Spring has finally sprung — gracing us with a gorgeous full supermoon on the Spring Equinox — and so begins our Spring for Change: a Season of Sacred Activism.
From World Water Day (today) to Earth Day (April 22), to World Biodiversity Day (May 22), UU Ministry for Earth will be sending weekly messages of inspiration and resources to support you in springing for change as a part of this spiritual community and active Ministry for Earth.
I pray these messagesmay inspire and recharge your spirit. I pray they may ground your actions in the power of love, life, and possibility throughout these charged, challenging, and critical times.
This World Water Day, many communities across Mozambique and Zimbabwe, Africa and the US Midwest are mourning lost lives, displacement, and deep heartbreak as they struggle to address widespread humanitarian crises from Clyclone Idai and historic flooding.
Water is a miracle and a source of all life, but it is also often a dangerous force stronger than our civilian infrastructure can hold back and withstand despite our countless engineering efforts.
I am reminded of these words shared by Rev. Sara Green in New Orleans, at the 2017 UUA General Assembly morning worship titled “Who Taught You To Resist?” (Sara’s reflection begins at minute 14:00 in the video):
“Resistance looks like knowing where to place one’s anger — and where the anger does not belong is in the water. Resistance looks like acknowledging all the human failures that went into what happened on August 29, 2005.
The effects of the hurricane were not the water’s fault. The deaths of thousands in my community was not the fault of the water. I learned not to be angry at the water, but angry at systems. Because the water was still there — after all that was said and done — still cleansing, still showering, still shifting. The water taught me that I’m held in community and deserve to be transformed over and over again.”
Today, I invite you to join me in taking time to honor water as a spiritual practice in your daily life — take time to acknowledge and appreciate every sip in a glass of water, or every drop of your next shower. If you’re feeling lush (or achey) enough today to soak in a bath, put your hands by the drain as you let out your bath water, and think/feel/say a deep “thank you… thank you… thank you…” as the water rushes past your fingers.
Water plays a very impressive long-game. It has so much to teach us about resistance, about power, about change, and about life.
In faith,
Aly Tharp
UUMFE Program Director
Excerpted from a UU Ministry for Earth newsletter. Click here to view the full newsletter message online, and click here if you would like to sign up for the mailing list.