Tree of Life
The Earth Is Our Mother…
‘The Earth is our Mother, We must take care of Her.’ – Native American Chant
This month, on Saturday, March 29th, people around the world will mark ‘Earth Hour’ from 8.30pm to 9.30pm during participants’ local time (see http://www.earthhour.org/ for further information). Earth Hour is an annual event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which encourages participants to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. Our household has been celebrating Earth Hour for the last few years and find it a lovely, tranquil thing to do. We usually turn off all electrical items and sit by candle-light, talking, meditating or playing board games.
I am not one of those people who believe that spirituality and politics should be kept separate. As a Pagan, I truly believe that the Earth is sacred. And that means I am prepared to stand up and be counted when I see Her well-being under threat.
Activism is a scary word to many people; it can conjure up images of raucous demonstrations, people chained to railings, angry clashes with authority. But this is just one type of activism, and one kind of demonstration, for that matter! Earth Hour is a great example of a peaceful, yet powerful demonstration. Political demonstrations are generally the eye-catching, headline-grabbing face of activism. And for that reason they are important – they get publicity, thereby raising public awareness of causes and hopefully gathering more support in the process. Marching or standing in solidarity with others is also a great way of realising that you are not alone in caring about an issue, and that can be very heartening!
But demonstrations are only one kind of activism. For me the real activism, the activism that is most meaningful and most important, is the day-to-day activism. What do I mean by day-to-day activism? Well just as Samhain (for example) is a high-profile Pagan festival at which my non-Pagan friends and family are probably most aware of my beliefs, I am still Pagan the other 364 days of the year, even if it is not so visible to them. It is this day-to-day Paganism and day-to-day activism that really grounds me in my beliefs.
So how does such day-to-day activism work? Quite simply, it is how I live my life, the choices I make. I try to live lightly on the earth. I try to reduce my carbon footprint. I try to make wise choices about what and how much I consume. I try to be honest, fair and compassionate in my dealings with other beings. I try to treat others as I would like to be treated. I try to reduce, re-use, repair, recycle. I try not to do any harm. I think about the kind of world I would like to live in, and try to live in ways that are compatible with that.
I do not always succeed. Sometimes I am tired and stressed and compassion is hard to find. Sometimes I can’t afford the ethical choice. Or I don’t know which is the best choice, Fair Trade or recycled? Organic or free range? Sometimes there are no ‘good’ choices and it comes down to making the least bad choice.
The important thing is to keep trying, keep in mind that vision of the world I want to live in, keep working towards it, building the good future. This is the work of day-to-day activism, and it is this that I believe truly makes a difference in the long run. Just think of all those little actions being done every day by people all around the world and how they can add up.
So I hope you will join with me in marking Earth Hour on 29th March, and perhaps Earth Day next month (22nd April). But I hope you will also take the opportunity to live your every day life as an activist, thinking about how and what you do, and the power you have to play your part in caring for this beautiful blue-green planet and all its inhabitants.
After all, The Earth is our Mother. We must take care of Her.