A Joyful Practice

EXCERPT: “But What About Earth…and Space (and Grace)?” (a post-practice post for Monday) April 22, 2024

Happy Earth Day! “Happy Riḍván!” to those celebrating “the Most Great Festival.” Many blessings to everyone, and especially to anyone observing Great Lent or Passover! Happy National Poetry Month!

This post-practice post for Monday, April 22^nd. The prompt question was, “What is your favorite tree or the tree you would expect to find in paradise?” In addition to referencing Earth Day, this practice also highlighted current religious observations.  You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

— quoted from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (published 1962)

The following excerpt is from content posted in 2020 & 2023 post:

“[Today] was Earth Day. While the roots of Earth Day can be found in the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, an actual day dedicated to Earth and peace was initially proposed by John McConnell during a 1969 conferenced hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The very first Earth Day, as he proposed it, was held in San Francisco on March 21, 1970, to coincide with the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, proposed a nationwide environmental teach-in and hired a young activist named Denis Hayes to organize the first national Earth Day, which was held on April 22, 1970. More than 20 million people, including then-President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon, participated in the events on April 22, 1970, making that day one of the largest protests in the United States. (The 1970 Earth Day teach-in was the largest recorded protest until the 2020 protest after the murder of George Floyd.)”

“In these troubled times it is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. There is modern truth to the ancient wisdom of the psalmist: `I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.’”

— quoted from Rachel Carson’s original submission to “Words to Live By” for This Week Magazine (1951)

What You Notice About the Earth (on April 22nd)

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices.

“But it seems reasonable to believe — and I do believe — that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.”

— Rachel Carson accepting the John Burroughs Medal (April 1952) and printed in Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson

CLICK HERE and scroll down to the “ENTERING THE GARDEN” section for information about Riḍván.

### See the forest and the trees. ###