by Ivette Ebaen

	Trashing Mother Earth (Council Suit) by Ivette Ebaen I Am One Who weeps because your ignorance is killing me.

I never thought of myself as a political person until it became apparent that politics infuses one's entire life. There's no way around it. If you prefer hemp to polyester, politics is involved. If you prefer soy milk to cow's milk, leather as opposed to cotton, sashimi to sautéed flounder, vegetable lasagna to beefsteak, stilettos to tennis shoes; if you say Yes to Buddhism and No to Christianity, purchase domestic goods instead of foreign - you're ensconced in politics. If you have a preference, you've made a political statement; you are in favor of one and against the other.
 
Even so, we are affected by one another's choices and our actions. No person is an island. No one can withdraw or claim he or she is separate from the rest of humanity and survive. Which leads me to consider how interconnected, interrelated, and dependent on one another we are.
 

The World is My Oyster, I Shall Not Want (Community Suit), by Ivette Ebaen I Am the chemical fog that destroys your refuge, your solace, and even life itself.

If we reduce the use and distribution of certain goods and/or services, or if an animal becomes extinct that once served as food, the change causes a domino effect that affects nations, imbalances the eco-system and the world - socially, politically, and economically, putting the Earth at risk of imploding.

I never thought of myself as an activist either, until I made my first SoulCollage® card on the theme of Environmental Awareness.

Before me lies a source of images I can't turn my back on. I'm forced to feel what the earth suffers every day. I look through stacks of photos of Third World countries littered with children playing on hill-size garbage dumps. I peer at oceans of oil spills and the thousand animals we can't save; their furs and feathers saturated in a slick of oil impossible to clean.

I cringe at the sight of raging forest fires. The corpses of deer and squirrel left to simmer in their graves. Seeing land erode and miles of green pastures turning into wasteland, adding to the nightmare I can't escape.

	I Swim At Your Mercy (Community Suit), by Ivette Ebaen I Am One Who reminds you to see me, to take care of me, for you are a part of me, as I am a part of you.

When I see the emaciated body of a six-year-old, held by his mother as if he was an infant, tears flood my eyes. My body shakes from disgust, from the shock of this visual experience.
 
My mind struggles to compare, trying somehow to relate. Yet I can't imagine what devastation feels like to those who suffer the crimes we commit.

So, how do we increase environmental awareness through SoulCollage®?

No matter the issue, the very nature of SoulCollage® lends itself to creating awareness. Looking at and seeing images pertaining to environmental disasters, whether natural or manmade, impacts consciousness, stirs the emotions, educates us, and ultimately triggers a response.

In a nonverbal way, these images offer a different perspective on the world, stimulate compassion, and sensitize us to needs other than our own.

Many of us feel we can't make a difference. Yet we can.

To consider the possibilities, to hold the thought in mind, to focus one's attention on the well-being of others and the Earth, to make cards devoted to environmental awareness - all these acts constitute participating. Every thought generates kindness, circulates blessings, increases light and love throughout the world like waves carried out into the ocean.

"I Am One Who is you. I am the Many in the existing One," declares my Trashing Mother Earth card. "To destroy me is to destroy the very self you worship."

You might not be digging ditches in Afghanistan or performing open-heart surgery. Still, you can make a card, and send a prayer through the ethers stating that you care.


Ivette Ebaen is an artist in many media, an avid meditator, and a SoulCollage® Facilitator since October 2016, with an MA in Transpersonal Psychology from Atlantic University and Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment, She lived and worked for years in New York City, but now calls County Mayo, Ireland home. Visit her at website.

Each Pack contains 12 -- 8" x 5" quality blank mat board cards, 24-pack of Clear Sleeves, a Pioneer glue stick, a SoulCollage® logo pen and a SoulCollage® frame.

 
Introduction to the Fundamentals of SoulCollage® with Mariabruna Sirabella