Hope at the turning point

FUNNY how the mind plays tricks on us. I associate the month of August with holidays and sunshine, picnics and lazy days. Yet, in reality nothing could be further from the truth!

For August is a time of change. As the days get shorter and we feel the first chill of autumn in the air, many of us are filled with hope and anxiety for the changes that lie ahead. From memories of beginning the new school year to heading off to university, to jobs that followed the academic year, August for me has been a time of getting used to the idea of something new. August 2021 is no different as I prepare to move house.

As for August having that carefree holiday vibe, well the new headlines this month have certainly put paid to that. The pictures of flooding in Germany and Austria, fires raging in Greece, Algeria, and the US, have been horrific. With communities devastated, lives lost, and trees, crops, and animals destroyed. If there was any doubt that we are in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency, then the newly published IPPC report confirmed that the climate emergency is well and truly here.

So how can we expect children and young people to focus on their education, and plan for their future, when faced with what seems such an insurmountable challenge? Well, these words from the late Fr Daniel Berrigan might help; “One cannot level one’s moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many of them. But we can do something, and the difference between doing something and nothing is everything.”

Across our region we are seeing communities do “something”. People are coming together to grow food, car share, learn to repair clothes, furniture and electrical goods: in short try to live simply so others, and our one sacred Earth, can simply live.

Yet we know that this isn’t enough. We need politicians locally, and nationally, to make policy changes too. Here in Nottingham there are signs of hope, as plans are afoot to make Nottingham the UK’S first carbonneutral city by 2028. Some argue that such plans are too costly – but can we really afford not to?

So, let’s make August a month of intentional hope-filled change and transition. We can’t do everything, but we can do something, and when we do that something together it can have an incredible impact. That impact may not be felt today or tomorrow, but it will be felt by the next generation, and the next. The climate emergency is at tipping point – but 2021 can be a turning point – because the difference between doing something and nothing is everything.

Sister Katrina Alton is a member of the Congregation of Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, a peace activist, scribbler, and Spiritual Accompanier