More Attention, Less Destruction
Today I am grateful for the people in my life who inspire me in many different ways. I am also grateful for pushups and sit-ups to help keep my muscles and joints strong.
Here it is March 7 and Easter is three weeks away, so Lent is more than half over. I have been faithfully reading the "Fasting in Lent" writing from Christine Valters Painter that I blogged about on Ash Wednesday. Read it here. Today the words that I will try to carry with me are "Instead my practice will become a beholding of each thing, each person, each moment."
It fits with my sister Leonice's thoughts on "more ta-da and less to do." Behold the awe found right here, right now.
And together they fit with this quote from Rachel Carson:
Rachel Carson, author and marine biologist, died from breast cancer at the age of 56 in 1964, just two years after her book Silent Spring was published. Though it wasn't public knowledge, she was in poor health for a good portion of the time she spent researching and writing the game-changing Silent Spring. Though she didn't live to see these things happen, her work and this book helped spark the environmental movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 along with the banning of the pesticide DDT in 1972.
Appreciating the gifts around us, in our natural world and the humans in it, not only brings us mindful gratitude individually. It also brings more collective care and concern to preserve these wonders, from rivers and streams to relationships and communities.
More attention, less destruction. More gratitude, less erosion of the spirit.
Here it is March 7 and Easter is three weeks away, so Lent is more than half over. I have been faithfully reading the "Fasting in Lent" writing from Christine Valters Painter that I blogged about on Ash Wednesday. Read it here. Today the words that I will try to carry with me are "Instead my practice will become a beholding of each thing, each person, each moment."
It fits with my sister Leonice's thoughts on "more ta-da and less to do." Behold the awe found right here, right now.
And together they fit with this quote from Rachel Carson:
"The more clearly we focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction."
Rachel Carson, author and marine biologist, died from breast cancer at the age of 56 in 1964, just two years after her book Silent Spring was published. Though it wasn't public knowledge, she was in poor health for a good portion of the time she spent researching and writing the game-changing Silent Spring. Though she didn't live to see these things happen, her work and this book helped spark the environmental movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 along with the banning of the pesticide DDT in 1972.
Appreciating the gifts around us, in our natural world and the humans in it, not only brings us mindful gratitude individually. It also brings more collective care and concern to preserve these wonders, from rivers and streams to relationships and communities.
More attention, less destruction. More gratitude, less erosion of the spirit.
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