Some food for thought

Nine days to our daughter's wedding, but this dropped into my inbox today, and I thought I'd share it since it's all about how one family chooses to live simply...

Simple Suggestion #264... Set yourself an Eco-challenge (or join one)

With Spring upon us and Earth Day just behind us, it's past time to wake up our ecological awareness after a winter of hibernation, or at least that's how I'm feeling these days. Not that I ever give up on trying to reduce my ecological footprint or on saving the planet further problems, just that when the weather improves and nature revives herself in this hemisphere, it's a good time to revisit all the things we can do to live in harmony with her all year round.

The people at Kindspring.org have come up with a 21-day Eco-Footprint Challenge that began on Earth Day.

So far, I'm impressed with their daily schemes for reducing my personal impact on our planet. Though most of the resources they reference come from U.S. based websites, their ideas are definitely applicable to North Americans in general. All world citizens can give a thought to our use of light, to using less energy for the heating or cooling of our homes, to eating in-season food that comes from closer to home, and to supporting local conservation projects (the topics addressed thus far). And for those who like to write, or to share and compare results, there's the option to post stories and read about the efforts of others when it comes to responding to different suggestions and tasks.

It's not hard to join/sign up for Kindspring's daily email that explains each challenge, but even those who don't have time to bother with an online program can make improvements just by say, being more aware of our use of the earth's resources each day. Can we use less water? Walk or bike instead of driving? Have a vegetarian meal? Remember those reusable bags, water bottles, or coffee mugs? Maybe revisit our ecological footprint and see if it's gotten any smaller?

What eco-challenge will you set for yourself today?

Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion #263... Consider all living things as neighbours

The City of Edmonton has made a neat little JSYK (Just So You Know) video (below) about "critters," and I just have to share it here, simply because too many of us human beings have removed ourselves so far from nature that we tend to see living things in terms of two categories: "Useful" or "Nuisance." When we come up against a critter that we don't like or that scares us, we quickly forget that every living thing is part of the web of life that supports us all, and in the case of bugs, out come the chemical pesticides (that contain poisons which are increasingly causing disease in our bodies, too...)

Yesterday I noticed a small spider in our greenhouse. I was fascinated to see it tracking a fungus gnat on the window pane, and very surprised when it jumped and caught the gnat for a quick lunch. Because I suspected it would grow into a bigger spider that I wouldn't want to deal with later on, and not wanting to walk through webs in my work space, I caught the little critter in a pail and took it out into the sunshine where it ran and hid in some rocks.

Turns out it was a Zebra Jumping Spider that doesn't grow any larger than it already was, spins webs only as safety lines, and hunts for prey by crawling around. So the little Zebra and I could have happily coexisted in the greenhouse for the most part, at least until she decided to leave an egg sac behind. I don't really want an overpopulation of Zebra Spiders in the greenhouse, but now I may end up with an overpopulation of gnats. Oh well, they're part of the ecosystem too, somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDPJIjakXlg

Peter Daly, the Biological Sciences Technical Assistant in the video, makes a good point when he says, "Considering the importance of insects in general ecosystems, I'd certainly like to think of them more as friends and neighbours, and helpers, rather than just pests." 

And really, that's a good way to look at all living things on our planet. I just wish Peter had gone one step further to recommend avoiding the chemical pesticides and herbicides that too many of us use to do away with weeds and those insect friends and neighbours. Better to take ecologically friendly approaches...

So today's Simple Suggestion is to notice your neighbours of all shapes and sizes, and to treat them kindly. Definitely don't treat them with poisonous chemicals, and maybe don't put them in your little sister's hair!

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Laudato Si: Sunday reflection #3... Becoming ecology-minded

Cameron Lake, near Waterton, Alberta

Do you remember a time when our earth's beauty bowled you over? When nature left you exultant, and/or speechless?

I suspect that St. Francis, after he became aware of his littleness in creation, spent much of his life in awareness of the incredible world God made and its many creatures (his Canticle of the Sun is just one example of his delight). And I'm guessing that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is cut from the same cloth.

