Earth sunday Testimonials
April 26, 2009
This Sunday we shared testimonials on our faith and how it shaped our relationship to and care for the Earth. Today we heard from members Susan Barrett, Dan Dietrich and Jeremy Higgins.
___________________________________________________
Susan Barrett
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
When I was 16 years old, a junior in high school, I had my very first wilderness experience. In all actuality, this was my first real camping experience. I went to camps before…with cabins, bunks and running water…but I hadn’t really slept in a tent before. Certainly, I had never been exposed to wilderness. I went with my church youth group to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota – for those of you unfamiliar with Boundary Waters, it is the largest wilderness area in the United States. No motorized vehicles are allowed – planes can’t even fly overhead – so it is only accessible by paddle or foot.
In my head, I thought this would be a fun “challenge” - a way to prove that I could keep up with the best of them! I expected to be exhausted physically and was really only apprehensive about not being able to take a shower for a week. I was filled with excitement and anticipation, confident that I could handle the challenges that were ahead.
Well, what I encountered in reality was quite different than anything I could have imagined…battling wind and rain while straining to keep the canoe from going in circles, tears of frustration after slipping and falling (again) with my packs on the slippery muddy portages, swarms of mosquitoes so thick we were forced to go to bed while the sun was still up, painful bleeding blisters – all while trying to get along with the others in my group. By the time the third night of our trip came along, I was ready to go home. I wanted to be warm and comfortable. I wanted to be safe: physically and emotionally. I wondered why our church even bothered with this stupid trip anyway – it wasn’t like we were helping anyone or anything. It seemed like such a waste of time.
On the last night of our trip, we set-up camp and made dinner. Everyone was exhausted and drained – even our guides were tired. I was no exception. After dinner, I decided to sit by the water. I needed some quiet alone time. I sat and sat and sat. Looking back, I don’t know that I had ever stopped to simply “be” for that long. I watched as a little mouse scurried back and forth and in and out of the rock outcropping I was on. I watched the water. The breeze was perfect and there wasn’t a mosquito or black fly in sight. Then the sun began to set and the sky became shades of pink, red, orange, purple and yellow. The water was so calm that every detail of the sky was reflected in it. Stars began to appear above and below me as the light began to fade.
I don’t know how to explain what happened next…I have never been able to fully convey the true experience to anyone before… I can only describe it as a wave. A wave washed over me and I was full. Full of love, trust, safety, hope and life. At this moment, I knew that God was real.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Last night, I took my daughter, Kaia, to Earth - a Disney movie that opened just this week in honor of Earth Day. I wanted to expose her to the beauty of nature and, quite frankly, I thought it would be about bunch of cute little animal families. That moment in Boundary Waters defined me emotionally, spiritually and physically. So, as you can imagine, developing in Kaia a sense of appreciation for the natural world has always been important to me. In Greek, Kaia even means “earth.” I try to show her the wonder of God’s creation – the magic we can experience when we connect with the land. Kaia’s never been to a movie theater before, and when I saw preview for this movie and saw it was in honor of Earth Day and they’d plant a tree for every ticket sold, I thought –“hey, now this is perfect…” So, off we went!
Well, the movie wasn’t exactly what I expected. Yes, there were breathtaking images of landscapes from around the globe – deserts, mountains, rainforests, oceans. They captured the stark beauty of Creation. And…there were adorable little animal families – baby elephant calves working hard to keep up with their mommies, fluffy baby ducklings learning how to fly, baby polar bear cubs slipping and sliding down mountain slopes. There were even funny parts! Silly monkeys holding up their hands as they crossed through waist-high water and unusual birds of paradise dancing to attract a mate.
So yes, there was beauty, cuteness and humor…but…that wasn’t all…There were vivid images of suffering… and death. There was an elephant that got disoriented from a sand storm and became separated from the group. He found his mother’s trail and, in vain, followed it trying to find her. He took the trail in the wrong direction. There was the “daddy” polar bear that swam endlessly for days trying to find food. The ice sheets are melting so rest was not an option. Once he found land, he tried in desperation to kill a walrus so he wouldn’t starve to death. But he was too weak and was too injured from tusk piercings that he simply gave up and laid down on the ice to die. And there was the wolf that hunted down a baby caribou after a long and exhausting chase.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When I became a mother I took on a new role. I began to see life through my child’s eyes. I want to convey this hunger to experience God through Nature. I want Kaia to feel the fullness that I felt that day…I want her to always be full of love, trust, safety, hope and life.
