When I am Among the Trees by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees, 
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks, and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness. 
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment, 
and never hurry through the world 
but walk slowly, and bow often. 

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,”
they say, “and you, too, have come
into the world to do this, to go easy,
to be filled with light, and to shine.”

Mary Oliver

Let It Go by Dana Faulds

Let go of the ways you thought life would unfold, the holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go.

Save your strength to swim with the tide.

The choice to fight what is here before you now will only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts to flee from the very energy you long for.

Let go. Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes through your days whether you received it gently or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders.

Take this on faith; the mind may never find the explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward nonetheless.

Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams or destinations.

Let it all go and find the place of rest and peace, and certain transformation.

A Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear? 

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, 

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Resources for Climate Action

Here are a few resources I have been collecting on my climate journey. There are many others; the important thing to do is to start. Write back if I can support you in taking a first step.

• Climate Action Lists: from Paul Hawken’s book Regeneration

• Books

  • All We Can Save-Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson (allwecansave.earth). See post Every Job is a Climate Job below for info on starting your own circle at work.

  • Speed and Scale- An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now by the venture capitalist John Doerr. www.speedandscale.com

  • The Ministry For the Future, a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, a

  • Saving Us by Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and evangelical Christian

  • The Climate Action Book, A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions for Everyone by Heidi Roop

  • Not Too Late- Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua

• Podcasts:

  • Outrage&Optimism

  • How to Save a Planet

  • A Matter of Degrees

  • My Climate Journey

• Movie and action website: Don’t Look up by the director Adam McKay, available on Netflix, a satire about the climate crisis and the apathetic response of our society and governments and its associated website in partnership with Count Us In for taking action.
  

• Project Drawdown: A list of climate solutions and how to get involved
  

• Activism for people 60 and over: Third Act! with Bill McKibben, a community for experienced Americans who want to engage with the climate crisis.
  

• Carbon Offsets: Wren.co, projects to invest in to offset your carbon footprint

  If you have any feedback on any of these resources, please write back.

In Praise of the Earth by John O'Donohue

In Praise of the Earth

Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.

And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.

When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.

Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.

Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.

The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed’s self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.

The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.

The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

~ John O’Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)