Praying for the trees

The other day I went for a walk with friends through some beautiful countryside. It was a warm and sunny day, lovely walking weather. At one point the path took us quite steeply down a tiny little valley – just a dip in the landscape really, with a little brook running through the bottom and trees all around. Suddenly the temperature cooled as we dropped down to the water. It was so refreshing!

I have been reading through this big tome bit by bit in my times of contemplation. Currently, it has got me praying for the trees…

The Climate Book https://g.co/kgs/x9ZSRx

Today I am shocked to find that the wonderful forests of British Columbia, which I feel more connected to because of a friend who lives near to them, turned from being a significant carbon sink (good) to being a source of carbon (baaaad) in 2002, due to increased temperatures, which enabled mountain pine beetles to proliferate (fewer of them dying over winter as the winter temperatures have been warmer and there’s been less snowpack). The beetles bore through the bark of trees to lay their eggs, which kill the trees by consuming and blocking the flow of nutrients to the trees. The deadwood caused by this has made the forests more susceptible to wildfires, which emit a LOT of carbon into the atmosphere.

The Climate Book https://g.co/kgs/x9ZSRx from chapter 2.18 by Beverly E Law

Now the forests in BC are a larger source of carbon than reported emissions from the energy sector in the region, according to a provisional 2021 report.

However, as with all the short articles in this book there is hope…

The hope lies in reducing the frequency of logging (cutting down trees for wood). This has the potential to enable the forest to become a carbon sink again, storing lots of carbon in the ground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere and causing more global warming. Also this means more mature trees for people animals and plants to enjoy for longer. The positive impact of doing this would be the single biggest thing that could be done in this type of region by the look of it. (Harvest reduction means reducing the logging frequency on this chart. Much quicker/more effective than planting new trees.)

For this to work, all of us, and especially those of us in richer countries, need to stop consuming wood. In any which way. To stop buying things made of wood, or living in such a way that we effectively are demanding the current level of wood harvesting, which is driving these companies to harvest wood on this ridiculous scale.

In New Zealand some years ago I remember seeing a lot of lorries transporting long logs (really I saw more of those than any other type of traffic in the more remote areas). And a lot of forest plantations where trees are grown only in order to be chopped down before they are fully mature to be used for wood. These half logged “managed” forests looked like ugly wounds on an otherwise jaw droppingly beautiful landscape. The same thing happens in the UK and all over the world.

So today I am praying for the trees. And wondering how I can consume less, intentionally. I want to be part of the solution not the problem…🙏🌳💕🌲

The climate book

« …We have allowed greed and selfishness – the opportunity for a very small number of people to make unimaginable amounts of money – to stand in the way of our common well-being…

« But now you and I have been given the historic responsibility to set things right. We have the unfathomable great opportunity to be alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. The time has come for us to tell this story, and perhaps even change the ending… »

Already Greta Thunberg and the many contributors to this brilliant volume have my attention. Will they get yours, too? I really do hope that together we can change the ending…

The Climate Book https://g.co/kgs/Fdmsov

Slooooow

Slowing down at the start of a retreat!

A while ago I went on a retreat. After a wonderful walk on the first evening, I arrived back at base to this sight…and decided to slow down, watch and wait before opening the door, out of consideration for my fellow creature. A good way to start a retreat…! 🙏

Aaand rest

This will be a great opportunity to connect with nature, with yourself, with love. Why not come along? Connect online for a story in the mornings and for some listening in the evenings. The rest of the time carve out time to put yourself where the green stuff is and rest, play, reflect, go with whatever is inviting you. I’m really looking forward to it! 🙏💕🌳

The Contemplative Fire Summer retreat Will be 29th June till 2nd July – but you can choose what time you spend on retreat during those four days.

You can sign up right up until 28th June. The little wooden people or the magic paper cannot be emailed (!) and may not reach you in time, although they are not essential for the retreat.
Booking: https://forms.gle/1Q5uDYSvNoTDxWgv5

You are the sun

I’ve just been enticed by this beautiful, simple song this morning. O Sun by Peter Mayer: https://abbeyofthearts.bandcamp.com/album/earth-our-original-monastery-singing-our-way-to-the-sacred?t=6

Verse 1 

You are the sun. / I am the dew. 

Gifted with life for a moment or two. 

And I for my time will sparkle and shine. 

O Sun, come fill me with you. 

O Sun, come fill me with you. 


Verse 2 

You are the wind. / I am the sail. 

You are my strength and without you I fail. 

Breathe but a sigh, and I’ll open wide. 

O wind, come fill me with you. 

O wind, come fill me with you. 


