Who to Be While You Are Waiting for Your Earthcare Leading

RECENTLY I WROTE A LITTLE ARTICLE with the title “What To Do While You are Waiting for Your Earthcare Leading”.  Thanks to all of you who read it.  However, I realized that I missed a big part of the story.

Of course I did.  As a part of this culture, I was taught that we accomplish by doing.  It is so deeply ingrained that it is almost self-evident, or so we think.  We tend to miss what we accomplish by laying down all the tasks, and the pressure to do, and do and do, and spend time just being as well.

One could say I just wasted an hour and a half.  I sat on my porch and watched and listened as a magnificent storm came through.  The noise and tumult has passed, and there is only the soft drip of the rain from the leaves of the trees.  The birds know the storm has passed.  I can hear them begin to sing again.  In my doing “nothing,” I became clear that there is another piece to figuring out “what to do”.

So I ask that you also take on the intention to be a presence for the Earth in your meeting.  If the people working in the kitchen are composting, thank them.  If there is a conversation about what we might want to try as a meeting, voice your thoughts.  If you know that there will be some discernment in Meeting for Worship for Business about an earthcare concern, try to be there.   If you cannot be there, write a letter to the clerk and ask her to read it in the discernment. Send a copy to the Clerk of Peace and Social Concerns.  Claim your voice.

Know who the others are in the meeting who share your concern.  Tell them you would like to see the meeting sit in worship, being together with our concern for our Earth, and growing as a community.

Let it be known that you have this concern for the Earth.  Listen, and know that just by being who you are, you will receive the gifts that nature is here to give us.   Your family and your community will feel who you are, and feel the Light you bring to this work with your unique presence.

Mary Jo Klingel has been a member of Fort Lauderdale Friends Meeting and a representative to QEW from Southeastern Yearly Meeting.  She has recently relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina and attends Charlotte Friends Meeting.