And the people stayed home.  And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.  And listened more deeply.  Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

We have been living in ‘lockdown’ for a month. How are you now?   Are you settling into a rhythm?  Are you getting ‘squirrelly’ (to quote our premiere)?  Can’t wait for this to end?   Or loving the lull in your life? 

I have heard them all.

Where I find solace is in the knowledge that this planetary ‘intervention’ in life as we knew it, has allowed our precious planet to begin to heal.  Before this nothing could shut down the engine of our economic system.  No matter how hard we tried, or cared, or cried, the daily grind just kept on grinding.  Many of us felt helpless as we watched Earth systems weaken and crash. 

But now, (I almost need a drum roll here) this week, on the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, we have offered our Earth mother a priceless gift – an intervention!  The skies over Los Angeles and Wuhan, China (pop. 11 million) are clearing to blue again.  Bird songs once more fill the air, and are heard!  Dolphins and fish are returning to the canals of Venice.  A marine ecologist at Cornell reports that “just pulling those cruise ships out of the water is going to reduce the amount of global ocean noise almost instantaneously”.  Whales and marine life of all species will finally get a break.

After half a century of relentlessly increasing pressure, our collective footprint on Earth has lifted.

And the people healed.  And in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And now, my friends, we have a choice. When the doors open and the nations’ populations flock back to work, we can return to that mindlessness. 

Or can we? 

Is it possible to slide back down into dystopia?  Now that we are aware of our impact and of what is possible, can we really ignore it?  Let’s hope that’s a NO.

I am encouraged to hear friends and family vow that when life as we know it resumes, they will do it differently.  Many have learned that working from home is not only doable, but more functional and time saving.  In other words, more sustainable.  I just heard from someone who runs an employee benefits consulting firm.

“We need to get past having a sense of obligation that our clients need to see us in person and on site,” he told me.  He plans to confirm with clients that they are okay with virtual meetings where there is a savings in time and resources. In fact he feels proud to suggest to them that his firm cares about the environmental impact this will have. 

 

Families have discovered new ways of connecting and creating with each other.  My own family – members of which live coast to coast – have a weekly date on Zoom. Every Saturday night we gather round our computers and play a two-hour board game.  Hilarious! We kept saying we should do this but it took Covid19 to make it happen! Now it’s the highlight of my week.

And here is another gift that has emerged from our enforced ‘sequestering’.  Parents take note: 

Two members of our ecoCaledon team who take environmental science into the classrooms of Peel schools have designed a new home program:

TAKE 5 FOR THE EARTH - to start on Earth Day and then happen once a week for five weeks. 

Amy Darell and Lu Chiappetta will be posting a new workbook of information, activities and actions on a particular topic. It will be on the google platform and families that register through Eventbrite will get access to Google Classroom. 

The topics:

1. Climate Change and your Carbon Footprint

2. Electricity

3. Food and Agriculture

4. Transportation

5. Health and Education

Here is the link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/take-5-for-the-earth-tickets-102456594432?aff=ecoCaledon 

And here is our mission, that we like to think of as ‘our gift to Earth’ but really it is our gift to ourselves.  The planet, now in its sixth extinction, is barely hanging on. If we go back to business as usual, extracting resources and trashing the environment, our species will be one of the first to fall.  Earth will eventually recover.

Our mission is to remember. Remember what we did.  Remember how levels and all stripes of government came together to work for the people.  Remember how all levels of society were cared for, quickly and efficiently.  Remember the bird song and the clear skies.  And remember how we flocked to the parks and trails to find solace.  Remember how our planet began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

[The italicized lines are from a poem by Kitty O’Meara, a Wisconsin retired teacher and chaplain.  I have named it The Turning, after Joanna Macy’s movement, The Great Turning, which she identifies as the third major revolution of human existence after the agricultural and industrial revolutions.]