On New Years Eve, 2019, our brothers and sisters in Jakarta had torrential rain and flash floods.

In this post, January 7th, Channel News Asia, Siwage Dharma Negara writes:

“About 158 urban communities in Jakarta experienced flooding, according to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

“Besides Jakarta, the floods also hit surrounding areas, such as Bekasi, Tangerang, South Tangerang and Lebak.

“The floods have caused electricity shutdowns and displacement of many.

“The death toll has reached at least 60 in the Greater Jakarta area and Lebak, according to the BNPB, owing to drowning, hypothermia and electrocution.”

We’re witnessing all over the world how our human actions affect where we live. Siwage goes on to say:

“There’s no doubt factors beyond human control including extreme weather conditions brought about by climate change, cyclical tidal waves and the seasonal monsoon have exacerbated flooding in Jakarta.

“But human factors – including the destruction of the ecosystem due to deforestation, poor urban planning including the unchecked construction of settlements around the Ciliwung riverbank, and dismal garbage disposal choking up the riverbank and gutters around the city – have aggravated its effects.

“Moreover, Jakarta is the fastest sinking city in the world, sinking about 5 to 10cm annually, and up to 25cm a year in some places. Half of the city now sits below sea level.

“The problem has been worsened by an over-extraction of groundwater owing to the city’s rapid construction and a delay in the development of water and sewage systems.

“The combination of these factors is amplifying the impact of freak floods each year.”

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Annie Kruger was a firekeeper in a long line of people who were trained to use fire to take care of the land. (Don Gayton)

In the last several years we’ve witnessed growing intensity of fires around the world.

In the post below, Mourning a Disappearing World as Australia Burns, Jessica Friedmann in The Globe and Mail, January 2, 2020, writes:

“There is no doubt that the fires are growing more ferocious.

“Even without the changing climate, it would be inevitable; 250 years of land mismanagement have changed the way in which Australia’s bushland reacts to a spark.

“Before colonization, fire was managed with cultural burning, sometimes called fire-stick farming, which prevented vegetation build-up, germinated seed pods and regenerated the trees and grasses that need fire to grow new shoots.

“These burns rotated through a mosaic pattern, staggering the growth of eucalyptus and enriching the soil. These burns were slow, allowing time for animals to relocate and, most importantly, they were controlled.

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December 3-10th, 2019, a group of us travelled with Kelly Oswald, owner of The Oracle, and her husband, James, to the tip of the Baja Peninsula, Cabos San Lucas, Mexico.

Kelly’s friend, Adriana, helped chaperone us as we visited foundations assisting beautiful women and children living in poverty and often violence.

We participated in sharing a simple drawstring back pack pattern for the ladies to sew and sell, lunch-time feeding and clean-up at a local school, lots of playing, and handing out requested gifts of crayons and colouring books.

It was hard to witness the dichotomy of rich and poor — I knew it was there having visited Cabos before — but not to the extent I saw it this time. There is a marina full of million dollar yachts and a few miles away dirt roads, not enough food, violence and abuse. . .

As I learn to detach, to be the observer, to view everything as a movie, I find I Am able to move about freely, to do my Divine Service without being pulled down by the entrenched beliefs that can limit my ability to do the work I came to do.

Planetary Balance is Ascension

Ascension in form is us balancing within and therefore able to do the work without.

Bless the ones who courageously, knowingly, have been born into the physical poverty with the possibility of violence and abuse.

We are here to lift everyone up,
for gender equality to be reality here Now.

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