August Tips
My cousin Dale sent me the photo above, which started me thinking about legacy. His wife Jeannine adopted a section of a nearby creek with the preschool children she taught in her home and nearby park. They had observed how heavy rainfall caused the creek to rise rapidly and wipe out the homes of the creatures living there. Jeannine had explained that in natural areas, wetlands hold this water and let it move slowly through the ground to the nearby creek.
The children said, “Let’s make one here!”
Creation Justice ident
A year later the first wet meadow was planted. Now, 25 years later, four wet meadows filled with native plants protect the creek and add the beauty you see in the photo. The first wet meadow was the children’s idea, and it was their voices that inspired Jeannine to persist over the years in the face of bureaucratic obstacles.
What a legacy!
August’s Tips identify ways you too can create a legacy. Ultimately, our legacy is who we are. Consider the bolded verbs below. Make a list for yourself for your fridge or one for your green team that starts with
“We are people who…”
Preserve: When you find something amazingly wonderful, take care to keep it that way! What you do for creation care is your legacy.
Conserve: When you realize something wonderful is being chipped away, take action to stop the damage. Visit the Nature Conservancy website.
Restore: When you see major damage to God’s creation, do everything you can to fix it. For example, find ways to plant trees either on your own land or worldwide.
Regenerate: When you despair over degradation, remember “The earth is the LORD’s (Psalm 24:1)” and dig in with hope. Work in harmony with God’s natural systems to bring back life. Composting, clearing waterways, planting for pollinators are ways.
Renew: Immerse yourself in nature. Try forest bathing, hiking, enjoying a park, hunting for waterfalls and wildflowers, going to a botanical garden or arboretum, getting out on the water in a sailboat, kayak, or canoe. Renew your commitment to care for the nature that renews you.
Designate: Put responsibility where it belongs. Some environmental actions are the obligation of us as individuals. Others are the onus of corporations, businesses, and governments. All of us are accountable for our actions and non-actions for the areas for which we have responsibility. Know the Top Twelve Actions for everyone.
Legislate: Tackle the big problems with big action. If you can’t handle the issue by yourself, we collectively can do it! Organize, donate, speak up, vote. Sign Action Alerts from the Creation Justice Movement or United Women of Faith. Make change happen.
Invest: What you choose to use your money for makes a difference. Even small “investments,” such as purchases of organic food and items that are not plastic count, as well as any other outlay of your money, time, or effort that contributes to a healthier planet and to justice for all who live here.
Divest: Get rid of “stuff.” Shed the burden of the consumerism mentality. Pull out of investments in fossil fuels. Choose simplicity and what’s good for the planet.
Teach: Children observe continuously. Teaching younger generations through words, expectations, and especially by example to care for God’s creation and to seek justice is a special legacy. “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray” (Proverbs 22:6).
The United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is providing these Tips as a tool to equip church members, families, and individuals to respond to God's call to care for creation and do justice with our neighbors.
For more about the UM Creation Justice Movement, go to umcreationjustice.org.