A Positively Poetic Priest

 I am not a fan of fad diets. Not only have they caused my family all sorts of grief over the years, they rarely are eco-friendly or people-friendly. Needless to say I have not tried the low-carb diet. Fad diets overlook the holistic approach (which can be slower) of finding your own body's natural rhythms and cycles and working with your body to achieve health instead of inflicting weight loss upon the body. Working with your own body usually involves a lot less pain, though it can take longer to figure out.  However, I am starting to try the Low-Carbon diet. This diet doesn't only impact what I eat, but holistically looks at my full lifestyle. A Low-Carbon lifestyle takes into account our full carbon footprint on the Earth. Our housing, our transportation, our wastes, as well as what we eat. The first step in looking at lowering your carbon footprint is finding out what your current carbon footprint is!  There are a wide range of Carbon Footprint Calculators out there. ...

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Fifth Sunday of Easter BCP 225) "Rain, rain, go away, come again another day..." I am not sure why we tell rain to come again another day in this well-known children's song. We rarely want rain to come. Rain makes everything soggy and dampens moods. It puts outdoor events on hold and makes the sky look dreary. With all these side effects, why would we want rain to come again?  Thankfully, rain does come again. Because we need the rain. We need the water for our environment, we need the break in our own hectic pace, we need the reminder to water ourselves (whether with literal water or those things which make us sp...

Pets are a family affair. Some households have the full gambit of pets, cats, dogs, fish, hermit crabs, snakes, birds, the whole menagerie. Other households are not pet friendly, their owners being allergic or simply choosing to live pet-free. Naturally, there are households in the middle, with only one or two furry or animal members. Pets tend to be causally overlooked for many people when it comes to living an eco-friendly lifestyle. If you have pets, they can be eco-friendly too!  So far, my cat, Nicodemus, has mostly been saved from my eco-friendly lifestyle changes. He has so far eaten the same food and played with the same cat toys (see the last post on using what you have!). However, there are eco-friendly options available. Naturally made toys, collars, brushes, bowls, and cleaners are all available. When it comes to waste, there are less options, especially for cat litter, because it can contain bacteria and other problematic wastes. You can compost cat and dog waste, but ...

Use what you have.  Its a fairly simply bit of advice.  However, it seems to be a hard way to live. I have found especially since trying to change my habits to be more environmentally friendly, it has been really hard to continue using what I have already and not trying to go out and buy some new eco-friendly version of what I already have. However, since one of the tenets of being eco-friendly is reducing my consumption of goods, it makes the most sense to use what I have already until it can no longer be used before buying a new eco-friendly version. Of course, there are a few exceptions to the rule here. If something is so bad for the environment that using it is causing more harm, then the best way forward is to find some way of disposing of that item/product in a responsible and eco-friendly way and then buying the new version. This category is small, but contains things like harmful cleaning chemicals and cars. Thankfully, I have already taken care of the first in that c...

Anxiety pops up in our lives for many reasons. Uncertainty, problems, disaster, feeling out of or lacking control are all reasons people feel anxious in life. Since the climate crisis brings many of these feelings and issues into our lives, it makes sense that eco-anxiety is a reality right now. The climate crisis brings feelings of uncertainty, fear, guilt, annoyance, lack of control, all because humans have been fueling the climate changes going on without any thoughts to the consequences. Eco-anxiety is then the feelings of anxiety caused by our understanding and interactions with the climate crisis.  While the term is fairly new in human language, people have been anxious about the climate and drastic changes in the climate for millennia. Even in the Bible there is evidence of human-caused climate change, climate crises, and people's response of anxiety towards them. Any time humans blamed God for a shift in the normal climate cycle or there was a big drought, famine, or terrib...

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Fourth Sunday of Easter BCP 225) Follow the Leader is one of those really easy children's games we have all played. It takes no equipment, just the children themselves and their imagination. Everyone gets behind the designated leader and follows them around mimicking what they do. If you mess up, you have to sit out for a while until someone wins and the games starts all over again. It may sound like a silly game, but it teaches children some important motor and life skills. Even as adults, we all have days we need to follow a leader. Whether at work or at home or at the gym, there are situations we all face in which we need to follow someone's lead. Being a follower isn't always easy. If you don't trust the leader, questi...

Earth Day is tomorrow and the theme for Earth Day this year is Restore Our Earth.  As Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church writes in his book, Love is the Way, the opposite of love is selfishness. And when it comes to the Earth we have been so very selfish.  Madeleine L'Engle also wrote about how the idea of being a consumer is destroying our relationship with the earth and all creation. A consumer consumes. A consumer doesn't live in harmony with that which it consumes. Somewhere in the past couple of centuries we have developed this idea that the earth is for our own benefit, that everything in it is meant to serve us. But that is not the way that God created this planet. God created this planet out of great love, to live in love, to show each other care and to care for every living thing together.  Restoring our Earth is a project we all need to work on together. It is not something that a few tree-huggers can do on their own. It is a global project for all hum...