After reading of the latest UN Climate Report’s assessment that we have reached “code red for humanity,” I am feeling great sadness. However, I have to admit that the report did not come as a surprise to me.
Hospice Work for Mother Earth
At the same time that I feel regret and sadness I also hold hope in my heart. Many years ago a minister I knew told me how he meditated holding the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other hand. This was his way of expressing that we need to both witness the horrible things that are happening in the world and hold onto our faith that kindness, compassion, and love are also present in the worst of times.
Today’s newsletter from author, Trebbe Johnson, spoke to me this morning in the same way that my minister friend spoke to me years ago. Here is a short excerpt from the newsletter:
What can a conscientious person do besides mourn and try to drive less as we confront the hyperobject of climate change? We can embrace our urgent, sacred task as hospice workers for the Earth.
We can:
- bow each day in gratitude to the trees and animals that still surround us, knowing that life is getting harder and harder for them
- offer a moment of silent meditation for the lands and waters, and for all the beings who depend on them, when those places around the world fall prey to destruction
- walk mindfully in a dried, drought-stricken lake bed
- make prayers to the vast and troubled sky
- sing to the trees in a dying forest
- refuse to turn your back on reality
- refuse to succumb to helplessness
— Trebbe Johnson, Radical Joy for Hard Times newsletter
As I took my walk with my camera this morning I bowed in gratitude to the trees, rabbits, and squirrels I saw along the way. Periodically I stopped and simply witnessed the life all around me. I noticed the almost dry stream bed beside the path and the dry leaves that have already begun to fall from the trees. Though it is difficult, I refuse to turn my back on reality or to pretend that everything is okay. At the same time I deliberately find ways to celebrate the life and beauty that surrounds me. This is my hospice work for mother earth.
Reason for Hope
These times are bitter sweet. Every day there is a new reminder of everything that we humans have destroyed. Between pandemic, fires, floods, and increasing violence it sometimes seems that things are falling apart faster and faster. But we humans who created many of these problems through our hubris and greed bear a responsibility to witness and to work to mitigate the damage in any way that we can.
“On your darkest days do not try to see the end of the tunnel by looking far ahead. Focus only on where you are right now. Then carefully take one step at a time, by placing just one foot in front of the other. Before you know it, you will turn that corner.”
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As I walked in my own front yard today I noticed how even where the grass is brown and dormant there were healthy happy green weeds shooting up. I had been pulling the weeds as I saw them pop up. But this morning I realized that the weeds I was pulling were some plants that clearly thrive with less water. Though I’m not quite ready to let them grow everywhere in the front yard, perhaps I can watch a few instead of pulling them. While I would love to replace our entire lawn with wild gardens, it takes a lot of work to maintain the so-called wild areas and it’s not something I feel able to take on at this point in my life.
Finding Beauty in Wounded Places
Still I continue to ask each day, “What can I do?” Sometimes it’s making a choice to use glass containers instead of plastic. Other days it’s a decision to stay home and walk in the neighborhood instead of driving somewhere. And always, I seek to find or make beauty wherever I am.
“Learning to live with wounded places is a mission threaded with finding and making beauty. If I’m open to the likelihood of it, I can always find beauty under any circumstances whether it’s in a kindly gesture from a stranger or the first shoot of greenery shoving up through the waste of a calamitous event. Beauty is the antidote to grief and despair, and it is the one sure thing I can bring to bear when I confront a place that has fallen on hard times.”
— Trebbe Johnson, Radical Joy for Hard TImes: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places
My farm girl heart holds high hopes for regenerative agriculture to help heal the land. The one climate change activity on my to-do list today is to write a letter to my representatives to encourage them to find innovative ways through the farm program to encourage more regenerative agriculture in our country.
Can you also see the beauty through your sorrow? What is your hospice work for mother earth today?
May you walk in beauty.
Note: photos in today’s post from my morning walk today.
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