Ironically one of the positive impacts of COVID-19 is a reduction of pollution and an improvement of air quality. Seed companies are overwhelmed because people are once more turning to the earth and to gardening as a release for stress and as a fun thing to do. As we approach the 50th celebration of Earth Day it is good for us to remember this. (And don’t forget tonight is Earth Hour – so turn off your lights for an hour and have some fun while you do so. )
I love this version of the Lord’s Prayer that reflects this
Our mother,
which art the earth,
Nurturing are thy ways.
Thy web of life be woven
Thy way be found within,
As it is all around.
Thank you this day for our daily bread and sweat
and forgive us our misuse of you,
as we forgive others their misuse of us.
And lead us not into exploitation,
But deliver us
From lording it over you,
And over each other,
And over all our other fellow creatures.
For thine are the waters of life,
The hills, valleys and plains of home,
The breeding, seeding, feeding ground,
For now, and for as close to forever
As we will ever come.
Ah, woman!
Our Father, Mother,
who are in the world and surpass the world,
Blessed be your presence,
in us, in animals and flowers,
in still air and wind.
May justice and peace dwell among us,
as you come to us.
Your will be our will;
Your will that we be sisters and brothers,
as bread is bread, water is itself,
For our hunger, for quenching of thirst.
Forgive us.
We walk crookedly in the world,
are perverse, and fail of our promise.
But we would be human,
if only you consent to stir up our hearts.
Amen.
EARTH DANCE based on the Lord’s Prayer published in Minnesota Women’s Press, December 1999 Author thought to be Karen Loveland, as member of Unity Church, Santa Rosa, CA Passed on in 2000 by Nancy Carroll
By Taflin Fisher –
In this moment take stock of the treasure of creation.
In pink blossoms lie the promise of sweet juicy peaches.
In ground cover, rain, fungi and earthworms is the promise of living soil for spring planting.
In seeds carefully saved from last year’s produce is the spark of new life.
Treasure the sunshine! Reach and grow and stretch up to the sun!
Treasure the rain! Feel the tickle as it runs down your face. Lift your eyes to cloud and rainbow and feel God’s promise to be with us always.
Treasure the moon! Benevolent ruler of tides and cycles of birth. Gentle light of the night.
Treasure the stars! They guide our way by night and lend an element of magic to the skies.
Treasure the wind! It blows to spread seeds far and wide. To clean out last year’s leaves from trees waiting to bud and to make the Earth fresh.
Treasure the waters! Mineral rich, they tumble and splash through watershed, river and creek. All life exists because of the gift of water.
Treasure our bodies! Able to tend the soil, plant the seeds, harvest and preserve the gifts of the garden. We bow our heads in thanks for this gift, whether our ability allows us a small windowsill garden or acres.
Treasure creatures who share this Earth with us! Our beloved companions, those who give us milk and eggs, and those who are wild and free.
Treasure our Earth! Tiny blue and green sphere spinning in the galaxy. Our home sweet home. Mountains, valleys, plains and oceans teeming with all life. Able to sustain and nourish us. Home!
Treasure all peoples and cultures!
Learn from each other. From new scientific breakthroughs to the wisdom of the ancients. Grow together. Respect, delight in and care for one another.
Most of all, treasure our Creator! With us always. Love in purest form. Coaxing us to be co-creators, caregivers and healers of the earth we are so blessed to share.
In this moment be awed by all this creation! Let your heart store up these treasures and be glad.
By Keren Dibbens Wyatt —
“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Romans 14:8 NIV
The world seems fearful right now. Things feel out of our control (because they are). We don’t have any training except in media-hyped panic and we are falling foul of the invitations to hoard and make sure we are marked safe in the war on contagion. Death is fine if we can keep it “over there” somehow, at a distance, like an old woman who lives at the end of the road. We nod at her sometimes, we see her out of the corner of our eye as we run to the next errand, the next appointment, the next job, but we don’t really look, just in case she has something to say. The last thing we want is to be neighbourly with the one whom St Francis called Sister Death.
We Christians have, in the west, been guilty for many years of thinking Jesus is like a kind of spiritual Domestos, that he will kill all the germs and keep us safe and that it is only the poor people abroad in those other, far-flung, not-remotely-like-ours places who will die, hopefully quietly and off camera.
But those of us who have been living in various states of isolation for a long time, those of us who are chronically sick and who have asked Jesus for help and have found him, rarely healing us, but more often climbing down into the plague pit with us, those of us who are well-used to looking death in the face, and finding only a sweet smile, we have some things to say to our fellow disciples who are scared.
Don’t be.
You know all those poems you have heard at funerals that tell you your beloved dead are only in the next room? Thought they are steeped in metaphor, they are not wrong. You know all those hymns that sing of heaven as a real and glorious place full of praise and light? They are not selling you a lie.
