Leaf us be together!

Last night's snow has mostly melted. Clouds cover today's sky. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny, then partly cloudy then, come April Fool's Day: cloudy again? for several days more? Sigh!

maple buds swelling

Photo by J. Harrington

The buds on the maples in front of the house have swollen. Several days ago we noticed green leaves emerging from the dogwood stems we collected earlier this month. Signs that life goes on despite the trials and tribulations we humans inflict on ourselves.

Did you know that the United Nations once had an Earth Sabbath Service? That's the source of today's poem. It seems to me we're way  past time for it to be reinvigorated. We need all the help we can get to learn to heal the earth and ourselves and each other. I've been rereading a book, Earth Prayers. I first read it a decade or so ago, I think. This time around I'm more sensitive to climate breakdown, the sixth extinction, and zoonotic infections, so the prayers for the earth's, and our, health are affecting me more.

red osier dogwood leaves opening (in the house)

Photo by J. Harrington

There's also an organization promoting the Earth Charter, "an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century." The way I see it, the kind of capitalism we've been practicing has lead us down a dead (literally) end road. We need to either turn around or cut across a field to find a more, and different, successful strategy and basis for an economy. Have you heard or read anything about Doughnut Economics?

There are ever so many new tools and philosophies we can adopt to lead happier, healthier, more equitable and satisfying lives. Ask yourself that famous presidential political question: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Then ask yourself "What are you going to do about it?" Remember, more of the same never solved a problem.

A Prayer of Healing

Reader: We join with the earth and with each other.
To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air

We join with the earth and with each other.
To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures

We join with the earth and with each other.
To celebrate the seas
To rejoice the sunlight
To sing the song of the stars

We join with the earth and with each other.
To recall our destiny
To renew our spirits
To reinvigorate our bodies

We join with the earth and with each other.
To create the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children

Reader:We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: for the healing of the earth and the renewal of all life.

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