Try this rewarding search for your spirit
The pandemic allowed us to find nature in new ways
Spring is here after a hard winter freeze and a year of COVID protocols. For eons, the vernal equinox has been a time of spirit-based celebration. The Christian festival of Easter is upon us. The Passover celebration of the Jewish faith is just past. This is a time of spirituality, worthy of a bit of reflection.
I recently was involved in a 365-day writing and communication adventure I called the “virus vigil.” For over a year, artist Isabelle Scurry Chapman and I were in daily communication with over 700 people via email. Each day, Isabelle prepared a painting, and I wrote a poem inspired by the painting with a rambling introduction about whatever was on my mind. It was a great way to stay connected during the isolation of the pandemic.
The vigil started with paintings and poems about birds, a particular love of both Isabelle and mine. In our two books, Isabelle and I have always been focused upon the spiritual side of birds — the connection with nature that we felt deep within our souls — and we shared those thoughts and images. Over the months our attention went from birds to plants and mammals to insects and the metaphysical and back again.
During this ongoing communication, the spiritual content was extremely well received. In particular, we focused on the Earth, perhaps the least appreciated asset that we have as humans. The Earth is the only planet with life as we know it. We would not exist but for this unique combination of elements that support us and every other living thing. We are because of the Earth, yet we fail to value it. That is an economic failing but also a spiritual one.
On one level, I am amazed that we take the Earth for granted, yet I have spent more than 40 years as a litigating environmental lawyer, and I have witnessed some incredibly tragic consequences of human relationships with the Earth. At least in part, we are able to destroy the Earth and allow this destruction because we lack a spiritual connection with the Earth. That is a void that must be filled as we evolve into the future.
As we retreated into pandemic isolation, many of us found nature in new and different ways. We could hear the birds singing outside. We would walk out and see the new flower blooming, or take in the new green of the hardwood tree or relish the nimble hawk hunting the doves of the neighborhood. Many of us grew into nature during our isolation, and it became spiritual.
The more I wrote about Isabelle’s and my spiritual connections with the Earth, the more positive feedback I received. I wrote of Earth Church, a place full of cathedrals where we could appreciate our own life and other living things. The vigil often became a spiritual discussion of being — of what it means to exist as a living being on a planet full of other living beings. This was writing and poetry and painting about living and perceiving life on Earth, and it came from deep within our souls.
In this context, I am not considering spirituality to be a religious view or based in any faith tradition. Instead, I am using “spiritual” in a poetic way — as in of the spirit — the essence of being — the ether that is life and being.
To be sure, organized religion and the Earth intersect. Much has been written about creation theology — about how God created the Earth — and it was good. There are Psalms that celebrate the Earth. There is the New Testament concept of stewardship — of care for the household that is Earth. And there is the concept of the Earth as the manifestation of the Holy Spirit of the Christian Trinity. And there are similar writings in other faith traditions.
Although these spiritual bases exist, we typically do not celebrate connections between the Earth and humans and nature as a spiritual interaction. We are reluctant to discuss them and share this spiritual connection with the Earth. We have failed to use these spiritual bases to build a community of human spirits invested in protecting the Earth.
Art and poetry are excellent ways of expressing things that are amorphous — difficult to capture, difficult to articulate. For a year, Isabelle and I did that, and the spiritual rewards were bountiful. I encourage all of you to search for your spirit in nature and capture it deep within your soul. You will be rewarded.