That’s not how it works though. The stark reality and confusion of life is right in front of us…why does the baby caribou have to die for the wolf to live? Why can’t one walrus be sacrificed to save a daddy polar bear? Why is there suffering? Why is there loneliness? Why is there sickness? Why is there hate? Why do we exploit one another? Why do we exploit the land?
Our experiences of God are intensely personal to each of us. As I was thinking about what to say today, I got caught up in my own hypocrisy…of loving the land and nature, but not doing my fair share to keep it healthy.
And then it occurred to me that there are parallels between being a Christian and being an “environmentalist.” We are all on our own journey – developing our own relationship with God. It is that way with nature as well. We are all on our own journey – developing our own relationship with the land. Indeed, many experience God through the land and so the two are indistinguishable – God and Nature. Developing a relationship takes effort and is a process. Understanding evolves and grows deeper with time.
All I know is that I am in the process of trying to know and love God. I continue to change the way I think about the world and the people in it. As a result, my ideas, my understanding and my behavior continue to change. I am developing a deeper and more genuine idea of what it mean to be a Christian.
Likewise, I am in the process of trying to know and love the earth. I continue to change the way I think about nature. Again, ultimately, my ideas, understanding and behavior continue to change. I am developing a deeper and more genuine idea of what it means to be an environmentalist.
I am far from perfect – I have a LOT of personal growing to do… spiritually and environmentally. But as long as God loves me and continues to share blessings with me through the natural world and through the people around me, I will continue to try to do better.
_______________________________________________________
Earth Sunday Testimonial of Dan Dieterich—April 26, 2009
I have a public confession to make. It’s a bit embarrassing, but here goes . . . I love frogs. I think they’re beautiful. You’d know why I fell in love with them, if you had heard the mixed frog chorus this past week. Not just the Spring Peepers, but the Chorus Frogs that sound like they’re playing a comb, and the Wood Frogs that sound like ducks laughing. I love all of them. If you haven’t heard them, then come to our house some evening and listen. You too will fall in love.
I also love flowers, the prettiest of all plants. . . and grasses, the most persistent of all plants . . . and trees, the most patient of all plants. I love all the birds too, and the other animals when I get to see them, which isn’t as often as I’d like.
I’m concerned, though, that those who come after us may not be able to enjoy the plants and animals that we do. Our human population is soaring, greenhouse gases are rising, our planet is warming, and frogs are dying by the thousands all over the world as we continue to pollute our air, our soil, and our water.
Like you, I do some things to try to protect the environment. Diane and I limited the size of our family to two children. We also consider the environment in such matters as choosing what light bulbs and what lawn mower to buy, what car to drive, what appliances to use, and even what sort of house to live in. We had our house built using green building practices, and we picked a passive solar design, so that it would use less energy for heating and cooling. We grow some of our own food. We compost our food wastes and recycle a lot of things. We even installed four solar collectors to help heat our water and our house. We also try to implement some of Hedy’s Green Notes in the church bulletin.
I sleep better at night because we do this, but I’m still not doing all I can do. I should do far more than I have to protect the environment and prevent global warming.
I’ve joined organizations that deal with the environment. I’m not sure that they have the clout to do much, though. I suspect only religious groups have the moral authority necessary to get us to stop destroying our environment and start nurturing this beautiful and bountiful planet that God has given us.
For that reason, I’m on the Frame Green Team: to learn, with you good people, ways to act as stewards of the environment. I’m also involved with the Interfaith Community for the Earth (ICE), the local group that Pastor Zencka helped found. In that group, we join with area residents of all faiths—recognizing our joint religious obligation to preserve the environment. ICE is, in turn, involved with the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign (WICEC), and I hope to attend its statewide conference in Stevens Point on October 11th & 12th. Through these groups, I’m also involved in national and global environmental campaigns.
A while back, we in the Frame Men’s Group read Sallie McFague’s book entitled Life Abundant. It’s subtitled Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril. To be honest, we weren’t that crazy about some things in it, but I strongly agree with four things McFague says in it. First, she says we can’t claim to love our neighbors (human, animal, or plant) while at the same time destroying the world around us. Second, she says, “We love God, give God glory, by loving the earth, helping all creatures flourish.” Third, she says we should join with members of other religions in environmental action. And fourth, she says, “we are healthiest, sanest, and happiest when we are doing God’s will for the world.”
