Wake Up!

I guess this is a day for reprinting others' words on this blog, but this quote from Eckhart Tolle just came to my inbox via the Unity Church e-newsletter and I thought it was very applicable to green living.

I've noticed in the few short months that I've been taking baby steps towards living green, that I've started to wake up and be more conscious. Things that I once did routinely--like leaving the water running while I brush my teeth, or constantly reaching for paper towels--are now becoming acts of sacred consciousness because I want to do them differently, more consciously.

This awakening, to me, is at the heart of green living.

And now--Eckhart!

"Here is a spiritual practice that will bring empowerment and creative expansion into your life. Make list of a number of everyday routine activities that you perform frequently. Include activities that you may consider uninteresting, boring, tedious, irritating, or stressful. But don't include anything that you hate or detest doing. That's a case for either acceptance or for stopping what you do. The list may include traveling to and from work, buying groceries, doing your laundry, or anything that you find tedious or stressful in your daily work.
Then, whenever you are engaged in those activities, let them be a vehicle for alertness. Be absolutely present in what you do and sense the alert, alive stillness within you in the background of the activity. You will soon find that what you do in such a state of heightened awareness, instead of being stressful, tedious, or irritating, is actually becoming enjoyable. To be more precise, what you are enjoying is not really the outward action but the inner dimension of consciousness that flows into the action. This is finding the joy of Being in what you are doing. If you feel your life lacks significance or is too stressful or tedious, it is because you haven't brought that dimension into your life yet. Being conscious in what you do has not yet become your main aim."
Eckhart Tolle, in "A New Earth"