For the last 36 hours my body has been fighting the toxins that came from undercooked wild mushrooms. I lost about 5 pounds and didn’t sleep much. I also couldn’t get comfortable no matter how or where I would sit or lie down. Suffice to say, it was a miserable time.
I thought much about people who experience poisoning of any kind and live in a refugee camp, are on the run, and have no toilets or washing machines. I thought about people who share toilets with countless others. Amidst the bodily turmoil in the midst of a crisis, I counted my blessings and surrendered.
It occurred to me that we are in a similar planetary turmoil and fighting the turbulence. But the fighting doesn’t work, has never worked in the entire history of mankind. Fighting delays healing. One can try to fight one toxin with another – “I’ve got to have that cup of coffee or glass of beer when the body yells ‘no, no!’, and the misery is prolonged.
I see toxins all over the front page of our Sunday New York Times this morning. Greed is fueling unsavory practices in the pharmaceutical industry as there are great harvests to be reaped from pandemic cure-alls. Who would not want to buy the wonder drug? People’s stock portfolios are skyrocketing on the mere suggestion that a wonder drug is around the corner, so better take advantage of that and accumulate more riches.
It’s probably not a co-incidence that someone put the book ‘The Soul of Money’ by Lynne Twist on my path. It showed up on the Miro board we are creating in the Upcreate! project. I could have picked any of the 50 or so books that are on our virtual bookshelf.
I don’t think I would have bought a book with that title. As I was curled up in a ball while my body was busy getting rid of the toxins, I couldn’t put the book away. I learned that Lynne has a long association with The Hunger Project (THP). It is probably no co-incidence, again, that I applied for and have just been accepted as a volunteer coach for a yet to be determined senior staff member of THP in West Africa.
The book is timely in other ways as I work with teams and individuals in the US and in South Africa who are struggling with all the things that are missing. Lynne writes about the lie of scarcity that she claims is at the root of the toxins that have invaded our minds and from there leaked into our bodies, our communities, our countries, the soil, and the air. Today’s NYT magazine (the climate issue) bears witness to what our lie of scarcity has done to the land we rely on for our food and our livelihoods.
The lie of scarcity has focused our attention on everything that we don’t have, as opposed to what we do have. “No matter who we are or what our circumstances, we swim in conversations about what there isn’t enough of.” (Lynne Twist, 2017:43). Not enough time, not enough money, not enough sleep, not enough food, not enough respect, not enough love, not enough support…the list is endless. Yet, no matter who we are or what our circumstances, we do have a lot. And I am deeply and gratefully aware of all that I have enough of:
- a body sufficiently fit to fight the toxins
- a garden and nearby farm stands with fresh vegetables
- a loving family
- an extended circle of faithful and caring friends
- a beautiful and safe home
- a place to be cool in the middle of a heat wave
- and so much more.
I have enough.
Sylvia's Journal 
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