2022 Lent Calendar, Week 4

My theme for Lent this year is Rooted in awareness of Creation and Creator. I need to fuel my climate justice work with a strong and intimate connection to this land: I want to better understand my relationship to the natural world and the cycles of the seasons, the history, culture, and ecosystem of my valley, the indigenous peoples and how I connect to them, and the responsibility I feel for the animal and plant people.

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer. And I choose something to temporarily reduce or cut out of my life, as a reminder that what I truly need is the nurturing of Spirit (I try to choose something to fast from that is a good symbol of how I am trying to grow). And I also observe Lent as a time of creative action, acting on what I learn. I've identified these 

types of actions I want to take in the next 5 wks of Lent:

• Tending my garden (and letting it tend me);
• Building habitat for plant and animal people (and sanctuary for ourselves);
• Supporting and working directly on campaigns to defend the environment;
• Educating myself (growing in knowledge);
• Witnessing to others with writing, talking, and artwork.

March 20, Third Sunday of Lent and Spring Equinox- 

1. Awareness: Consider the balance in my life.

How well do I balance my physical, mental, and spiritual needs?

How can I balance my personal needs with my commitments to the outside world? 

How do I balance my Being-ness (mindful, compassionate, grateful) with my Doing (engaged, kind,and giving)?

Think also of the balance in the world; meditate upon what this half of the year will bring, dark and light, and how best I can take right action in the world.

2. Action: Today I'll review the types of actions I want to take in the next 4 wks of Lent, and make a plan for the week. 

Then I'll tend my garden and let it tend me.

March 21, Nowruz -

1. Read: Today I read #67: Tolerance.

"In precontact Native America, tolerance became a strong virtue. ... Each people group was free to choose their own ways as they understood them. In other words 'you do your thing and we'll do ours.' ... When it comes down to it, can we really force our beliefs on another person without disrespecting their personhood, their right to choose?"

 

2. Awareness: On Nowruz, I remember to look into a mirror and smile. The mirror is for reflecting my past, and reminding me to reflect on future goals and pledges. In Zoroastrian theology, the soul receives a reflection of a person's thoughts, words and deeds, therefore - a smile.

3. Action: Support and work directly on campaigns to defend the environment.

March 22 -

1. Read: Today I read #69: Solving Modern Problems. 

"We are the conscience of your technology. We are the humanizers of your institutions. We matter, quite apart from your recognition of our worth. ... We are a challenge to the mindset of greed. ... We are good medicine for you." (Adrian Jacobs as quoted in Becoming Rooted).

2. Action: I am organizing an Earth Day event for my Meeting.

March 23 -

1. Read:

 Randy Woodley keeps insisting that everyone is indigenous from somewhere, but my people have been wandering for 300 years. We left Europe out of desperation, and have been moving ever since. And we were not really indigenous to Germany, Switzerland, or England  -  I did a Google search:

"The new data confirm that humans have always had wanderlust, plus a yen to mix with all manner of strangers. After the first Homo sapiens arose in Africa, several bands walked out of the continent about 60,000 years ago and into the arms of Neandertals and other archaic humans. Today, almost all humans outside Africa carry traces of archaic DNA."

All Europeans are a mixture from three major migrations: Hunter-gatherers who came from the Middle East, farmers from northwestern Anatolia, in what is now Greece and Turkey, and Yamnaya herders from the steppe north of the Black Sea in what is now Russia.

1. Awareness: 

 My family has been in this valley for 150 years now, settler conquerers. 

I want to stop the wandering. I'm a home-body, and I live on this land. I can't claim to be indigenous to any other place; to say I'm English or German or Swiss is not accurate, and I feel no connection to Europe. This is my home. I'm going to start being proud that I'm an American.

3. Action: Tonight I'll join the Third Act call in - "Third Act is people over the age of 60 — “experienced Americans” — determined to change the world for the better. We muster political and economic power to move Washington and Wall Street in the name of a fairer, more sustainable society and planet. We back up the great work of younger people, and we make good trouble of our own."

March 24, Third Quarter Moon -

1. Read: Today I read #75: Energy and the Food Chain. 

"We know that the entropy of an isolated system that is not in equilibrium (balance) tends to increase over time. In other words, disorder, in a closed system, always increases. ... isolated systems -- those not in harmony with the rest -- are not headed for a happy place."

2. Awareness: I had a

 little chat with myself on paper about the next month of my life, and what my best month would look like, moving me in the direction of my most important reasons for living:

April is a heavily social month - lots of in-person gatherings and parties - and also a heavily Earth-focused month, with tree and vegetable planting, and culminating in Earth Week. My best month will need a careful balance of being present for my friends and family, and quiet, centering time in my garden.

 

3. Action: I spent time tending my garden (and letting it tend me).

March 25 -

1. Read: "Once we have action, hope is everywhere." - Greta Thunberg.

2. Action: Building habitat for plant and animal people (and sanctuary for ourselves).

March 26 -

1. Read: Today I read from "Your Inner Will" by Piero Ferrucci. "Depth is will applied to thinking. Instead of skimming over a thought, we can penetrate and take possession of it. To live in depth yields fulfillment."