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Expand your horizons as far as you can imagine a harmonious pattern.

Quote of the Day: One of my favorite biographers of our Patron Saint of Ecology, Adrian House offers this perspective on Francis’s and Clare’s vision of creation. “Looking up at any time of day or night , Francis, Clare and their brothers could visualize a  ‘reverie of insatiable love’ in which they had a vital role to play, for one of the fundamentals of the universe was unity; every component related to every other… in a harmonious pattern.”

Commentary: It is ironic that so many have forgotten that some of the first satellite imagery of the entire Earth as a planet was released with the advent of the first Earth Day! We had few images of the “whole earth” to which we belonged until then! It has taken another 50 years to begin to act as if “the whole earth matters,” as if we are part of a harmonious pattern. Earth Day unfurled that image as a flag seen by 20 million people that auspicious day.

Suggested Action #12: As you walk and look at the earth and sky, reflect upon the difference between envisioning the whole earth as our home and accepting campanilismo—the Italian term for provincialism, which means “living within reach of the sound of the parish church’s bell!” Expand your horizons as far as you can imagine a harmonious pattern.

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Gary Paul Nabhan aka Brother Coyote is a professed member of the Ecumenical Order of Franciscans, a graduate of the Living School, a conservation biologist, orchard-keeper and story-teller.

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