So much energy these past weeks is being drawn forth into caring for Creation! Earth Day every year brings much more awareness, and I believe draws more people into refreshing and re-energizing their commitments to the Earth.
I’ve been traveling a fair amount lately– to Sioux Falls, SD, to Aberdeen, SD, to Missoula, MT — learning so much with people about their joys and their sorrows in relation to the Earth. There are many more videos up at our examples page and I continue to be moved and brought to hope by the compassion people share when asked to reflect deeply on their relationships with creation.
Here are some of the resources that have also come across my screen in the past month:
- The Yale Program on Climate Change offers a short quiz and a bunch of resources to help people figure out where the people they are engaging might be when it comes to climate change. The program calls this the “Six Americas” — and I think it’s a a very thoughtful way to think about how to enter into authentic discussion with people. The six carry the labels “alarmed” “concerned” “cautious” “disengaged” “doubtful” and “dismissive.” I think that means that five of the six, at least!, are ways into real dialogue.
- Along those lines, Creation Justice Ministries has a full set of mapping and resources for supporting what they call “faithful resilience efforts.” These are resources that take very seriously the social justice implications of climate change.
- Here is a brief reflection on the history of Earth Day — and context always matters.
- Finally, Emergence Magazine points to a powerful meditation — what they call an “immersive experience” — that draws you into breathing with a forest. I love the notion of “forest bathing” and this is a digital version that invites you to match your breath to the images and sound unfolding on your screen. It will never take the place of actually walking in a forest — or course not! — but it might invite people to start a path that could lead there. I believe that when we speak of God as Holy Spirit — as the “reach”, the “breath” of God — we can join with this kind of contemplative space more deeply.