Monsoon Summer

 

Rain and More Rain

“Speaking in creations tongues, hearing creations voices, the boundary of our soul expands. Earth has many, many voices. Those who understand that Earth is a living being know this because they have translated themselves to the humble grass and old trees. They know Earth is a community that is constantly talking to itself, a communicating universe and whether we know it or not, we are participating in the web of this community.”

Joan Halifax (The Fruitful Universe)

          Joan Halifax is a Zen Buddhist teacher. Her concept of creation’s voices resonates with that of Chief Seattle and other Native American leaders. I wish her words could become the headlines we see when we pull up our news feeds instead of the casualty reports and political in-fighting we typically see. Can you see it? “The New York Times Reports Planet Earth Is A Living Being” Or even, “Woman Arrested for Talking to Grasses.” Whatever it takes to get people’s attention. I don’t know how we get through to ourselves that nothing else will matter—not wealth, not politics, not who showed up at the Oscars in a transparent gown—if we don’t get serious about what’s happening to the climate.

          Yesterday, Birmingham was under water in the most literal sense. It rained about 10 inches in a matter of hours—onto already saturated ground. And everything everywhere flooded. We have had what I call “a monsoon summer.” Rain and more rain until the lakes are overtopping and creeks that once trickled are now eight feet deep. Meanwhile California is drying up and burning to ash along with our food supply, and the western reservoirs look like moon craters with a little puddle at the bottom. What exactly will it take to get through to us and our law-makers that this is THE priority?

          We must realize that our way of life is unsustainable—not just because it is based on consumption and wealth building, but because it is destroying the very planet on which we live. The earth is a living being, a living, breathing, essential habitat for everything humans require, and for all other known life. We must preserve it; we must recognize its holiness and our dependence upon its resources. Please, go outside today and lie down on the grass and pray for guidance. Expand your soul and give thanks.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane