InnerSelf.com

Earth Recovery

by Partners For Planetary Recovery

In the 1930's, a handful of people confronted the life-threatening condition of alcoholism and launched a program of recovery called the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This program has been so effective, it has inspired many other twelve-step programs that have touched the lives of millions around the globe.

Today, we are facing an even more life-threatening condition: the destruction of the environmental life-support systems of our planet. Like alcoholism, this destructiveness is based on addictive attitudes, lifestyles and behaviors; and as millions of recovering addicts have shown, these self-defeating patterns can be changed.

TWELVE STEPS FOR PLANETARY RECOVERY is designed to address our personal, local and global condition. Practicing these steps will free each one of us to discover solutions to our environmental crises and the interrelated emotional, economic, spiritual and social problems that confront us. One day and one step at a time, they can become a guide for our individual and collective lives.

1. We, humanity, admitted that we were destroying the planet and that our need to dominate, consume and control had become unmanageable.
   
   
2. Came to believe that we, the Earth and the Universe are one, and that our tendency to dominate could be balanced by our desire for unity.
   
   
3. Made a decision to call on a power greater than ourselves to bring us into balance.
   
   
4. Made a fearless and thorough moral inventory of our beliefs, attitudes and practices, and evaluated their impact on us and the rest of the planet.
   
   
5. Admitted to ourselves, a higher power "as we understood it", and each other the exact nature of our wrongs; released shame, so that we could move forward with compassion for ourselves and others.
   
   
6. Became willing to make social, attitudinal and economic changes in order to be in balance with our planet and in harmony with ourselves.
   
   
7. Humbly asked our higher power to help us change our technologies, social relations, and personal and collective lives so that we could promote life enhancement and sustainability for ourselves and other species.
   
   
8. Made a list of all the ecological and social damage we had caused and became willing to reverse it.
   
   
9. Cleaned up our rivers, oceans, landfills, and air, as we cleaned up our thoughts, emotions, actions and social relations.
   
   
10. Continued to monitor how our attitudes and economic and social behavior impact the web of life, and when we were wrong, promptly called ourselves to awareness.
    
    
11. Sought through observation, experimentation, cooperation and meditation to expand our conscious contact with ourselves, the earth and the universe, so that we could continually support our collective well-being, evolution and sacred rhythms.
    
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we will carry this message to others and bring balance into every relationship — with ourselves, each other, our planet and the universe of which we are a part.

These steps may seem overwhelming. In fact, we don't expect to practice them perfectly. We plan to use them for study and discussion, as reference points to evaluate where we are.

We need to be honest about our situation and our capacities. We need to face ourselves and each other squarely and lovingly. And we need to do so now. Nothing less has worked or is working. Nothing more is required.

Let us trust in the consciousness of humanity, the earth and the universe, and let us have faith that our collective vision of a thriving planet can become manifest on this earth.

About The Author

The above was reprinted with permission from Rising Mountains, Setting Suns. Anyone can become a Partner for Planetary Recovery by becoming committed to practicing the above to the best of your ability. Contact the Partners at: 1500 Cherry Road, Memphis, TN 38117.

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