April 30thA Worm's Eye View
As Earth Month wraps up, I’m reflecting. In a way, the climate movement pins its hopes on this month – a whole month for the whole world to focus on climate, to attend to the needs of the Earth, to make big change for good. As Climate Action Coordinator for Mennonite Church Canada I busily created an Earth Month Celebration Guide so that everyone in our communitycould find their way into the work. I supported For the Love of Creation in creating a Canada wide Earth Week Action Map, so that people across the country would see that they are not alone in their concern for all things environmental. I helped plan and implement a Sustainability Fairin my community with PCAN, my at-home climate action group. I spent time with congregations from across Canada, celebrating Emissions Reduction Projects from the last year and encouraging others to apply for Grants to do their own projects.
And now it’s April 30. Some of you are reading this well into May. Earth Month has ended. Is that it? Do we set aside the impulse to advocate, to conserve and preserve, to shine a light on good practices that support biodiversity? Do we put those things in the closet until next April?
I think not.
Earth Month is a time of focused attention – a moment in the year to be reminded in body and spirit and in community that we are part of Nature – we are the created and our lives depend on recognizing our interconnectedness with our created Kin. Rather than letting this be our one time a year that we party for the Earth, let’s have this be the boost of energy and attention that bears us onward into the rest of the year!
I want to share two things that will bear me forward into the months that are to come. And will ask you in turn, what ongoing reminders of your connectedness to Creation are you taking with you into the months ahead?
There’s a field about 1 ½ miles from my home in Tinker Creek, Manitoba where, if someone has been kind enough to show you exactly where they are, you can visit a small colony of Prairie Crocuses. They bloom for a short few weeks and it’s well worth making the trek to spend time with these ephemeral friends.
I snapped a few photos while I was hanging out with them, trying to catch the worm’s eye view. This photo is going to carry me into the months ahead, reminding me to look up!
And while the worm’s eye view is good for grounding, we also need to get a bird’s eye view once in a while. Marnie Klassen, freelance writer, preacher and facilitator has provided us with a bit of a zoom out perspective for our Climate Action/Creation Care impulses in this article - Already Happening; Reflections on Climate Jazz, Holy Participation, and the Essential Work of Collaboration
“North American individualist culture pushes us to be heroes, saints, and leaders - but we don’t each have to be. We can be participants. We can choose to take the backseat, to “practice playing second fiddle,” at least some of the time. We can choose holy participation.” -from “Already Happening”
Marnie’s article pushes gently at our impulse to “begin from zero” when we see a problem that needs solving - inviting us rather to see “that the world also (holds) goodness and (to imagine ourselves) plugging into work that has already begun.”
As I move into May, June, July and rest of the non-Earth-Month months, I’ll be taking the worm’s eye view and the bird’s eye view with me. What will help you remember to look up? And how will you remember to look broadly so you can see the good things that are Already Happening?