Protect Our Species – the Theme for Earth Day this year. It is common knowledge to anyone who cares to hear and understand that the world is facing a constant and rapid reduction of species, plant-life and animal-life. Human activity has brought about a negative impact on most living things. Birds, insects, mammals, water-dwellers and diverse forms of plant life are in a struggle against extinction. There is hope. Scientists assure us we can slow the rate of extinction of life forms if people everywhere - educators, consumers, faith leaders and followers, activists, and concerned citizens - work together on policies to protect individual species and their habitat. Earth Day urges us towards a global movement that calls on us to embrace nature and all its values.
On Sunday, April 6, about ten CND sisters participated in the annual meeting of Development & Peace for the Diocese of Charlottetown. There was a record attendance along with excellent presentations. In many ways we were challenged to become aware of the sufferings of refugees. Danny Gillis had us walk on a simulated trek from our “comfort zones” to end up in a “refugee camp.” After a video interview with a child in such a camp, we heard personally from a young man who had actually lived through such a journey from his native Bhutan to a new life of freedom here on P.E.I. with his family.
On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity and Getting Old, by Parker Palmer (2018)
This is a book – a little book – that evokes gratitude, offers wisdom, and helps bring to memory those forgotten gems we perhaps undervalued in our life story. He includes poetry – mostly his own – that seems to fit exactly. He gives hints and suggestions; he encourages the reader to try these but also to identify their own helps. “The older we get,” he says, “the more our lives are enriched by lessons we weren’t ready to learn when we were young.” Parker is eighty now, and a truly gifted teacher. He holds strong political views and is unapologetic in passing them on. Richard Rohr has stated, “Our entire culture is in need of true elders, and you can’t be one until you have arrived there –chronologically, spiritually and intellectually.” Here’s a man who has arrived, with another book that’s a generous gift to all of us.