THE BIG GRIEF— Florida is a foretaste
First, the Bottom Line
Grief is hard stuff to handle. However, it can also be packed with rich blessings. Shock is often what we first encountered when what we value is taken from us. “This just can’t be real, can it?” Yes, sadly, it often is very real. Pretending it isn’t so, won’t make it disappear. More to the point, pretending that Mother Earth isn’t collapsing won’t stop her demise.
So, let’s acknowledge that we are into THE BIG GRIEF.
Why It Matters
Human beings have overshot the earth’s capacity to support us. Simply put, Mother Earth can’t support all of us given our current way of living together as planetary citizens. We have over-burdened her, and her natural resources are exhausted. She is collapsing. And that means we, with her, are in deep trouble. Lots of losses are coming our way. So let’s get through the shock and denial ASAP so we can move to acceptance… and then on to life sustaining transformations.
The ”Highlights” of My Journey with Grief
I recently became 74 years old. College and a high number in the draft kept me out of Vietnam, but during those years I grieved a great deal over damaged and lost family, and friends. My dad was a Pastor, and our family heard the church bells toll many times, once for each car in a funeral procession. Sure, I had lost pets, girlfriends, a role on the football team when my hand was broken, and our beloved grandparents. A career opportunity was gained and lost at great cost, and illness threatened my wife’s health. I had a business partner die suddenly of a heart attack. My wonderful parents are gone. During Covid, but not due to Covid, we had beloved family and friends die. Some left very slowly and awfully, and one just all of a sudden passed away.
Some hearts stop, while those that remain are broken.
I’ve spent the last 50 years as a traveling companion to many wonderful people in my roles as Pastor and Psychotherapist. I’ve married people, and I’ve buried those same people. Long ago I stopped working with adolescents who were abusing alcohol. The fifth death among those was my final. But then, the good man who committed suicide two weeks ago brought me back to others who had decided to leave during my watch.
The most fascinating deaths have been of ideas. Yes, the map is not the territory and I have learned that all ideas are right, but only partially right. Like the weather, they too come and go.
Speaking of the weather, as I write, Hurricane Ian is hitting Ft. Meyers Beach. Take a look. Where the “o” is in Fort… that’s where the cottage was that my wife and I rented last winter. It was one of 8 pastel-colored cottages on stilts, right off the beach, and built in the 1950’s. What a lovely spot it was. It didn’t survive.
Losses are a natural part of life. Grief is often an unwelcome visitor.
THE BIG GRIEF that is upon us, just now breaking into our consciousness, is the grief we all will experience as Mother Earth collapses from exhaustion. The symptoms of her collapse will be catastrophic for not only we human beings, but for all living things on this — our one and only — planet.
Let’s not be like the mythological ostrich. In truth, she is a flightless bird and so lays her eggs underground. She sticks her head down there to nudge the eggs around on hot days. It only looks like she is hiding. What she knows is that if those eggs get too hot, they will die off.
Today, as I look at the weather map, I know Mother Earth is collapsing.
This is THE BIG GRIEF that is happening today to people, places and things in Florida.
Grieve with me. In fact, let’s grieve together, for that makes the weight of it all so much lighter.
And as the burdens of grief are shared and lightened, many blessings will be revealed.
My mission is to integrate environmentalism with spirituality. Follow me as I embrace THE BIG GRIEF. Follow me through to the eventual transformative blessings that are graced to us as we walk through the valley of death.
In 2020, I wrote the book LOVING MOTHER EARTH: Integrating Environmentalism and Spirituality. You can find commentaries about the big ideas in this little book at www.loving-mother-earth.com, and here on Medium. You can purchase my book on Amazon, and know that if you do, $5.00 from every purchase is donated to The Sierra Club.
Thank you for Loving Mother Earth. Follow me and I will follow you if, in truth, you are passionate about integrating environmentalism with spirituality. After all, we are in this together.
