Yahweh's Garden

Today, with a blizzard blasting outdoors, burying all in downy white, we have our own small treasury of snow. Classes are canceled, traffic is snarled, many people have an unexpected "free" day, whether they like it or not. I imagine many do not. I am also fully aware how for the homeless or those who struggle to survive, this snow only increases their hardships. For them I have compassion and wish that my joy did not come at cost to them. I love this gift of time and nature -- where I can't leave home, thankfully forced to play in snow with my kids and shovel it, make popcorn and hot chocolate, cook Christmas cookies, decorate the tree, write a blog. I am fully aware how for the homeless or those who struggle to survive, this snow only increases their hardships. I delight in that expression "treasuries" of snow -- all that water in lacy form, ready to moisturize the brown, crackling earth like lotion come spring. But when the Lord asks Job this question about t...

Then God said, 'Let there be light," and there was light. God saw how good the light was. As the planet's climate grows more erratic and oil prices rise and fall bringing insecurity for non-oil nations and often war and autocratic governments within oil nations, people may finally be ready to go back to the beginning to rethink their energy sources. A huge solar project, DESTERTEC (www.desertec.org), is in the works as a joint effort between a group of European companies and the DESERTEC Foundation to build solar collectors in North Africa to supply 1/3 of Europe's energy needs and those of Morocco as well. The solar energy will heat water into steam which will turn turbines creating energy. This energy be transferred to European nations under the Mediterranean Sea. No small undertaking. It requires big vision and big investment, but the potential for payback is even greater. The elegance of this initiative and that of a similar one for the Sahara Desert is that the s...

In the book of Genesis, where we find God’s first self-revelation to humanity, there is a recurring refrain: “And God saw that it was good”. . . . God entrusted the whole of creation to the man and woman, and only then – as we read – could He rest “from all his work.” John Paul II Everyone can agree, people weren't around when the Earth was created and humans were the last species to show up on the scene, yet we've had the most varied capabilities and responsibilities upon our shoulders. Now religious leaders of all faiths, scientists, and Earth citizens are joining together to talk about these responsibilities and share them, bringing our varied tools, perspectives, and insights to bear. We've a long way to go, but this is an exciting time in the history of humanity, where the connections between faith, reason, and spiritual imagination can be knitted back together along with our insights from nature herself. This is our moment for the human sp...