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For the Earth Forever Turning: An Earth Day Meditation
on Our Home
Reverend Brian J. Kiely, Unitarian Church of
Edmonton, April 25, 2004
The earth is all that lasts.
The earth is what I speak to when
I do not understand my life
Nor why I am not heard.
The earth answers me with the same song
That it sang for my fathers when
Their tears covered up the sun.
The earth sings a song of gladness.
The earth sings a song of praise.
The earth rises and laughs at me
Each time that I forget
How spring begins with winter
And death begins with birth. — Nancy Wood.
“The earth answers me with the same song that it sang for
my fathers.”
This planet, this ground on which we build our cities is the only
thing we know that will endure. Perhaps it will not last forever,
but it will surely outlast anything we can conceive, build or even
imagine. It has hung here in space for three and a half billion years,
always changing, always moving, but always here…always here.
“The earth sings a song of gladness. The earth sings a song
of praise.”
Perhaps that’s the beauty and wisdom of age. The earth knows
there really isn’t that much to be fussed about, that all will
be …alright. Some humans ignore the earth and destroy its habitats
through their greed. Others fight hard to stop this calling it ‘desecration’ and
worse. But the earth knows that if it comes to that, it will outlast
us. It may look different then, but the earth has looked different
before… But it will be here. So the earth can sing of gladness
and praise.
___________________________
This is not a sermon. The Earth does not need our sermons.
We might, but the Earth does not. This is not a scientific discourse.
The Earth does not need our science. We do, in order to understand
our impact on our home, but the Earth does not. This is not a political
speech. The Earth does not need our speeches. We do in order to
persuade governments to act, but the Earth does not.
Oh, there is a time and place to preach the word of walking gently
on the planet. It is a message that needs to be heard. But it is
also a message often broadcast, but unheeded. I know. I am one who
sometimes forgets to pay heed.
There is a time and a place to teach the science, though facts and
figures bore some people to tears. I know. I confess to not watching
David Suzuki very often.
There is a time for politics, but not here, not now, not today.
This is a meditation, perhaps a prayer in several parts. I think
the Earth just might need our prayers, at least once a year on Earth
Day. Why? Prayer and meditation can do a couple of things. First
they help us to still the voices of a busy world. They let us listen
to the still small voice within, the one that knows truth…the
one that guides. They encourage us to look inward, to take stock,
what my Dad used to call an ‘examination of conscience’.
They can lead us to places where we can find courage we did not know
we had, resolve that’s been in hiding, determination in the
face the world on our own terms.
And if, perchance, there is some divine entity who can hear these
prayers and musings, and if perchance that entity can act on these
prayers and musings, well maybe there will be some infinitesimally
small increment of change. As they say, “It couldn’t
hurt!”
______________________________
I do not have to go
To Sacred Places
In far-off lands.
The ground I stand on
Is holy.
Here, in this little garden
I tend
My pilgrimage ends.
The wild honeybees
The hummingbird moths
The flickering fireflies at dusk
Are a microcosm
Of the Universe.
Each seed that grows
Each spade of soil
Is full of miracles.
And I toil and sweat
And watch and wonder
And am full of love.
Living in place
In this place.
For truth and beauty
Dwell here. Mary de La Valette
‘Holy’ and ‘Sacred’ are not qualities that
occur naturally. Rather they are attributions we humans give to those
things most worthy of our reverence and devotion. It’s like
the difference between a house and a home. A house only becomes a
home when we invest our living and loving into a particular space.
The writer says, ‘I do not have to go To Sacred Places In
far-off lands.
The ground I stand on Is holy.’
It is holy because she has chosen to notice its intrinsic worthiness
and has chosen to celebrate it. While working the soil with her hands
she has meditated upon it’s fullness, it’s ability to
sustain life. This is how it has become holy. She has become mindful
of it.
___________________________
Like most everyone in Edmonton, I do dutifully put almost everything
I should into those cute blue bags for curbside pick-up. And sometimes
I’m quite proud when the blue bags outnumber the green ones,
until I realize that both speak to my level of consumption of the
earth’s resources.
I am glad that this city is a leader in recycling, but it can allow
us to slip into the ‘Blue Bag Comfort Zone’. Fill up
one or two of those each week and we can go unthinkingly, unmindfully,
unheedingly about the rest of our lives.
Except…we can’t.
We all have a responsibility to our home planet, this beautiful
blue green ball hanging in space. We can ignore it, but we still
have the responsibility. And we might want to take care that filling
blue bags or buying high efficiency cars might not quite satisfy
that responsibility. I don’t know.
It’s something to ponder while standing in the garden, standing
on the holy ground of back yards and public parks.
_________________________________
I listen to the concerns of the good people leading the fight for
the environment. I am pleased that they do what they do, but sometimes
I wonder just a little about the language of the message. I don’t
think we’re trying to save the planet. In fact, I don’t
think the earth itself needs saving. Like I said earlier, it’s
been hanging around in space for a few billion years.
What they are trying to save? What we are trying to save is ourselves,
and the ecosystems that keep us alive. Sometimes I wonder, does the
earth care about our existence? Would it mind terribly if we were
replaced by cockroaches or microorganisms or even nothing at all?
In the ‘Lord of the Ring’? the Ents, the great tree beings
care not a whit for the potential destruction of humans (and elves
and hobbits and what have you.) They only become involved when the
evil
Lord Saruman begins to destroy the forests to fuel his war engines.
No, I don’t think we are trying to save THE world…we
are trying to save OUR world. That’s okay. That’s a good
cause. We’re worth saving, especially from ourselves.
_________________________
For diamond-studded velvet
Behind a silver moon
For music of the nightwinds,
A nightingale’s sweet tune…
For whispering trees
And darkening peace…
I Thank Thee.
For mountains carved from sea pearls
For clouds that shroud their heights
For pristine nectar
And ghostly northern lights
For misty vales
And secret dales …
I Thank Thee.
For fiery fuchsia ribbons
That stream across the sky
For opalescent sunsets
And mornings dipped in dye
For mornings pale
And day’s finale…
I Thank Thee.
For scents that herald spring-time
For lilac-haunted nooks
For violet’s purple fragrance
And merry trickling brooks …
For little things
That give souls wings …
I Thank Thee. --Monica Miller
_____________________________
Maybe gratitude is the key, the pivot point on which our efforts
to preserve and conserve and reduce and reuse and recycle will rise
or fall.
If we try to save the earth with scientific argument alone, some
will not listen. If we rely on firey political speeches or the drama
of eco-terrorism, some will be turned off.
But if we can find ways to appreciate the earth, to be grateful
for the home it gives us, maybe this planet will become sacred and
holy in ways that are both deep and have real meaning.
“The earth answers me with the same song that it sang for
my fathers…”
Let us be grateful for it’s timeless endurance.
“Each seed that grows Each spade of soil Is full of miracles…”
Let us find the time and the focus to become more mindful of the
Earth’s gifts.
“And I toil and sweat And watch and wonder And am full of
love.
Living in place In this place. For truth and beauty Dwell here.”
May we find ways to see the truth and beauty that lies all around
and be inspired by it.
I Thank Thee.
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