I agree with her that it’s not enough to know what we should do in terms of environmental stewardship. It’s not enough to sing about what we should do in terms of environmental stewardship. We have to do it . . . do it consistently . . . and do it quickly. If we don’t then soon there won’t be any frog choruses to listen to on spring evenings, and I would miss them . . . a lot.
______________________________________________________
Jeremy Higgins
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Good morning and happy earth week!
Let me start off with a little background about my formative years.
I was fortunate to have constant access to the environment growing up, although back then it was simple called “outside.” During my younger years I spent countless hours exploring the prairies on our family farm in North Dakota.
Later we moved to a small wildlife refuge that my father managed as a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His poor co-workers kindly put up with my endless questions and were patient enough to let me tag along on many of their exciting research projects. I learned about duck nesting habits, tracking foxes with radio telemetry, prescribed burning, prairie restoration, and lots of other things an adolescent boy thinks are pretty cool.
Fast forwarding a few years…I earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in environmentally-related fields. This has lead to a career focused largely on conservation and environmental education.
Despite all of these wonderful experiences and years of education I am still not a perfect environmentalist.
When I was thinking about what to say today I found myself looking, as I often do, to one of my environmental hero’s, Aldo Leopold, for inspiration. For those who are unfamiliar with him, Professor Leopold was a prominent figure in conservation, wildlife management, forestry, and wilderness preservation, among other topics, during the first half of the last century. He also happened to be a pretty fair writer. When I need help clarifying my thoughts on an environmental issue I can usually find some helpful guidance in one of his books. Once again he didn’t let me down.
I decided to divide my life as an environmentalist into three phases and was able to find some related quotes from Leopold’s writings.
First, the college years. My Leopold quote for this time in my life is: “one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” This basically means that as you learn more about nature and the environment you more you begin to see everywhere the impact humans are having on it and are often frustrated about our exploitation of the earth.
In college I learned a lot about the natural world and consequently began to see many environmental wounds. Everywhere I looked, everything on the news, and in every class I saw humans exploiting nature. I was frustrated.
My poor family, especially my wildlife biologist father, patiently endured years of my endless harping about every aspect of our lives; what we ate at Thanksgiving, how much fuel everyone wasted, the destruction of the rainforests, recycling, hunting, landfills, impending droughts, and on and on and on. They are probably still recovering from some of my rants.
Second, my career. Following graduate school I secured a job working as an environmental educator for a non-profit conservation organization. My job involved traveling all over the United States training teachers to use a classroom curriculum based on Aldo Leopold’s book, A Sand County Almanac.
More recently I was hired to work on an environmental education grant at UWSP. My position there involved working with teams of teachers all over the country to help them improve environmental education programs in their states. Through that work I was fortunate to work closely with many of the most respected leaders in the environmental education field.
The Leopold quote I chose for this time in my life is: “The objective is to teach the student to see the land, to understand what he sees, and enjoy what he understands.”
If there is one sentence that sums up my philosophy on how to help others become good stewards of the earth, this is probably it.
Lastly, my current perspective on the environment. Since we are here to worship God, I thought it fitting that I find a Leopold quote that helped bring that home.
“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree—and there will be one.”
My wife and I both grew up on farms and would like to pass along some of the joys of a pastoral life to our kids. Finding ways of doing that while living in town can be challenging. Lately we’ve reintroduced some of our farming roots into our lives by gardening, canning, and hunting and fishing. Although there is no substitute for picking a trailer load of rocks, stacking hundreds of square bails in the barn, or building a couple miles of fence, we’re hoping that encouraging our kids to get their hands dirty and learning a little about the nature all around them will provide some solid grounding.
So to relate this all back to our theme of stewardship and sustainability. I think it is important the everyone have a good ecological education and find something to be passionate about; however I’d advise tempering your passion by keeping in mind that everyone has different passions and reasons for doing what they do. I also think passing on your knowledge and passion for the environment to other’s helps foster good stewardship and sustainability. Lastly, I think going outside and enjoying nature through gardening, hiking, hunting and fishing, or simply walking in your neighborhood is important. Sustainability means being able to doing something for a long time. To develop and maintain a love of the outdoors you need to experience it first hand.
