Eco-Anxiety and the Lilies of the Field

WE haven’t mown our lawn yet this year and we don’t plan to until the end of May. I am having to fight a sense of guilt that this looks lazy and ‘uncivilised’. So why do it? Since the 1930s 97% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have been destroyed. That’s one of the reasons that the insects we rely on to pollinate our food crops are in crisis.

The charity Plantlife launched #NoMowMay to help reduce our wildlife population collapse. It’s part of a wider movement of ‘rewilding’ our lands. This recognises that some of the developments on our path to ‘civilisation’ are now wrecking the delicate environmental balance of our planet – extinctions are accelerating, the world’s poorest people are hit hardest. It’s no wonder ‘eco-anxiety’ is rife among young people.

When I look out on the forget-me-nots, lady’s smocks, buttercups, and the delicate flowers of different grasses in my unmown lawn, I am reminded of Jesus’ words: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Jesus was using metaphors of the natural world to tell his disciples to stop worrying about their physical needs and focus on God’s kingdom.

The life-giving beauty of the ‘lilies of the field’ can still remind us not to sink under the weight of eco-anxiety and to focus on kingdom values. Walking in wild spaces is scientifically proven to lower anxiety. Moreover, choices not to mow, to buy secondhand where possible, or to cut down on meat are among many aspects of a kingdom lifestyle that can be time-saving, cheaper or healthier. For more ideas, and suggestions on using that saved time, see creationcare.org.uk, readingcan.org.uk or ceebill.uk.

Joanna Laynesmith, Reading Area Green Christians, writing on behalf Churches

Together in Reading