Of Cycles and Seasons An excerpt from Wandering and Welcome: Meditations for Finding Peace by Joseph Grant
O
ur varied faith traditions are infused with profound appreciation for the rhythms and
lessons of the good earth. This natural wisdom shapes seasonal celebrations that mark the passing of our years and reverence our “creaturehood.” As Christianity calcified, mind holding sway over matter, these earth-bound roots withered. Now disembodied, “spirituality” retreated into the conceptual realm of the psyche. A deepening suspicion of nature reduced earth to “dirt” and considered indigenous and rural people primitive. These degrees of separation, in turn, cleared the way for the unrestrained exploitation of nature, treating creatures and earthy human communities as expendable resources in the pursuit of technological “progress.” The symptoms of centuries of deprivation and
domination, our increasingly synthetic lifestyles have now brought us to the brink of global environmental catastrophe. And, nature-deprived faith has, in effect or by neglect, sanctified the pillaging of God’s good garden, a precious inheritance for generations of creatures yet to be. In such a time as this, how can the children of earth, sky, and sea repair our relationships with all our fellow creatures, travelling companions on our shared planet home? Will we earthlings move from hubris to humus and live ourselves into a new way of being together? Living slowly, with fewer compulsions. Living humbly, demanding less. Living simply, reducing our needs. Living consciously, taking nothing for granted. Living peaceably, blaming less and building bridges of reconciliation. Living justly, tolerating fewer and fewer degrees of separation. Living together and less apart, finding excuses to turn community into kin. Living compassionately, shrinking the gap between our Maker’s mercy and our care for neighbors.
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