Have you ever considered how often the word “sacrifice” is connected to making sustainable, more socially just choices? And not in the original “to make sacred” way. Sacrifice, as we collectively define it now, is often all about the loss and nothing about the sacred. It’s like a beautiful gift tied up in lead-heavy sheets of guilt and pain. (The origin of the word sacrifice comes from Latin/Old French/Middle English words “sacer” (sacred), and “facere” (to make). Thank you Wikipedia for the definition.)
Where did the original meaning of “to make sacred” go? Certainly as “sacrifice” became more associated with people dying in conflicts unwillingly, or animals being unwillingly killed in ritual purposes the true meaning of the word – and the energy & vibration it holds in our consciousness – began to warp. When the gift of energy or creativity being given was a loving service to the community, then the gift was made sacred. When it was energy or creativity appropriated in the service of fear or greed then the meaning was warped, and we began to build these cellular memories of pain, shame and guilt around what was once a spiritual act.
What I’d like to see, in my own life and for all of us, is a return to “making sacred” our choices, even when they involve changes in our lives that we may perceive as a “loss.” I’d like to review the energy I put into no longer buying food packaged in plastic, or buying and eating seasonal, local foods. There is a sacred gift in this choice that acknowledges my love and responsibility for this ecosystem where I live, even if it does mean missing some foods at certain times of the year. When we shift our thinking from “sacrificing” having summer fruit in winter to “gifting” our ecosystem – our extended community – with fewer carbon emissions, less waste in landfills, and the loving energy and attention of living in harmony with the season, we are making that act sacred. We are purging some of the pain and shame residue that collective experience of “sacrifice” deposited in our memories. And that is a loving gift indeed. Is there anything you are viewing as a sacrifice that you could re-frame as a loving gift?