Making Meaning

Yesterday I made sure to take a walk in the morning before already cold temperatures plummeted even more. On my walk I used my phone camera to make a few images of the cold reality I saw all around me. Even though snow covered the ground I found beauty.

Though I would love to greet the new year outdoors, with sub-zero temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills today, I don’t plan to go outside. As I gaze out my window I am fascinated by the birds visiting the feeder today. They don’t linger long but they visit at regular times during the day, in the early morning, a little before 11 am, and then finally around 3 pm they make their last visit of the day. Their feathers are fluffed out to the max, helping them to maintain their body heat in the frigid temperatures.

Today, on the first day of the year I wonder about what this year will bring. As the pandemic continues roar through our communities, climate change effects become more evident, and people become more polarized, will we continue to dither and fight or will we begin to wake up and change?

I finished reading Jane Goodall’s most recent book, A Book of Hope, last night and though I wished for a magical happy ending, I was left with no specific action plan, only hope, and continuing belief that we need a new story as humans, a story of being deeply connected to nature and one another, and of living in harmony with one another and with nature. The story I think we need contains wonder, gratitude, joy, and deep reverence for all forms of life.

… a sense of meaning is so important for hope and happiness, isn’t it… Without meaning, life is empty and day will follow day, month will follow month, and year will follow year in mindless succession.

— Jane Goodall, A Reason for Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

We also need to believe that the small actions we take individually can make a difference. In her book Jane told a true story of two men in China who made a huge difference despite one of them being blind and the other having been born with no arms. Together they decided to plant trees, the man with no arms becoming the eyes for the man with no sight. Unbelievably they have now created a forest of over 10,000 trees!

“Though we are limited physically, our spirit is limitless. So let the generation after us, and everyone else, see what two handicapped individuals have accomplished. Even after we’re gone, they will see that a blind man and an armless man have left them a forest.”

— quote in Jane Goodall, A Reason for Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

What are you being called to do in your life this year, my friend? Will you choose hope and making meaning?

May you walk in beauty.