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Luke 20:38 NIV
Death is a part of life just as Winter is one of the seasons. And Resurrection, just like Spring, is a real and certain living hope.
We all want to carry on living our earthly lives. Though if you are comfortable, you might be surprised at how many of the sick and poor are quite keen on passing through into something better. Death might sometimes be called a doorway or a rebirth, and so it is. But we spend so long avoiding the very thought of it, that such sentiments seem silly and twee, even to some brought up as Christians. We don’t really believe all that hokum, do we, about heaven and that? Somehow, it’s become a bit like believing in Father Christmas, a nice idea but we all know that’s not how things are.
Well, maybe now is a good time to sit with the idea that it’s all true. That this is part of the Good News. Maybe now we might quieten ourselves down and decide whether we really believe what Jesus told us, that we might, if we die, be that very day in Paradise with him. Maybe now is a time to sit and ponder how we might want to live now, if we really believe that we are going home to God when our earthly time is done.
Perhaps then we might be less afraid of dying and more concerned about not having lived for Christ. We all have an opportunity to make this pandemic a turning point in our faith and in our relationship with the Lord at the same time as taking necessary precautions. Maybe we have a little extra time that could be turned to prayer, or to loving our fellow humans and any creatures in need. Maybe we could be a witness to the love of God and the eternal nature of his kingdom by standing firm and sure in our hope of “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” that we profess to believe in each time we recite the Apostles’ Creed.
We may have less to lose, and more to gain, than we think.
Image from Pixabay
By Sue Duby —
I’m not a great auditory learner. Give me a pencil and some paper, notes to take, equations to solve or some journal-type writing to clarify my thoughts… THEN information may well stick in my mind and memory.
I know the truth . . .that we are all uniquely and wonderfully made. Even so, I do feel badly in the middle of a great sermon and I find myself wandering off to the grocery list, a friend in need or the next sleepover with the grandkids. Saturday night was no exception (we love Saturday night services, but are tempted to create a T-shirt for our Sunday morning hikes that reads “I went to church last night!”).
The pastor read through Psalm 23 reminding us of God’s great affection as our Shepherd. I know that Psalm, can quote it and have studied it multiple times over the years. Not a good set up for me, the “drifter”. Familiarity leads me to “tune out” even more quickly than normal.
Amazingly, in the midst, I suddenly heard these words: “What if you turned all your ‘What Ifs’ into ‘Even Thoughs’?” Just as the Psalmist does in not placing focus on “What if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death”, but rather “Even though you…”. My whole body felt alert and I knew that Holy Spirit nudge was saying, “This one is for you!”.
I’ve spent much of my life battling fear. Gratefully, its hold has lessened over the years and the wrestling is now more of acknowledgement when it crops up and then letting it go. Still, it’s ready to grab hold at the least expected moments.
Fear is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat” or “anxious concern”. My own list tends to center around health, family and future. For each one, instead of saying to myself, “I’m afraid of _____”, I’m really thinking, “What if______?”.
What if my aching back never feels better? What if something happens to Chuck? What if our kids get in an accident? What if my memory really starts fading (more than it already is!)?
Just the words, “What If” make my heart stir, knowing any way I finish that sentence will be scary! No matter the focus of the “What If”, it leads me to feeling alone in my fear, pensive, unsure and anticipating bad things. “What If” leaves me dangling… full well knowing that something may happen or not, so I’m stuck feeling very insecure and unsettled.
In His grace, God offers a better way. Psalm 23:4 gives us a roadmap.
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” NIV
Not “what if” I take such a difficult journey, as we all will at some point… or many times in our life. But rather “even though” I take such a journey. Just attaching those two words to one of my fears… “Even though my back may never feel better…”, somehow physically feels like a weight rolling off my shoulders, a fresh breath of air and a letting go.
The Psalmist gives clear reason for being able to speak “even though” in confidence. “You are with me”, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me”. There is the Shepherd. Present. Protecting. Tending, Caring. Encouraging. Directing. Leading.
I’m choosing to daily embrace a better way of thinking, a new way to battle fear. When a fear pops up, no matter how silly or overwhelming, my heart now says “Even though….”. I can feel myself falling back into the Shepherd’s embrace and letting Him carry the weight, knowing He knows and that His presence is enough.
May you purpose to grab hold of every “What If” when it hits and acknowledge the good Shepherd’s presence with a simple whisper back to Him, “Even though…”.
The Celtic saints were a fun loving people with many prayers that expressed this. Here is one I love that I thought you may enjoy as I focus on laughter today.
My walk this day with God,
My walk this day with Christ,
My walk this day with Spirit.