You may not be a perfect environmentalist, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying nature and doing the best you can.
___________________________________________________
Susan Barrett
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
When I was 16 years old, a junior in high school, I had my very first wilderness experience. In all actuality, this was my first real camping experience. I went to camps before…with cabins, bunks and running water…but I hadn’t really slept in a tent before. Certainly, I had never been exposed to wilderness. I went with my church youth group to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota – for those of you unfamiliar with Boundary Waters, it is the largest wilderness area in the United States. No motorized vehicles are allowed – planes can’t even fly overhead – so it is only accessible by paddle or foot.
In my head, I thought this would be a fun “challenge” - a way to prove that I could keep up with the best of them! I expected to be exhausted physically and was really only apprehensive about not being able to take a shower for a week. I was filled with excitement and anticipation, confident that I could handle the challenges that were ahead.
Well, what I encountered in reality was quite different than anything I could have imagined…battling wind and rain while straining to keep the canoe from going in circles, tears of frustration after slipping and falling (again) with my packs on the slippery muddy portages, swarms of mosquitoes so thick we were forced to go to bed while the sun was still up, painful bleeding blisters – all while trying to get along with the others in my group. By the time the third night of our trip came along, I was ready to go home. I wanted to be warm and comfortable. I wanted to be safe: physically and emotionally. I wondered why our church even bothered with this stupid trip anyway – it wasn’t like we were helping anyone or anything. It seemed like such a waste of time.
On the last night of our trip, we set-up camp and made dinner. Everyone was exhausted and drained – even our guides were tired. I was no exception. After dinner, I decided to sit by the water. I needed some quiet alone time. I sat and sat and sat. Looking back, I don’t know that I had ever stopped to simply “be” for that long. I watched as a little mouse scurried back and forth and in and out of the rock outcropping I was on. I watched the water. The breeze was perfect and there wasn’t a mosquito or black fly in sight. Then the sun began to set and the sky became shades of pink, red, orange, purple and yellow. The water was so calm that every detail of the sky was reflected in it. Stars began to appear above and below me as the light began to fade.
I don’t know how to explain what happened next…I have never been able to fully convey the true experience to anyone before… I can only describe it as a wave. A wave washed over me and I was full. Full of love, trust, safety, hope and life. At this moment, I knew that God was real.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Last night, I took my daughter, Kaia, to Earth - a Disney movie that opened just this week in honor of Earth Day. I wanted to expose her to the beauty of nature and, quite frankly, I thought it would be about bunch of cute little animal families. That moment in Boundary Waters defined me emotionally, spiritually and physically. So, as you can imagine, developing in Kaia a sense of appreciation for the natural world has always been important to me. In Greek, Kaia even means “earth.” I try to show her the wonder of God’s creation – the magic we can experience when we connect with the land. Kaia’s never been to a movie theater before, and when I saw preview for this movie and saw it was in honor of Earth Day and they’d plant a tree for every ticket sold, I thought –“hey, now this is perfect…” So, off we went!
Well, the movie wasn’t exactly what I expected. Yes, there were breathtaking images of landscapes from around the globe – deserts, mountains, rainforests, oceans. They captured the stark beauty of Creation. And…there were adorable little animal families – baby elephant calves working hard to keep up with their mommies, fluffy baby ducklings learning how to fly, baby polar bear cubs slipping and sliding down mountain slopes. There were even funny parts! Silly monkeys holding up their hands as they crossed through waist-high water and unusual birds of paradise dancing to attract a mate.
So yes, there was beauty, cuteness and humor…but…that wasn’t all…There were vivid images of suffering… and death. There was an elephant that got disoriented from a sand storm and became separated from the group. He found his mother’s trail and, in vain, followed it trying to find her. He took the trail in the wrong direction. There was the “daddy” polar bear that swam endlessly for days trying to find food. The ice sheets are melting so rest was not an option. Once he found land, he tried in desperation to kill a walrus so he wouldn’t starve to death. But he was too weak and was too injured from tusk piercings that he simply gave up and laid down on the ice to die. And there was the wolf that hunted down a baby caribou after a long and exhausting chase.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When I became a mother I took on a new role. I began to see life through my child’s eyes. I want to convey this hunger to experience God through Nature. I want Kaia to feel the fullness that I felt that day…I want her to always be full of love, trust, safety, hope and life.
