Rewards of Sharing and Caring for Creation !!!

When We Care.  

When We Take the Time to Share,

Amazing Blessings Happen! 

by Mary Christopher

 

One of the most basic blessings of being part of a community is the Blessing of Opportunity.  When we participate in religious or spiritual communities, we are offered many opportunities to share or respond to another person’s immediate need.

 

We may have gained enough trust to be asked to help someone with a problem or asked to pray for a relative or a neighbor.  We may have paused long enough to help someone circling the block, looking for an invisible address.  We may never know when we have been a Blessing unless that person reaches out to us with their affirmation.

 

This is why religious and church communities have telephone Prayer Lines, collect blankets and diapers for infants, canned food for food co-ops, and build community gardens to share their produce with community kitchens and more food co-ops.  Most of the time, we have no idea why people are struggling or are homeless.  We don’t know their medical history or why their last job didn’t work out.

 

Maybe we don’t need to know all that information.  Maybe all we need to do is show up and care.  We know that showing up is 90% of success.  Right now our world is going through a bit of turmoil and ongoing structural change.  It can be like trying to walk down a muddy path in the rain, and feeling like we are going to slip and fall every few feet, getting muddy at the same time.  We can easily slip into that swamp of discouragement and cynicism.

 

However, there are 2 very important things to remember …

 

No. 1 ~ Regardless of all our Human Craziness, Creation is working just fine.  Yes, there are problems caused by human arrogance and ignorance, as well as our wasteful habits.  Regardless of all this, our Blessed Earth continues to rotate on its axis!  The Glorious Sun comes up every morning!  The Moon continues to orbit our Earth, creating tides and lunar cycles.  Monarch Butterflies continue their amazing migration north in the Spring and south in the Fall.  Squirrels continue to gather acorns, bury them in the ground to eat later, and forget where they have stored at least 10% or more of these acorns.  This means that at least 10% of all acorns buried in the Fall may become an oak tree!

 

No. 2 ~ The Earth is filled with Amazing and Good People who are helping other people every day.  We rarely hear about these Good People on the news.  Since many of our local newspapers have gone out of business, we have lost our source to learn about the Accomplishments and Good Works of our neighbors!  This is Tragic!  There are so many Good People being a Blessing every day and all we hear about is the negative stuff!  Not a good situation … !!!

 

What can we do … ?  We can do exactly what we have been doing which is what Jesus and all great spiritual teachers have asked us to do.  We can keep looking after our Neighbors, as well as our neighbors’ dogs and cats and hamsters.  We can keep up our daily prayers and our genuine kindness.  We can keep praying for folks and looking for the good in everyone.

 

We can include care of Creation and all Creatures Great and Small.  Creation is doing its best to provide clean air, clean water, enough rain to grow crops for us.  Creation is busy turning the Sun’s energy into fruits, and vegetables and herbs for our health and well-being.  We can help by Protecting Pollinators, planting more gardens, conserving water, and planting more trees!

 

We live in challenging times!  And, we are blessed with people who care.  We don’t always hear about them, or see their good works, but they are there.  And, you are probably one of those lovely, prayerful people who is keeping civilization afloat !!!

 

Thank You for all you are doing Every Day to make this World a better place for Everyone !!!

 

Mary teaches mindfulness and spiritual practices.

She leads Heart Coherence groups and offers individual coaching.

Through her “Caring for Creation” podcast, she shares practices

for connecting with the earth and our spirituality.