Thinking like planet Earth

The ability to stand in the shoes of another is an essential requirement to cultivate empathy and compassion. It is easier when we are able to relate to some of what the other person is experiencing through our own direct experience.

What would it be like to stand in the shoes of planet Earth? To think like planet Earth?

Not just the rocks, trees, mountains, oceans….but the animals, including humans, that inhabit planet Earth? The whole of Earth.

If I were planet Earth, what is my experience?

I imagine I might experience a species that has become too dominant, which is causing great harm to the whole. A pathogen that has run rampant.

And if I were planet Earth, I would probably be seeking a solution to re-establishing ecological balance through the elimination of many of these pathogens, just as we humans would seek to remove pathogens that invade our own bodies.

This sounds harsh. Cruel. Yet it is nature’s way.

Or, the pathogens can wise up and do their own clean up…just as bacteria do…they adapt, emerge…in response to too much or too little. Perhaps it is not the number of pathogens, but the effect they are exacting on the whole?

Either way, if I were Earth, I would be aware that I had a problem, and very shortly, I would insist on a response.

Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center via Compfight