That’s not how it works though. The stark reality and confusion of life is right in front of us…why does the baby caribou have to die for the wolf to live? Why can’t one walrus be sacrificed to save a daddy polar bear? Why is there suffering? Why is there loneliness? Why is there sickness? Why is there hate? Why do we exploit one another? Why do we exploit the land?
Our experiences of God are intensely personal to each of us. As I was thinking about what to say today, I got caught up in my own hypocrisy…of loving the land and nature, but not doing my fair share to keep it healthy.
And then it occurred to me that there are parallels between being a Christian and being an “environmentalist.” We are all on our own journey – developing our own relationship with God. It is that way with nature as well. We are all on our own journey – developing our own relationship with the land. Indeed, many experience God through the land and so the two are indistinguishable – God and Nature. Developing a relationship takes effort and is a process. Understanding evolves and grows deeper with time.
All I know is that I am in the process of trying to know and love God. I continue to change the way I think about the world and the people in it. As a result, my ideas, my understanding and my behavior continue to change. I am developing a deeper and more genuine idea of what it mean to be a Christian.
Likewise, I am in the process of trying to know and love the earth. I continue to change the way I think about nature. Again, ultimately, my ideas, understanding and behavior continue to change. I am developing a deeper and more genuine idea of what it means to be an environmentalist.
I am far from perfect – I have a LOT of personal growing to do… spiritually and environmentally. But as long as God loves me and continues to share blessings with me through the natural world and through the people around me, I will continue to try to do better.
_______________________________________________________
Earth Sunday Testimonial of Dan Dieterich—April 26, 2009
I have a public confession to make. It’s a bit embarrassing, but here goes . . . I love frogs. I think they’re beautiful. You’d know why I fell in love with them, if you had heard the mixed frog chorus this past week. Not just the Spring Peepers, but the Chorus Frogs that sound like they’re playing a comb, and the Wood Frogs that sound like ducks laughing. I love all of them. If you haven’t heard them, then come to our house some evening and listen. You too will fall in love.
I also love flowers, the prettiest of all plants. . . and grasses, the most persistent of all plants . . . and trees, the most patient of all plants. I love all the birds too, and the other animals when I get to see them, which isn’t as often as I’d like.
I’m concerned, though, that those who come after us may not be able to enjoy the plants and animals that we do. Our human population is soaring, greenhouse gases are rising, our planet is warming, and frogs are dying by the thousands all over the world as we continue to pollute our air, our soil, and our water.
Like you, I do some things to try to protect the environment. Diane and I limited the size of our family to two children. We also consider the environment in such matters as choosing what light bulbs and what lawn mower to buy, what car to drive, what appliances to use, and even what sort of house to live in. We had our house built using green building practices, and we picked a passive solar design, so that it would use less energy for heating and cooling. We grow some of our own food. We compost our food wastes and recycle a lot of things. We even installed four solar collectors to help heat our water and our house. We also try to implement some of Hedy’s Green Notes in the church bulletin.
I sleep better at night because we do this, but I’m still not doing all I can do. I should do far more than I have to protect the environment and prevent global warming.
I’ve joined organizations that deal with the environment. I’m not sure that they have the clout to do much, though. I suspect only religious groups have the moral authority necessary to get us to stop destroying our environment and start nurturing this beautiful and bountiful planet that God has given us.
For that reason, I’m on the Frame Green Team: to learn, with you good people, ways to act as stewards of the environment. I’m also involved with the Interfaith Community for the Earth (ICE), the local group that Pastor Zencka helped found. In that group, we join with area residents of all faiths—recognizing our joint religious obligation to preserve the environment. ICE is, in turn, involved with the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign (WICEC), and I hope to attend its statewide conference in Stevens Point on October 11th & 12th. Through these groups, I’m also involved in national and global environmental campaigns.
A while back, we in the Frame Men’s Group read Sallie McFague’s book entitled Life Abundant. It’s subtitled Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril. To be honest, we weren’t that crazy about some things in it, but I strongly agree with four things McFague says in it. First, she says we can’t claim to love our neighbors (human, animal, or plant) while at the same time destroying the world around us. Second, she says, “We love God, give God glory, by loving the earth, helping all creatures flourish.” Third, she says we should join with members of other religions in environmental action. And fourth, she says, “we are healthiest, sanest, and happiest when we are doing God’s will for the world.”
