By Revd Canon Deborah Parsons
I have a bird feeder in my garden in front of the patio doors. Each morning, I delight in seeing which feathery friends will visit: sparrows, wrens, bluetits, robins. If the feeder is blocked, a crow will shake it vigorously until the seed spills to the ground. At other times, the smaller birds will flick out the seeds and the larger birds will wait underneath, pecking up the seed that falls to the ground. In that way all the birds are fed and none go hungry.
As the clean-up operation begins in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, after the recent heavy flooding, and as the snow melts from the moors and the roads become passable again, do we return to business-as-usual, to a world dominated by the market and the machine or do we move to wiser living and try to reclaim our lost connection with the land and all of creation.
Satish Kumar noticed that there is only one letter difference between the word “ego” and “eco.” Extreme weather events used to be extraordinary. Now they are becoming more commonplace.
As wildfires rage in Los Angeles and people rebuild their lives, livelihoods and homes, after the recent flash floods, what small steps might we each take to create a fairer and more equitable world and renew our connection with the land and the seasons so that we can be good stewards of all that we’ve been given.
Jesus said: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
As we move from Winter into Spring, how might we learn from the rhythms of nature and the wisdom teaching of Jesus?