Centers for Spiritual Living Spiritual Leader: World Earth Day 50th Anniversary

"For if the whole nation works together and prays together, a great moral and spiritual power, an actual soul force, will penetrate the whole world, helping to bring confidence and calm judgment and right action until the crisis shall have passed."

Dr. Ernest Holmes

Our world is going through an enormous disruption and, with it, the opportunity to engage jointly in spiritual practices that, as our founder, Dr. Ernest Holmes stated, produces a soul force to penetrate the whole world. Many of us are sheltered-in-place, and so I am inviting you to take on, with me, the practice of praying together for our planet. Let each one of us, in their own way, dedicate time and spiritual conviction to raising awareness of the earth as sacred, especially on April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

Earth Day, the largest secular observance in the world, grew out of the first Earth Day in 1970 and has an intention to empower individuals with the information, tools, and messaging to make an impact for beneficial change. As awareness of our planet grows, and frustration emerges among citizens around the world who want to have confidence that life and our planet is respected, Centers for Spiritual Living's mission to provide spiritual tools for personal and global transformation becomes powerfully relevant. As a faith community, we can partner with the growing social movement for climate health by acknowledging the very real impact that sheltering-in-place has produced.

The disruption that is happening worldwide is bringing into view the stark reality of unimaginable suffering, and at the same time, the opportunity to move in the direction of innovation through necessity: we are realizing that we can learn, adapt, and change quickly. We can share, care, and collaborate more. We can use and consume less. We can express our liberty in ways that create a lifestyle based on our interconnectedness with each other, all life, and our planetary home.

Environmental issues may seem overwhelming, yet when we turn our attention to small but significant acts that have an impact, we reignite the flame of hope and vision of living in harmony with nature and with respect for our planet. The vision of a restored earth may seem as impossible as the Peaceable Kingdom described in Isaiah, in which the lion lays down with the lamb, given the nature of lions and lambs. Yet that is the purpose of a vision: to draw our consciousness into a realm that is different from what is currently real, a realm in which spiritual wisdom guides and unites us. Isn't this what we are experiencing with our shelter-in-place? Who knew all the ways life could change in an instant, in unimaginable ways, leading us to new ideas and paradigms about work, home, technology, connection, and care for each other.

I invite you to imagine a world that is whole, healthy, and well, and to join the collective consciousness by embracing this ideal, whether we know how to attain it or not. Perhaps we didn't know what was possible before this disruption, and maybe we cannot know how our vision will materialize. Still, right now, new and innovative ways of being together on this planet are being shown to us daily. I invite you to share your vision of a healthy, loving world with your family and friends, and to start a conversation about sustainability and environmental health in your spiritual communities and beyond; and to know with me that we are co-creating a world that works for everyone.

Dr. Ernest Holmes, when addressing another world crisis in a previous century, said that there seem to be two attitudes we can assume: calmness, faith, and conviction, or despair. He urged us to dedicate time, service, hope, and spiritual conviction to the harmonious resolution of that crisis. And, importantly, he invited us to take the actions that our spiritual practices inspire in us. This, then, is a time to first do our spiritual practices, and then to do something to align our homes with sustainable living while sheltered-in-place, no matter how small the action may be. (See the list of resources below for suggested in-home actions.)

This can be a time to expand our thinking into what may be possible for our world, and a time to praise international actions that promote planetary awareness. It is also a time to question if the systems we have established up until now are necessary, or can we do something different.

It would not be correct practice to spend one's whole time contemplating or meditating. There should be a balance between the inner and the outer states; from an inner communion of the soul with the Spirit there comes inspiration and guidance; but this inner state would remain an idle dream unless heaven were brought to earth, and spiritual perception woven into the fabric of everyday experience.

Dr. Ernest Holmes

Resources

https://www.earthday.org/about-us/

History of the Earth Day movement

https://www.livescience.com/50556-earth-day-facts-history.html

Earth Day facts and history

https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day

United Nations International Mother Earth Day

https://www.earthhour.org/

World Earth Hour

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-ideas-for-sustainable-living.php

Fifteen suggestions to practice sustainable living