Quote of the Day: Rumi once wrote, “I have no vocation but this, and no need to touch every rose and thorny point…I would explain, but words will not help, how there is nothing to grieve.”
Commentary: Angst and guilt about how our society has mistreated the earth and its many people will not get us very far. We simply need to take little, modest but ultimately significant actions to care for our “earth household.” Once went I went on a silent pilgrimage to Assisi, I saw the feet of the Christ on the San Damiano cross wiggling at me. I started to giggle. Trying to fix the walls of the ancient chapel damaged by an earthquake, power drills and jackhammers were rowdily blowing away my attempt to live in silence. And then, on top of that, Jesus and St. Francis were whispering to me, “piccoli passi a piedi…” as if to tell me, “just take little steps…little steps along the path.”
Suggested Action #49: Today on your walk, don’t go too far. Take little steps, half your usual gait, as you slowly a quietly walk forward. Take baby steps. And allow yourself to giggle at the absurdity of this lovely, broken world, the cracked chapel we dwell and pray in by breathing every day.
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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.
