What have I found helpful to keep me centered? Staying centered for me is greatly helped by a trifecta of things that combat the anxiety of caring. The tension that can sometimes creep up on me when I want to see changes sooner than they want to come. When people or situations aren’t changing soon… Continue reading Physical:Social:Spiritual – Practices That Ease the Tension and Bring Me Peace
Book title: ‘Imagination is Still the Key to Unlock Environmental Crisis’. The above book by Chris Sunderland was a good and a disturbing read. The premise of the author is that unless we can begin to imagine the environment as it could be, then everything remains the same. But if we can imagine it as it… Continue reading Shared imagination
In preparation for the last module, I spent time asking myself about the introduction question sent to us: What is a sacred place for me? Even as I was walking to Ammerdown, I still didn’t have a satisfactory answer. I could think of plenty of places I love and appreciate, places that have taken my… Continue reading Sacred places
Sadly, the word that comes to mind when I think about my historic relationship with creation is WASTE. Both literal waste, as in garbage, but also the general waste inherent in a consumerist culture. The culture I was raised in and have embraced for most of my life is built on so much excess, which… Continue reading Look to the birds
For much of my life, I based the value of creation on what it had to offer me. I saw it as something to be used at my disposal and discarded at my whim. Beautiful flowers on my table, a day at the beach, skiing down the snowy slopes of a mountain – if I… Continue reading God Saw That It Was Good
I fell in love with nature at an early age, as I played on the rocky shoreline and swam in the fresh waters of Lake Huron. As an adult, the words of the New Creed of the United Church of Canada, calling us to “live with respect in Creation” became a guiding light as my… Continue reading Going deeper
I am Earth. We are Earth. We are One. We are Many. As our brother Bayo Akomolafe shared: we are more bacteria than we are human. We have more bacterial cells than human cells. We are emergent and interconnected. Science is suggesting what Indigenous peoples, witches and medicine men and women have known for centuries-… Continue reading I am Earth. We are Earth. We are One. We are Many.
“Who must I become as a leader in order to accompany my church in her pilgrimage from the comfort of power and control to the vulnerability of community?” This Journey of Hope continues with Module 2, and something is beginning to shift. I am starting to recognize the presence of a weight that I have… Continue reading Loosening My Grip