The threefold all-kindly;
Ho! Ho! Ho! The Threefold all-kindly
My shielding this day from ill,
My shielding this night from harm
Ho! Ho! Both my soul and my body,
Be by Father, by Son, by Holy Spirit:
By Father, by Son, by Holy Spirit.
Be the Father shielding me,
Be the Son shielding me,
Be the Spirit shielding me,
As Three and as One:
Ho! Ho! Ho! As Three and as One.
by Christine Sine
“Don’t let the world defeat your laughter and song.” This quote by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt has held my attention this week as I, like all of us, have grappled with the seriousness of what COVID-19 has imposed upon us. It is so easy to forget that in the midst of dealing with the fears and anxieties of possibly getting sick and even the busyness of moving so much of what we do online, we also need fun and laughter. So this week, I did a little research on the impact of laughter and thought that you would like to see the stunning results of my investigations. We really do need laughter. It’s good for us physically, emotionally and I think, spiritually too.
The joy that laughter brings can impact our creativity and our perspective on life. Babies laugh on average 400 times a day. Yet adults over 35 on average laugh only 15 times a day. So get out there; play, have some fun, laugh and enjoy yourself.
I have adapted the rest of this post from this article Stress Relief from Laughter posted by The Mayo Clinic.
Short-term benefits
A good laugh has great short-term effects. When you start to laugh, it doesn’t just lighten your load mentally, it actually induces physical changes in your body. And laughter is contagious. Last week, we were taking photos of Tom for publicity for his upcoming book. It was my job to make him smile. He asked me to tell some funny stories but that was hard for me so I just started laughing, and by the end of the session Tom wasn’t just smiling, he was laughing too.
Laughter can:
-
- Stimulate heart, lungs and muscles. It enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. Laughter reduces your blood pressure, improves your muscle tone (especially your abs) and and increases your tolerance for pain.
- Activate and relieve your stress response. A rollicking laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response, and it can increase and then decrease your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling. Even a smile can help. It, like laughter, is contagious and often leads to a good laugh too. This not only improves your mood, but has the added benefit of improving the quality of your relationships with those around you. It can even help create new relationships. And at a time like this, these are all things that we need.
- Soothe tension. Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, both of which can help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress and improve the quality of your sleep.
Long-term effects
Laughter isn’t just a quick pick-me-up, though. It’s also good for you over the long term. Laughter may:
-
- Improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. By contrast, positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.
- Relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
- Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people.
- Improve your mood. Many people experience depression, sometimes due to chronic illnesses. Laughter can help lessen your depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier.
- Creates hope. Laughter changes your perspectives and helps you to see difficult circumstances as a challenge rather than a threat. It is hard to feel anxious, sad or angry when you are laughing.
- Promotes creativity. Humour reduces tension and causes you to relax, and relaxation is an important component of creativity.
Improve Your Sense of Humour
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- Add a daily dose of humour to your schedule. What makes you laugh? Is it photos, greeting cards, or comic strips that make you chuckle. I know I have a collection of each and am pulling them out this week to help me get my daily dose. I might even hang a few of them around the house for when I need an extra boost. And in the evenings, Tom and I are looking for funny movies and books to read. I am particularly drawn to cartoon prayer books that both make me laugh and nourish my soul: Like Scott Erickson’s Prayer: 40 Days of Practice Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the fox and the Horse and Michael Leunig’s A Common Prayer.
- Laugh and the world laughs with you. What about the current situation makes you laugh? Find a way to laugh about your own situations and watch your stress begin to fade away. Even if it feels forced at first, practice laughing. It does your body good. And if you are not sure where to begin watch this:
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- Or you might like to try some laughter yoga:
- Share a laugh. Make it a habit to spend time with friends who make you laugh. Perhaps you could plan a virtual fun night together. Share funny stories or jokes or play games together that make you laugh.
Laughter is the best medicine and a gift from God
Risen Christ by the Sea – artist unknown
Jesus was “anointed … with the oil of gladness” (Heb 1:9). Some of the things he did sounded very humorous. I think he loved to laugh. Spend a few minutes reflecting on Jesus laughing. What images come to mind? How does it make you feel?
Now go ahead and give it a try. Turn the corners of your mouth up into a smile and then give a laugh, even if it feels a little forced. Once you’ve had your chuckle, take stock of how you’re feeling. Are your muscles a little less tense? Do you feel more relaxed or buoyant? Do you feel a little more connected to God? That’s the natural wonder of laughing at work.
I really enjoyed listening to this today and thought that some of you would too. We all need to develop, and listen to, practices that help us center in on God, find peace and nourish our souls. Contemplative prayer, and particularly the Taize style prayer used here is one of the most powerful tools I have found for doing this.
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