Here is page 64 from LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality.  

What is preventing us from soothing Mother Earth's pain?  This is the subject of Chapter 4 in my book, which you can find on Amazon.  Two big issues are the problem.  First is the fact that we slice and dice Mother Earth, living separately from her.  We are not integrating her, nor ourselves with her.  And second, we compete greedily for her resources, taking more than she has to give. Check out this 3:06 long video.  

Sit with me in the woods.  In this 3:55 long video I comment on Rabbi Steve Leder's wonderful book THE BEAUTY OF WHAT REMAINS, and an article that appeared in Medium, written by Umar Haque titled THIS ISN'T A HEATWAVE - OUR PLANET IS DYING.  You can find my book LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality, on Amazon.  Let's work to make sure some beauty remains.

​There are deer all over Michigan, and that includes our backyard.  There were over 611,000 deer licenses sold to hunters in our State in 2020.  That is pretty amazing when you consider that there are less than 480,000 active duty men and women in our U.S. Army.  I don't hunt, but I've family and friends who do.  In fact, one read my book while sitting in his deer blind last year.

Solitude is one thing that binds hunters and non-hunters together.  I've heard it over and over again. "It is the one time a year I get to go and just sit in the woods."

Yes, there are rituals and companions that go along with "deer camp."  There are also rituals and companions that go along with a retreat to the Hermitage, St. Gregory's Abbey, and GilChrist retreat centers down around Three Rivers, MI. I've spent a bunch of time in solitude at each, especially the Hermitage.

Henri J. M. Nouwen said that the first of three spiritual movements is from Loneliness to Solitude. Thomas Merton was a convincing advocate for contemplation. He spent decades at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, KY, another place I've visited.  I have read his book, Thoughts in Solitude. 

In solitude we connect with what IS, with Being Itself, with the energy that is Christ within and between one and all.  Moving from loneliness to solitude is a challenge. It takes time and practice, but once you have some substantial experience of the enormous richness provided by solitude, you will long for it. In solitude you know you are not alone.

Enter into solitude and realize your Oneness with all that is. Sit in nature with Mother Earth, and you will come to love her more, and more, and more.

Find my book, LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality on Amazon.

​Is this part of the world becoming unlivable for humans?  This is an existential crisis if there ever was one.  But we who live in the USA are amazingly insensitive to the tragedies happening in South Asia.  In fact, a recent Yale study found that two in three Americans (67%) believe the issue of global warming is either “extremely,” “very,” or “somewhat” important to them personally, while one in three (33%) say it is either “not too” or “not at all” personally important.  In spite of all the news reports and all the personal experience with wild weather, one-third of us are in some measure of denial.  In fact, all of us are in denial, more-or-less.
 
For those of us who are not turning a blind eye on the inconvenient truth, let’s shore up our talk about climate change buy using the scientific method. Here it is.  Look at the graphic below, and then I’ve got some comments about integrating environmentalism and spirituality.

​It has been my observation that, in general, people who are mature environmentalists have a mature spirituality, and vice versa. I’ve researched human development and faith development extensively, and my hunch has been that while each is a different line of development, they are integrated.  This has been especially true with spiritual growth or faith development in the lead.  However, I have found that it is more likely to find people who are highly evolved spiritual becoming engaged environmentalists, than is it the other way around. That is, grow spiritually and you will probably become an environmentalist. I’ve talked with people, read the literature, listened and watched… and I’ve reported my finding out in my little book of big ideas.  Check out LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality at Amazon, and on my website, loving-mother-earth.com.

Every region of the USA, and the world, is being impacted today. I'm on going into the data because you know them already.

We live in a "post-truth" world and much has been written about that. All sorts of reasons for that but it can be boiled down to the evolution of human consciousness. As more and more people bring their diverse world views and cultures to the table there is no longer one-single-truth, one single perspective that is "right." And those who yet have a more traditional worldview are resisting this diversification of truth. Hence, gridlock.

But then "the weather changes" and our bodies and minds can sense the difference. That is tangible truth.

In the face of our shared Global Environmental Emergency we, as individuals and as communities, are called to grow beyond our separate-self-ego.  We have to grow beyond being takers to being givers, beyond being consumers to being conservators. 