I agree with her that it’s not enough to know what we should do in terms of environmental stewardship. It’s not enough to sing about what we should do in terms of environmental stewardship. We have to do it . . . do it consistently . . . and do it quickly. If we don’t then soon there won’t be any frog choruses to listen to on spring evenings, and I would miss them . . . a lot.
______________________________________________________
Jeremy Higgins
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Good morning and happy earth week!
Let me start off with a little background about my formative years.
I was fortunate to have constant access to the environment growing up, although back then it was simple called “outside.” During my younger years I spent countless hours exploring the prairies on our family farm in North Dakota.
Later we moved to a small wildlife refuge that my father managed as a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His poor co-workers kindly put up with my endless questions and were patient enough to let me tag along on many of their exciting research projects. I learned about duck nesting habits, tracking foxes with radio telemetry, prescribed burning, prairie restoration, and lots of other things an adolescent boy thinks are pretty cool.
Fast forwarding a few years…I earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in environmentally-related fields. This has lead to a career focused largely on conservation and environmental education.
Despite all of these wonderful experiences and years of education I am still not a perfect environmentalist.
When I was thinking about what to say today I found myself looking, as I often do, to one of my environmental hero’s, Aldo Leopold, for inspiration. For those who are unfamiliar with him, Professor Leopold was a prominent figure in conservation, wildlife management, forestry, and wilderness preservation, among other topics, during the first half of the last century. He also happened to be a pretty fair writer. When I need help clarifying my thoughts on an environmental issue I can usually find some helpful guidance in one of his books. Once again he didn’t let me down.
I decided to divide my life as an environmentalist into three phases and was able to find some related quotes from Leopold’s writings.
First, the college years. My Leopold quote for this time in my life is: “one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” This basically means that as you learn more about nature and the environment you more you begin to see everywhere the impact humans are having on it and are often frustrated about our exploitation of the earth.
In college I learned a lot about the natural world and consequently began to see many environmental wounds. Everywhere I looked, everything on the news, and in every class I saw humans exploiting nature. I was frustrated.
My poor family, especially my wildlife biologist father, patiently endured years of my endless harping about every aspect of our lives; what we ate at Thanksgiving, how much fuel everyone wasted, the destruction of the rainforests, recycling, hunting, landfills, impending droughts, and on and on and on. They are probably still recovering from some of my rants.
Second, my career. Following graduate school I secured a job working as an environmental educator for a non-profit conservation organization. My job involved traveling all over the United States training teachers to use a classroom curriculum based on Aldo Leopold’s book, A Sand County Almanac.
More recently I was hired to work on an environmental education grant at UWSP. My position there involved working with teams of teachers all over the country to help them improve environmental education programs in their states. Through that work I was fortunate to work closely with many of the most respected leaders in the environmental education field.
The Leopold quote I chose for this time in my life is: “The objective is to teach the student to see the land, to understand what he sees, and enjoy what he understands.”
If there is one sentence that sums up my philosophy on how to help others become good stewards of the earth, this is probably it.
Lastly, my current perspective on the environment. Since we are here to worship God, I thought it fitting that I find a Leopold quote that helped bring that home.
“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree—and there will be one.”
My wife and I both grew up on farms and would like to pass along some of the joys of a pastoral life to our kids. Finding ways of doing that while living in town can be challenging. Lately we’ve reintroduced some of our farming roots into our lives by gardening, canning, and hunting and fishing. Although there is no substitute for picking a trailer load of rocks, stacking hundreds of square bails in the barn, or building a couple miles of fence, we’re hoping that encouraging our kids to get their hands dirty and learning a little about the nature all around them will provide some solid grounding.
So to relate this all back to our theme of stewardship and sustainability. I think it is important the everyone have a good ecological education and find something to be passionate about; however I’d advise tempering your passion by keeping in mind that everyone has different passions and reasons for doing what they do. I also think passing on your knowledge and passion for the environment to other’s helps foster good stewardship and sustainability. Lastly, I think going outside and enjoying nature through gardening, hiking, hunting and fishing, or simply walking in your neighborhood is important. Sustainability means being able to doing something for a long time. To develop and maintain a love of the outdoors you need to experience it first hand.
You may not be a perfect environmentalist, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying nature and doing the best you can.