We live in the country, and we got into the business of picking up trash by keeping our own road cleaned up—something we’ve done for many years. Now we’re in our mid seventies and retired, and to keep ourselves active we walk on nearby country roads, and we figure that if we’re going to walk,… Continue reading Picking up Trash on the Road to Creation Care
Category: Your Story
Learning and practicing respect for the earth
The book, Serve God Save the Planet, has helped teach me some things. I read the first chapter and set the book aside for over a month. I wasn’t ready to change and I didn’t want to be convicted about my lifestyle. I thought I was living a life with a relatively low carbon footprint.… Continue reading Learning and practicing respect for the earth
Save Our Hemlocks
“I go among trees and sit still.” Thus begins Wendell Berry’s cycle of “Sabbath Poems,” conceived and written, according to Berry, in silence, solitude, and often in the outdoors. Berry’s reflection flows naturally from the directive of Psalm 46 to “be still and know that I am God.” On October 22, 2011, a small group… Continue reading Save Our Hemlocks
Blessing the Animals as They Bless Us
Living in central Texas these days means heat, drought, and wildfires. The last month was particularly devastating as fires ravaged areas around Austin where we have lived years. As a person deeply involved in dog rescue, considering the plight of pets in homes threatened by wildfires is agonizing. Sometimes the fires come so quickly there… Continue reading Blessing the Animals as They Bless Us
Reaching out in the Namibian Desert
First of all, let me please thank Blessed Earth for the incredible work that you are allowing our precious Creator to do through you!! Ever since I was a child, God has called me to see Him in his Creation and to make a difference in the world. I have been living permanently outside the… Continue reading Reaching out in the Namibian Desert
Carpool Prayers
Recently I organized a United Methodist Women’s Retreat on the theme of creation care. Nancy Sleeth was our retreat leader, and through discussion of the Blessed Earth Hope for Creation film series, we had time to swap stories and share ideas. I told the group about how living green through carpooling allowed me to pray… Continue reading Carpool Prayers
Sharing the Stuff We Have
I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas in the spring of 2008, and proceeded directly into graduate school in Asian Cultures and Languages. As I was finishing up school that May, I had been helping my college ministry put on some different events when a somewhat regular experience launched me onto a… Continue reading Sharing the Stuff We Have
Practical Ways to be a Christian Each Day
God started tugging on my heart two and a half years ago when I read Dr. Sleeth’s book Serve God, Save the Planet. It was one of the quarterly books assigned to the Sierra Pacific Conference (the Free Methodist conference of Northern California), and I had never been really interested in any of the books… Continue reading Practical Ways to be a Christian Each Day
Falling in Love with Our Green God
I fell in love with our green God in an unlikely place: theology class. Seminary was an unlikely place because it’s not typically where people fall in love–fall asleep, maybe, but not in love. But history and theology were an invitation to me. I heard Martin Luther pounding the nail into the Wittenberg Church door,… Continue reading Falling in Love with Our Green God
The Great Omission
I was born and raised in wild and wonderful Hedgesville, West Virginia. We had plenty of greenery, a creek in the backyard, and plenty of old dirt roads; it was a country boy’s heaven. Yet even with all that natural beauty around me, I thought it wasn’t for me. See, I thought living out in… Continue reading The Great Omission
Genetically Modified or God’s Perfect Organism?
That’s a question that I now ponder on a daily basis, but for most of my life prior to this year, I never thought about what I ate. What changed in between then and now is that I am relying on food for my livelihood. Last year, my husband and I moved back to his… Continue reading Genetically Modified or God’s Perfect Organism?
Eating Mercifully
Christians today find it easier to perceive the bread and wine in Holy Communion as the body of Christ than as food. Yet, Holy Communion is based on an actual meal Jesus ate with His disciples. While the liturgical elements of Holy Communion are surely important, we should not forget its humble beginnings as a… Continue reading Eating Mercifully
The Glorious Demise of Squealy the Pig
It was a cruel thing, perhaps, to do to Liam, our six-year-old son. His whole life to that point had been urban, as in the inner-city of Washington, D.C. Living in the broken places of the world and the city had been Tara’s and my past for a long time, and we expected it to… Continue reading The Glorious Demise of Squealy the Pig
Green Jesus, the Meaning of Easter
Last month, I was fortunate to hear Dr. Matthew Sleeth speak at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, I spoke with his wife, Nancy, and she encouraged me to share this reflection on the meaning of Easter. The essay, originally written for the young people in a friend’s mixed Christian-Jewish congregation, appeared in the… Continue reading Green Jesus, the Meaning of Easter
Where Faith Meets Fair Trade
“One soy-latte decaf Irish cream coming right up.” It’s my second time into Come Together Trading and already barista/owner Terry Marshall remembers my order. Easing into a comfortable chair, I sip coffee from the Ecotainer compostable cup and soak in my surroundings. Students cluster at one table; writers use free Wi-Fi at another. Piles of… Continue reading Where Faith Meets Fair Trade
From the Third World to the Corporate Office
My workplace has changed in the last eight years from a very hot, open-air room of my house in the Dominican Republic to an old repurposed furniture warehouse that became the first LEED Platinum office in North Carolina. I transitioned from working with poor teenagers in both countries on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and… Continue reading From the Third World to the Corporate Office
Call Me a Beginner
Call me a beginner. Having been raised in the densely populated city of Manila, I grew up with a vivid awareness of the myriad of human need, urgent and seemingly eclipsing of environmental concerns. As with triage, crises that called for immediate help rightfully take priority. I couldn’t help wondering if passionate concern for the… Continue reading Call Me a Beginner
An Earth Day Connection
I’m not a big Facebooker, but I think I understand the psychology of why 500 million people have a Facebook account. It comes down to one word: Connection. Even if a Facebook friend isn’t necessarily a real friend, in an age of technology, people want to feel connected. Last year’s Blessed Earth Simulcast created a… Continue reading An Earth Day Connection
The Question That Haunts Me
[reposted with permission from the blog Alien Nation by Reverend Darin Collins] “When asked by pollsters, 90 percent of Americans identify themselves as ‘kinder than average.’ If we say we care about the least in the kingdom, if we identify ourselves as ‘kinder than average,’ if we see ourselves as responsible stewards of nature, then… Continue reading The Question That Haunts Me
Technology, Social Networking, and Babel Tower
[reposted with permission from the blog Alien Nation by Reverend Darin Collins] “We have forgotten that we have far more in common with the honeybee than we do with our SUV of DVD…Do you know in which direction the Milky Way traverses the sky? As the phases of the moon progress, does the light go… Continue reading Technology, Social Networking, and Babel Tower