Grow yourself spiritually and you will be LOVING MOTHER EARTH.  Live in the whole world, not just your private, separate space. Make new decisions, and act accordingly.

You have probably been through a season or two in your life when a handful of people that you love have been stricken with one form of illness or another. I am just now consciously wrestling with such a time.  No one has been healed, and yet no one has died either. And none of it is related to Covid. Here is how I got out of balance, and how I got back in balance.
​
As my body, mind, soul and spirit went out to all these loved ones in some small effort to support them, I eventually hit the wall.  Call it compassion fatigue (common in my line of work), or simply overburdened with too many life changes (check the scale), I came to realize that I was not attending to my own mission in life.  I was neglecting my own self.  I was out of balance. Too much yang and not enough yin. And, I stopped consciously working on LOVING MOTHER EARTH. No blog posting, no articles written. My core mission was set aside.
 
But now, the reset button has been pushed. Here is what I did and what I learned as I got back on track: self-care is environmental-care.  Follow me on this and see if your life’s story, during one season or another, matches mine.
 
January 6 was the first crisis, and we all shared in it. The second came from a dear friend on the 8th, and then one right after another as more family and friends faced life threatening illnesses. People near and dear to me were assaulted with grief while being thrown into one crisis-mode after another around health concerns.
 
As I’ve done many times before, I ran to the fire. How can I help? While it was never enough, I gave what I could. I’m good with this about myself.
 
Then, about 6 months later, I realized that I was drained, exhausted, empty. Still full of concern and continued attentiveness, I yet came to appreciate that I had failed to put my own oxygen mask on.  I knew better but didn’t follow my own sage advice.
 
Along the way I stopped working on my website, www.loving-mother-earth.com. Blog posts stopped.  My virtual assistant in the Philippines emailed me to check on my wellbeing. I was off my game. In a slump. In a funk. Lost my mojo.
 
So, I did some deep introspection.  Was I in the drama triangle, trying to rescue victims? Were my daily prayers, emailed to many, of any help? Or, were they just minor league efforts to express concern? Could I have done more years ago to head some of this off? Was I being responsible TO everyone, or neurotically responsible FOR them? Boundaries. Was I crossing them appropriately, or not? There was always more I could have done. Always.
 
I reached out to my wife for a Reiki treatment, and my daughter for her distant-energy-healing. Certain friends (I love that description) heard from me and extended their grace.  I began again some spiritual practices that have helped me over the years.
Then came Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous prayer: God, grant me the courage to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.
 
Following that was a broadcast from Krista Tippett’s ON BEING, in which this point was made: self-care is community accountability.
 
I’ve come to realize that healthy self-care is vitally important if I am to be a vital contributor to my community of family and friends.
 
I’m losing weight, putting up reasonable boundaries, accepting that some tasks will be left undone for a time, connecting more frequently with supportive friends, and pausing to slow down as more time for solitude is created by me, for me.
 
And now for the most relevant point of this story. 
 
Self-care is critically important if we are to be effective at environmental-care.
 
Go ahead and Google “climate anxiety” and you will find all sorts of articles about the associated mental health costs.  If those of us who are activists, those of us who are committed to doing something about our shared Global Environmental Emergency get burned out and bummed out, then who will be here to exercise the courage to change, the grace to accept, and the wisdom to know the difference?
 
The integration of environmentalism and spirituality, done in a balanced way, will sustain us for the long haul ahead.
 
Who will benefit from good self-care?
 
Family, friends, and MOTHER EARTH.
 

Below is a page copied from my book.  You are familiar with all 12 disasters. Each is an indication of our failure to love Mother Earth, and taken together, they are the reason why she is expelling us.  Like an unwanted cancer, we have eaten away at that which supports life on this planet. These 12 are symptoms of the way we have lived separately and greedily, rather than in communion and with reverence.

So writes Rumi, the Persian poet born Jalai ad-Din Mohammad Rumi,   He and I share the same birthday, but he was born in 1207 in Afghanistan.  Rumi's poetry is full of wonder.  Here is another line: Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. Imagine that.  You are the universe in ecstatic motion!  You can read more about LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality at www.loving-mother-earth.com, and you can purchase my book on Amazon.