A place to meet. Earth Day 2020.

Wednesday April 22, 2020

Earth Day is really about us. All of us. It’s about the network of relationships and systems we’re embedded within, and the ways we might enact them, tend to them, or tear them apart. And some of them really do need tearing apart.

Recently someone asked me, “But what can any of us really do about the climate crisis?”. I immediately felt my guard go up. But in doing so, I made the question all about me. I wanted to show them how much I know, rather than what I don’t. And what I don’t know might have been a better meeting place; at least it’s fertile and common ground from which to start.

Not knowing isn’t just about humility, and it’s certainly not about defeat. It’s active, dynamic. To not know is to open your eyes BIG. Like when moving through a fog up a mountain. You go slow. You pay attention. You can feel the incline and the thickness of fog, maybe even the sound of your breath, or the fear in your heart.

To recognize that fear is part of it. To not let it overwhelm you is another part. Take rest when you need to. Weep when you must. Drink slowly from tiny cups, and let every small bowl fill you up. Keep caring, keep loving, keep giving. As deeply and as often as you can. And each time you do, put your hands in the ocean, because she will give back to you just as much.

Pain, pressure and mess is part of it. All births happen this way. So breathe. Hold someone’s hand tight. Look up at the sky at least once a day, and take heart.