Reverence for the Earth ...

The earth and all creatures are

imbued with intrinsic value

and worthy of reverent care.

Bron Taylor

 Hi Everyone!

Tomorrow is Earth Day 2017 and a reminder that we are all tasked with being care-givers for our beloved planet. As with most tasks, this one is easier to fulfill when it flows naturally from deeply held values such as reverence for the Earth and all its creatures. 

Reverence is one of those words used rarely enough that we may be excused for being a little unsure of its meaning. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as, "a deep respect for someone or something". The Reverence Project,  a programme of the Spirituality and Practice website, says that reverence enhances worth and awe and balances or counters wastefulness and ennui (a kind of world-weariness). It is a way of being and acting embraced by ancient cultures and valued, now, by our own indigenous communities.

Spirituality educators, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, describe the basic spiritual practice of reverence this way:

Reverence is the way of radical respect. It recognizes and honours the presence of the sacred in everything - our bodies, other people, animals, plants, rocks, the earth, and the waters. ...

Nothing is too trivial or second class for reverence. But it has to be demonstrated with concrete actions. Don't abuse your body - eat right, exercise, get enough rest. Don't abuse the earth by being wasteful of its gifts. Protect the environment for your neighbours and future generations.

Reverence is also a kind of radical amazement, a deep feeling tinged with both mystery and wonder. Approaching the world with reverence, we are likely to experience its sister - awe. Allow yourself to be moved beyond words.

So, how might we take concrete action to show reverence for the Earth and her creatures tomorrow  and in the days to come? Here are just a few suggestions:

1. Spend time in nature every day - what we learn to love we will want to protect.

2. Make a baby-step change in your daily habits: don't leave the water running when you brush your teeth, turn the lights off when you leave a room, walk or bike or take public transit, fix a leaky faucet, give up bottled water, buy local, go paperless.

3. Make a phone call and encourage your elected representatives to follow through on the environmental promise to reduce methane emissions, no matter what other governments are doing or not doing.

4.  Do everything possible to save green space - and where you can't, plant new trees to help compensate for losses.

5.  Insist on power from clean, renewable resources.

6.  Develop a greener spirituality. Learn more by reading books like Essential Writings by Albert Schweitzer, A Sacred Place to Dwell: Living With Reverence Upon the Earth by Henryk Slolimowski, Sacred Trees by Nathaniel Altman, Field Notes by Barry Lopez, The Hidden Life of Trees by Tim Wohlleben and Tim Flannery,  Why I Wake Early and A Thousand Mornings and others by Mary Oliver, At Home On the Earth edited by David Landis Barnhill or What are People For? by nature poet Wendell Berry.

7.  Get involved in a community garden. Grow and share your own fresh produce.

8.  Volunteer for an environmental charity.

9.  Join a March for Science. 

10.  Go vegan or vegetarian.

11. Have an eco-swap party. Trade good old stuff with family, friends and neighbours.

12. Support green political initiatives. 

However you choose to mark Earth Day 2017, do it with reverence and allow yourself the joy of participating in the protection of this wonderful world.

Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations ...

All we have are moments. So live them as though not one can be wasted. Inhabit them, fill them with the light of your best good intention, honour them with your full presence, find the joy, the calm, the assuredness that allows the hours and the days to take care of themselves. If we can do that, we will have lived.

Richard Wagamese

Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations

Good morning, Everyone!

Yesterday, as I put my life back together after a week on Vancouver Island facilitating two wonderful workshops, my long-awaited copy of Richard Wagamese' last book, Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations, arrived in the mail.

Stopping only long enough to make a piping cup of tea, I curled up on the couch and opened the small volume, savouring its smooth cool pages, fitting photographs of Nature and her creatures and the sweet, spare, honest prose of Richard's hard won wisdom. Within moments, tears were rolling down my cheeks as I sat, overwhelmed by the emotional and spiritual power of his words. I thought, "This is my new book of scripture. My new source of sacred writings." If I could live my life in accord with these truths-of-the-heart, I would live my life well.

Richard writes as one who had long ago died in order to survive but then, at the time of writing, had come back to life in all its fullness. There is wonder, simplicity, authenticity and clarity in his wise words and every short meditation opens a window to hours of transformative reflection.

If you have not read this book, do order it now as a Spring gift to yourself. Here are a few quotations that may entice you:

Keep what's true in front of you, Old Man said. You won't get lost that way. I was asking about making my way through the bush. He was talking about making my way through life. Turns out, all these years later, it was the same conversation.

I'm learning that happiness is an emotion that's a result of circumstances. Joy, though, is a spiritual engagement with the world based on gratitude. It's not the big things that make me grateful and bring me joy. It's more the glory of the small: a touch, a smile, a kind work spoken or received, that first morning hug, the sound of friends talking in our home, the quiet that surrounds prayer, the smell of sacred medicines burning, sunlight on my face, the sound of birds and walking mindfully, each footfall planted humbly on earth.

There are periods when you exist beyond the context of time and fact and reality. Moments when memory carries you buoyant beyond all things, and life exists as fragments and shards of being, when you see yourself as you were and will be again - sacred, whole and shining.

There is sunlight in the mountains today. The morning is crisp and clear as untrammelled thought. Against the sky, the trees raise crooked fingers in praise. To be here is to be affected, made more. Filled. The creative energy of the universe. Drink it in, my friends ... 

May the rich writings of this lovely little book touch and help to transform your life.