In observance of Earth Day we offer a set of practices you can do to honor the Earth over the next months.
Spiritual practices are the best ways we know to demonstrate kindness and courtesy toward the Earth, to express our gratitude and wonder, to yield to the mystery and the beauty of it all.
Based on our Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy, we offer these practices you can do to honor the Earth over the next months.
1. Attention
The great Catholic writer Ernesto Cardenal in Abide in Love observes: “Everything in nature has a trademark, God’s trademark: the stripes on a shell and the stripes on a zebra; the grain of the wood and the veins of the dry leaf; the markings on the dragonfly’s wings and the pattern of stars on a photographic plate; the panther’s coat and the epidermal cells of the lily petal; the structure of atoms and galaxies. All bear God’s fingerprints.”
Go for a walk and look for God’s trademarks. Better still, use a camera to document evidence of God’s fingerprints in the nature.
2. Being Present
Annie Dillard has written: ‘My God, what a world. There is no accounting for one second of it.” Get personal with one small piece of the Earth. Sit in the dirt in your backyard. Play in the sand at the beach. Roll in the grass. Stand under a waterfall. Sense the Earth as an animal senses it.
Be really present with your planetary host.
3. Connections
Share a story with family or friends, or write in your journal, about a time when you were humbled, soothed, or awed by something in the natural world. How did you feel connected to nature?
Recommended: Happy Earth Day! 10 Powerful Spiritual Quotes About Earth Day
4. Devotion
Adopt a tree, a park, a beach, a waterway, or a piece of wild land, and look out for its welfare. Clean up in and around it. Write letters to officials and newspapers on issues that affect it.
In its honor, include in your daily prayers petitions to alleviate the sufferings of dying plants and trees, polluted rivers and oceans, and toxic lands.
Better Globe offers a great way to do this. Buy a tree today in Africa for only 17$ and you can help make a better planet.
The best part, you can also make money from it by helping the earth and the people. Check here to buy a tree today: Buy a Tree
5. Hospitality
Invite some bugs into your house for an evening. Rent the fascinating and illuminating video Microcosmos directed by French biologists Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou.
This documentary presents one day in a French countryside meadow where butterflies, ants, spiders, and many other insects cavort in their small and exquisite worlds.
6. Joy
Listen to Three Dog Night’s classic rock song Three Dog Night: Joy to the World with the lyric “Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea.”
Imagine all the other gifts of God in the plant and animal kingdom that give you pleasure and fill your heart with joy.
7. Justice
Hold a Council of All Beings in your school, congregation, or community center. Each participant in the circle speaks for another life-form — an animal, plant, tree, body of water, etc., expressing the being’s concerns.
You might talk about threats to the being’s habitat or freedom, the effects of pollution, natural disasters, and wars. After all the beings have spoken, talk as humans about your responsibilities to correct some of the environmental and cultural injustices you have identified.
8. Openness
Embrace your environment. Walk around the perimeter of your home. Explore it as if being there for the first time. What do you see, feel, hear, smell? Continue this process as you move further out into your community.
Make a list of things you discover that you have never seen before.
9. Teachers
Find a teacher in nature and let her give you a lesson today. Here’s an example from Natalie Goldberg: “Be tough the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.”
10. Unity
Susan Seddon Boulet’s shamanic paintings feature the intertwined figures of humans and animals. Her art brings us to a fresh appreciation of interspecies unity.
Recommended: 7 Signs Your Inner Shaman is Awakening
Check out the book Susan Seddon Boulet: A Retrospective at your library, or Google “Susan Seddon Boulet Gallery” to find examples of her images online.
11. Wonder
Set up a wonder table in your home or classroom. Make it a place where people can display wonders of the nature world they have found — actual examples or photographs of them.
12. You
Rededicate yourself to the live lightly and respectfully on the planet. Repeat this vow:
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the song of the stars
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children
We join with the Earth and with each other.
We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: for the healing of the Earth and the renewal of all life.
Help Gostica raise the vibrations and SHARE this article with your family and friends.
By: spiritualityandpractice.com
As I website owner I believe the content material here is really good appreciate it for your efforts.live stream cnbc free
Aluminium surface treatment recycling Aluminum alloy recycling Recycling aluminium circular economy
Transformer copper scrap buyer Copper scrap legal requirements Scrap copper transportation
Copper scrap grading Copper sheet and plate recycling Scrap copper market trends
Very nice blog post. definitely love this site.tick with it!Live TV
Aluminium scrap trade Recycling aluminium material handling Aluminium recycling strategies
Aluminum scrap collection and transportation methods Aluminium recycling sustainability initiatives Aluminium scrap ingot production
Metal recycling and reclaiming Aluminium scrap material recovery Aluminum scrap packaging
Scrap metal commerce, Aluminum cable scrap grades, Scrap metal inventory management
Metal scrap treatment Aluminium recycling market growth Aluminum scrap buyer
Metal scraps reclamation, Aluminum cable scrap industry, Scrap metal reclamation plants
Metal waste reprocessing center Aluminium recycling circular economy Aluminum scrap buyer
Scrap metal disposal facility, Recycle aluminum cables for cash, Scrap metal repurposing
This is my first time pay a quick visit at here and i am really happy to read everthing at one place .-die fliege stream
Metal recovery and repurposing solutions Ferrous material inventory Iron scrap repurposing center
Ferrous metal recovery and reuse, Iron scrap inspection services, Metal recovery and recycling
colibrim.com
Metal waste dismantling Metal waste audit Iron scrap dismantling
Ferrous material materials research, Iron scrap brokerage, Metal reclamation facility services
Copper scrap management solutions Copper scrap buying Metal recycling industry certifications
Copper cable reception, Scrap metal innovation, Copper scrap management
Scrap metal reforming, Copper scrap handling, Copper cable recycling technology, Metal scrap brokering
Great post Thank you. look forward to the continuation.BOJACK 37 Values 480 Pcs Electronics Component Fun Kit with Power Supply Module Jumper WirePrecision Potentiometer830 tie-Points Breadboard Compatible with STM32Raspberry PiArduino – Hot Deals
Industrial scrap recycling Ferrous metal recycling safety Iron scrap cleaning
Ferrous material stakeholder communication, Iron waste reusing services, Metal waste collection
Scrap metal marketing strategies Ferrous scrap merchants Iron and steel reclaiming and recycling
Ferrous material recapturing, Iron scrap processing facility, Metal recovery facility
Metal scrap market forecasting Ferrous material recycling revenue generation Iron disposal services
Ferrous metal collection services, Iron scrap reclaiming facilities, Metal scrap brokerage services
Transport regulations for scrap metal handling Ferrous material process improvement Iron scrap reclaiming plant
Ferrous material recycling ecosystem preservation, Scrap iron scrapyard, Scrap metal inventory