need to travel. Heeding this wisdom with conviction and confidence, the patterns, people and fears that may held them back will be dismantled, paving the way for them to fulfill their truest potential". I'm confident in their strong will to make things in a different way and quite sure that their determination will inspire bigger flocks to take flight. Let's start a migration!

I share with you a post that I like very much from one of the eco-warriors:

An ecologist studying flamingos on Kenya ’s Lake Nakuru has noticed an interesting phenomenon. Every year, when the time comes for migration, a few flamingos start the process by taking off from the lake. Since none of the others take any notice, they soon turn round and come back.

The next day they try again. This time a few others straggle along with them but, again, the vast majority just carry on with business as usual, so the pioneers return to the lake. This trend continues for a few days. Each time a few more birds join in but, since the thousands of others still take no notice, the migration plan is aborted.

Finally, one day, the same few birds take off again. This time however, the tiny increment to their number - maybe just one extra flamingo - is enough to tip the balance. The whole flock takes flight. The migration begins.

If we apply this concept to our current predicament, it gives rise to an immediate sense of empowerment. Rather than dismissing a small action - ‘what difference will it make?’ - or the role of the individual - ‘what can I do about it?’ - we see that change is actually always propelled by the individual, or that a small action can be an instrumental part of the significant changes that arise through complex processes.

Seen from that perspective, we are the ones with the power - the power to cast ripples into the pond and become active nodes within a global network; the power to make positive change into a contagious impulse; the power to help build the sort of world we want for our children.

Paul Daley