ED: Note. For the summer, our Ministerial intern Brigitta Vieyra will be taking over Reverend Christine’s Notes From Your Dance Partner column, and as per her request, the column name has temporarily changed to Field Notes From Your Ministerial Intern.
Earlier this week, Benjie Messer and I were able to attend a Rally for Climate Action with the Sunrise Movement to demand our elected state government officials to take action on a heat relief bill.
As Benjie led us in song and we listened to community members share how they have been impacted by the extreme heat, a shift happened deep down inside. The nihilism that I can sometimes slip into when my anxiety about the climate crisis gets overwhelming started to dissipate. Confronting what it means to move through the world with an unlivable future is an emotional landscape the most marginalized in our communities have been terraining for generations. Existential terrains that have become even more life-threatening and devastating for the most vulnerable of us as the climate crisis compounds existing structures of oppression and injustice.
Partnering in climate action with those most impacted by environmental destruction is transformative and necessary for ecological justice. Listening to personal stories of others invites me to find my own shared interest. Instead of asking, “what can I possibly do?” more creative questions emerge, like “how am I connected to all this?” Good earth care is rooted in story. Stories that can become the binding fabric to weave a new story. A new story about the interdependence of nature, of spirit, and of our very human selves.
This week, I invite you to reflect on your own personal relationship with the earth and share a story or two with someone about times when you experienced a connection to nature. Wherever you are on this good earth, may you find a spiritual intimacy with nature and may those connection points be your guide in how to sustain life for generations to come.
-Brigitta Vieyra