The Dreams We Share

We can create a new civilization with our dreams, thoughts, feelings, and actions-and many of us are already doing so. Our current civilization is beyond saving because it is totally unsustainable.

Gaia needs us to listen, to learn from our elders who lived, and even flourished, for billions of years through her ever-changing ways and ages. The rocks, trees, insects, and the millions of species that call Earth home have wisdom of tremendous value to share with us if we are open to experiencing and witnessing them. Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, describes, for example, lessons that we could draw from the many different mosses.

Once we consider the elements that make up our world, know them for the great beings they are-beginning with water, the basis of all life-we can align ourselves with natural laws, or core principles. These natural laws affirm the necessity for giving and receiving, and the value of meeting each being's unique needs.

Utopian! one might exclaim. Yet every day it becomes clearer that our very survival depends on our alignment with these fundamental laws. The Covid pandemic has revealed our utter dependency on each other, has shown us what is essential and non-essential work, as well as the fragility of our institutions based on man-made laws that have little relationship to the miraculous beings that shape every moment of our days, starting, yes, with the molecules we breathe, expressed as a breeze of flowing waves through branches, bushes, grasses, birdsong, and the dreams we share.

Born on a kibbutz, Raphael Block spent his boyhood playing on the hills of Haifa. His family returned to London as he turned nine, where learning British English shaped his ear for sound. In 1993 he moved to Northern California with his American wife, Deborah Simon Block, and their three-year-old daughter, Theadora. After Deborah passed away from cancer in 2002, it became Raphael's privilege to raise their child. As a teacher, Raphael worked with children under five for many years in London's inner city. In California he taught all grade levels, including teaching Waldorf, and also worked with kids with disabilities. A Sufi meditation practice and two life-threatening illnesses, Crohn's and MDS, a form of leukemia, have played major roles in intensifying his appreciation and gratitude for the moments of each day.