Quote of the Day: In Debbie Hale’s wondrous book, Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible, she says this: “Being alive involves a lot: suffering and taste buds and sweetness and muck. The spirit of God is not apart from this.” Whether we call that spirit Creator or Elder Brother or the Tao or the evolutionary process, we still get the muck from which we arose, sweetness in our innocence as children, taste buds and sensuality as we mature, and suffering as we decline.
Commentary: The Earth is not just about celebrating the sweetness and beauty of life on earth. It’s also about how to reduce the suffering from all the muck we’ve gotten ourselves stuck in by the ways we often miss the mark as caretaking participants in the planet’s health. We are and will continue to be participants in that Creation. Which way do you want it to go?
Suggested Action #35: Okay, okay, I’ve been suggesting that you spend time in silence each day, but today I want you to shout, sing, wail or ululate. Shout out every name you’ve ever heard for the Creative Spirit within and around us. Wail, cry or ululate for every wound you have ever witnessed or touch on the body of this planet, a body which you and I belong to as much as bees belong to a hive. Don’t stop wailing until your lamentations have offered you a fresh path forward.
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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.
