Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

This week we give thanks for the gifts of life, the generosity of our Planet Earth, which has provided us such abundance — flowing waters, rich soils, air to breathe, diversity of life, and the experience, uniquely human, of beauty.

Thunderstorm - NASA - photo by astronauts

All of this now endangered by this one conscious species, Homo sapiens sapiens, among whom are the millions who see not beauty but “resources” to be exploited for human gain.

That is our flaw, our failing.

So this week we invite you to join us in renewing our relationship with the life story that made us possible.  We bow down to this beautiful Earth with the humility of a species coming back home, like the Prodigal Son in the New Testament story, asking forgiveness for the wild time we have had at its expense, with so little thought for the future, so little respect for the intimate relationships that surround our every moment and movement, the milieu in which we dwell — the air we breathe, in and out, part of the constant recycling of the Earth’s atmosphere, for the plant, animal, insect life that keeps the balance in which we exist, for the soils and waters once rich, abundant, and pure, but that reflect now the ill health in our own bodies and spirits.

We have been in an abusive relationship.  We come home and ask forgiveness.  We promise not to do this harm anymore.

We give thanks for the abundance.  We pledge to live simply, with a soft footprint on the planet.  We promise to go outside more, turn off the technology from time to time, take walks, feel the snow falling on our eyelashes, taste the unprocessed foods produced without abuse of the life forms we consume, to feel the Earth beneath our feet, the crisp freezing air in our noses, the touch of soil, flowers, fruit and vegetables — the touch of our children, those precious living forms for which we seek the renewal and regeneration of the abundance of the planet, so that they, too, may know its wonders.

In this time of growing scarcity, may we also increase the space of generosity and compassion in our hearts by a vast amount. May the solidarity many feel for the planet translate also into solidarity within the human community, marked as it is by such profound inequity and injustice. May we see in the suffering of the poor among us a reflection of the state of our own spirits, an indictment of our way of life, a moral challenge in regard to the decisions we make from here on out about the human project on the planet.

Rainbow over Chicago - photo by Deanna

We have many reasons for hope. But hope must be reunited now with a spirit of gratitude, of humility, simplicity, compassion, and a sense that all of us are in this together. If we can begin to live out of that, then there will be much for which to be thankful from this generation on unto the next, and then the next, and then the one after that….

A blessed Thanksgiving to you all!

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Photo credit:

Thunderstorm - Visible Earth, NASA, Earth Science and Image Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center