To say that we are all interconnect sounds nice but sometimes it is hard to visualize. So this morning let's try a little exercise that I use in shamanism workshops. Imagine that you stopped on your way to work this morning and bought a cup of coffee. Start making a list of all of the people that you interacted with. Were this a real workshop I would leave you alone to work on your list. But it's not so let's walk through the process together . . . I expect that there are two people on your list, the barista and the cashier. Good start.
Now, let's start adding all of the hidden people to the list. What about the coffee shop manager, the person that orders the coffee and makes out the work schedule. Oh, and then there is the owner that hired the manager. Better add at least two more people to the list.
How did the coffee get to the coffee shop? Well, maybe a UPS delivery person made a delivery, a couple of boxes filled with bags of coffee. This is going to get complicated. Try to imagine and list all of the people at UPS who were involved in getting the delivery to the coffee shop. Then how did the coffee get to UPS? Was it delivered by ocean freighter from Colombia? We need to include all of those people on our list. Now still working backwards how did the boxes filled with bags of coffee get to the ship? There had to be an in-country packaging and delivery system. And that system probably received the coffee beans from a wholesaler who sent out buyers to the coffee plantations. Guess what, now try and list all of the people involved in growing the coffee, buying it bulk, roasting and packaging the beans, getting the beans to a ship, navigating across the ocean to a port where the container full of boxes full of bags of coffee was off-loaded and delivered to warehouse until an order was received and the boxes were entrusted to UPS for final delivery Wow, that's lots of people.
You probably wish that we were finished but we're not. Did you drink your coffee out of a paper cup? If so, where did the cup come from. Tracing that process backwards will take us all the way to lumberjacks who cut down trees that were sent to a pulp mill.
I bet that the lights were on in the coffee shop. That means that they had electricity. Who strung the power lines? How was the electricity generated? If it was from a coal-fired power plant then who was involved in mining the coal and transporting it by rail to the power plant? Lest we forget, there is a small army of managers, accountants, and clerks at the power company measuring usage and making sure that it is appropriately billed and that the account are paid so that they can continue to generate electricity as well as the engineers and technicians who run the plant. Who built the power plant? Who designed it? Where did the material come from to build it? Our list could get really long.
Far enough? Getting tired yet? Just one more step. By now you have probably thought of hundreds if not thousands of people who made your cup of coffee possible this morning. And you, along with millions of other coffee drinkers helped ensure that all of those people have job today. But we are forgetting someone. We are forgetting spirit.
Plant spirit was there tending the coffee plants, sun spirt was there to provide sunshine and warmth. Earth sprit provided nourishment for the plants. The spirit of the ocean helped support the freighter. Earth and rock spirits were in the ground with the coal. Let us not forget that spirit interpenetrates all. Spirit was there first.
You are not alone. I am not alone. Everything we do affects the web of life. Enjoy this day, find joy in your interconnections with others and with spirit.
Peace,
Dr. Dave
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