Our Earth is crying. Can we hear it? With every street that became a river this July, with every home lost, with every human tragedy, a profound truth emerged: We are not separate from the Earth. Her suffering is our suffering.
The recent floods—whether close or geographically distant—are spiritually universal. They are not isolated acts of nature, but cries for attention—a sacred call to awaken our hearts, our habits, and our policies.
Thus, I believe we are called to not just pray after each storm; We are being called to act intentionally, as an act of faith. This is because climate change implies a state of spiritual emergency, instead of a simple political issue.
The old paradigm of “man against nature” in and of itself can be seen as anti-spiritual, and thus we must seek a new paradigm. For each forest felled, each river dammed and rerouted, each factory that fouls our air and waters, becomes a karmic imprint on our combined destiny.
For this reason, I believe that we must shift from prayer action. We can start by supporting environmental causes—through our time, talent, tenacity or treasure. This in and of itself can be seen as a prayerful offering to Mother Earth that can ultimately save lives.
We are thus called to show strength over indifference in the face of the devastation we are seeing today. Each gesture we may make, whether it be supporting environmentally-friendly policies, planting trees, choosing a more sustainable lifestyle, supporting flood relief… whatever it may be, can combine with others for real change.
Ultimately, in protecting the Earth, we are protecting the possibility of a future in which our children, and generations thereafter, can live in the just and sustainable world we wish to see.
You can support the UU Disaster Relief Fund by clicking on this link.
Swamini Adityananda Saraswati
Vice Chair, UUMFE