Today I'm moodling about paragraphs 7-12 of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, which can be accessed by clicking here. Pope Francis' latest encyclical letter includes both Patriarch Bartholomew and St. Francis in its introduction.

I hadn't run into Patriarch Bartholomew until reading Laudato Si, but what I read in paragraphs 8 and 9 makes me think he's probably an unheralded wise man who has a lot to tell us. He's the bishop of Constantinople, and as such, is considered the humble leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. He speaks strongly about humanity's actions against creation: "For human beings... to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life -- these are sins."

But being one of those people who likes to take a positive approach to dealing with issues, I prefer it when he uses powerful words to call us to change by replacing "consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which "entails learning to give and not simply to give up... a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God's world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed, and compulsion."" (paragraph 9)

Bartholomew's words fit with how St. Francis actually lived. I've gone on at length about St. Francis in several of my moodlings (click here to read one of my first posts about him). He's my favourite saint because I think he really understood and lived the way Jesus invites us all to live -- humbly, lovingly, and in harmony with creation. When the present pope was elected and it was announced to the multitudes in St. Peter's Square and over media across the globe that he had chosen the name Francis, I cried tears of joy because anyone who would model himself after Francis of Assisi would be following the direction that Jesus intended us to go before we started using our brains instead of our hearts, distracting ourselves from the love of God and neighbour with arguments over heady doctrines and dogmas.

Looking to St. Francis and Bartholomew for examples is easy. I only wish the encyclical also included wise words from the likes of Thich Nhat Hanh or the Dalai Lama. I can easily imagine them, along with St. Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew, heads together, nodding in agreement over the peaceful and prayerful directions humanity needs to take to save the earth. Who was it who said, "Life is fragile -- handle with prayer"? To that, they would add, handle with justice, with compassion, with respect and love for all creatures...

These are the kinds of people (along with many women who have focused on Creation Spirituality) who really show humanity the way when it comes to living within and loving creation, but they get pretty short shrift in our media these days. Of course, people in Assisi thought Francis was a bit off his rocker because he preached to the birds and the flowers and called inanimate things his brothers and sisters. But he was really the wisest of fools, because rather than taking things for granted as we tend to do in this new millennium, he insisted on treating all of creation as utterly important, not just human beings, and most especially the lowliest of the lowly. (Our media this week spent time on the break-up of Kermit and Miss Piggy. Even in a slow news week, aren't there more important things?)

I'd like to positively paraphrase the last ideas of paragraph 11 because I can imagine St. Francis using words like this, too: If we approach nature and the environment with openness, awe and wonder, if we speak the language of community and beauty in our relationship with the world, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then care will well up spontaneously, and we will never turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled. And that's how the world becomes a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise instead of a problem to be solved.

Of course, simple positive thinking isn't enough to solve all our problems, to make humanity ecology-minded and turn us from our present course of destruction. The positive thinking has to be translated into action. The challenge is to stop acting as masters, consumers and ruthless exploiters of the earth, trying to satisfy our limitless wants through taking everything.

So today... I want to put on my ecological mind. It's time to look around my life a little. Where am I overdoing it with my consumption of the earth's resources? Where am I failing to appreciate creation? Where do I need to care more and exploit less? It could be something as simple as remembering to turn off a light, or compost an apple core. To avoid buying something I don't need. To think less of myself, whose needs are satisfied, and offer my resources to do more for those whose basic needs aren't being met.

The point is to start thinking like St. Francis, who followed closer in Christ's steps than most of us ever will. Let's consider how we are using (or abusing?) our water, air, earth, and the lives of other creatures with whom we share our world.

It's just a small start back towards the speechless wonder we need to cultivate as members of God's creation. And making it a daily habit to be aware of our consumption of resources and to pray for our earth might also help us to restore the balance it has lost on our account. That's what I am committing to today:

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: #4... The immense and urgent challenge