Instrumental 


Verse 3 

You are the wine, / I am the cup. 

I can yield nothing till I am filled up. 

Hold me upright, pour forth your life. 

O wine, come fill me with you. 

O wine, come fill me with you. 

O wine, come fill me 

O wind, come fill me 

O sun, come fill me with you.

CREDITS
O Sun - Earth as Original Sacrament 
by Peter Mayer © 2001 www.blueboat.net

Blue and still

In the middle of much busy-ness, I am noticing the loss of deep stillness and silence lately, and an invitation to re-engage with it.

Hence yesterday during a glorious morning, when unsettled sleep had woken me too early, I went out. I lay on my back in the garden and saw this:

What glorious blue!

I felt queasy, due to sleep deprivation and not drinking enough water the previous day. But this was glorious. As I lay there for about half an hour, I saw at least 5 different species of birds fly past twittering their spring songs.

I am hoping to drop into this deeper stillness more in the coming time. Even when there is a lot of hubbub and activity around me and lurking in the back of my mind. Perhaps if I practise it, I will be able to lay it aside again as the silence falls…? This is what my brain needs I think.

My one and only love

I’ve recently been listening to the genius Oscar Peterson’s jazz CD “We get requests” in the car a lot. Today I stopped to notice how utterly delighted I am every time I get to the end of the third track My one and only love (a beautiful love song sung by Frank Sinatra among others), and Peterson blithely plays the opening theme of Jesu joy of man’s desiring by JS Bach. It just fits so beautifully right there. One short, simple quote of that distinctive opening melody.

Have a listen here: https://youtu.be/VVPhyLOV6HE

The lyrics of the original song include the immortal line, “…every kiss you give sets my soul on fire”. Well, this is pretty much what my faith means to me. Jesus, the joy of all humankind’s deepest longing, bends low to offer each of us, whoever we are, such a tender, loving kiss, with no selfishness in it at all. It is pure delight.

Oscar was not only a brilliant jazz pianist. He was also a very accomplished classical pianist, who apparently insisted that all his students learn to play JS Bach. So maybe this melody just dropped itself under his fingers one day at the end of this number. But I wonder whether he ever consciously considered the one and only love of God, or whether perhaps he experienced a little joyful tingle at the back of his neck, as I do when I listen to him playing it…?

This made me think again…

I loved listening to this story just now. 4.5 very thought provoking minutes. I will carry these questions with me…

How will the story end?
What is ours to do in this time?
What is there to lose?
Who do you (and I) choose to be?
What will we sacrifice in order to build a different future?

The day is just rising…

I was in the queue behind a guy this morning who was on the phone while completing his transaction. “You’re too emotional… women, they’re always too emotional,” he declared into the phone, while demanding she put their child on the phone (I grimaced, imagining the irritation of this woman, who I guessed was probably doing the bulk of the bringing up of the child [also, how is it possible to be “too emotional”? Grrr…]). “Woman; the day is just rising…give thanks and be glad you opened your eyes this morning to greet it!” I exchanged knowing grins with the Muslim guy behind the till and said, “He’s preaching to us all this morning”.

I was just sitting on a low wall writing this when another guy began talking to me. People round here have an instinct for who has got time to listen. We said how much we were enjoying the sun. He said he didn’t like the cold so he was glad for the sun. I pointed to the trees and said how the blossoms were coming. He said, “Yeah this is our world… we gotta look after it isn’t it?” His words were very slurred and in a strong dialect so he had to repeat that three times before I could grasp it. I wasn’t expecting such care for the natural world from someone so vulnerable. But he probably spends way more time outside than I do. I stand corrected.

This is Easter where I live. Three completely different cultural backgrounds, at least two different faiths, shared human needs and flaws and an encouragement to notice that the day is just rising. We give thanks we opened our eyes to see it. And we resolve to look after this beautiful planet with all her creatures. 🙏💕

I am among you

I made this little chant recording based on something Jesus said (Luke 22.27); “I am among you as one who serves”. What a gentle way to be – among (not above) us as “one who serves”, and how unexpected it is for a leader to say this and to embody it:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ebmj5lnqv2o96sk/IamamongyouLk22.27.loopyrecording.aiff?dl=0

There’s a lot of talk about leaders serving, and many do. I am thanking God for them today. But I think for leaders the lure of power and popularity is strong and may tempt us to forget the invitation we have to serve others.

Service is tiring and can be discouraging. It may feel like we are making no difference at all. But maybe we are when we embody this attitude? This is more for those used to privilege, as I am. Those who have endured service and labour and grinding poverty with little or no choice I think perhaps need to hear that Jesus is with them to serve them for once. 🙏💕