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In your every day and holiday choices you can express gratitude to the Creator and Creation. Your actions speak loudest. Here are some suggestions.
Keep your garden messy all winter—for the birds! Help them feed through the winter by not deadheading spent blooms and not cleaning up your garden. Enjoy watching the birds. Point them out to children and even critical neighbors and remind them we are caretakers of all of God’s creation.
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Are you aware of eco-grief? That sense of loss of control in response to visible devastation—from draught, flooding, superstorms, wildfires, and heat waves—can be debilitating, especially among young people who also fear the loss of a good future. Help by listening, finding actions to do together, and looking for signs of hope. Trust the Creator and resolve to be among the hands, feet, and voices needed to move us all to a better place.
Changing seasons bring on the desire for changing wardrobes. Before you race off to online or local clothing stores, listen to Joshua Becker for practical ways to enjoy clothing without falling into the traps of consumerism. Shop with a friend or family member who has also seen the 4-minute video.
With the gain in wind, solar, and other renewables, the evidence is clear that stopping the fossil fuel industry is both possible and essential. Along with your individual actions, advocate for systems change. Add your voice to the public pressure and momentum needed now. Don’t delay.
Choose aluminum cans over plastic bottles. Plastic can be successfully recycled just once or twice, and only 3–6% of plastic that makes it to the recycling bin is truly recycled. On the other hand, aluminum can be recycled infinitely—as long as you put the can into the recycle bin.
If it’s your practice to take a hostess gift to a party or special dinner, choose earth-friendly gifts that keep giving, for example: a shampoo bar, a package of wooden clothes pins to use instead of plastic “chip clips,” jams or other preserves from local farmers, a roll of bamboo toilet paper from Who Gives a Crap. Sustainable presents say thank you and spark good conversation.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving celebrations, starting with a sustainability mindset: reusable dinnerware, cloth napkins, less meat/more plant-based foods, a plan to use leftovers, a kitchen set up to maximize compostables and minimize trash, even washable rags for cleanup instead of wasting trees with paper towels. Earth will be thankful you did.
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During the holiday season you may have extra food on hand. When people buy more than they can use, the result is food waste, which contributes to methane gas if not composted. Try these strategies: Put perishable food in a fridge drawer designated as “Eat Me First.” Freeze food before it needs to be trashed. Make great soups or smoothies. Share within your family and community.
Just after we have said thanks for all we have, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the blitz of holiday media tell us to buy more! Be thoughtful about how much you really need. Then check out Green America’s Directory of Sustainable Gifts, Holidays, and Special Events before you shop.
Fall and winter are the seasons for planting trees. Explore your options for your home, your community, for your “neighbors” around the world whose lands need reforestation. Consider planting trees as a gift option—a memorial or in honor of someone you love—and as a sign of hope. Read Job 14:7-9.
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Each month you will receive four free video clips—just 60–90 seconds long—to help your congregation recognize God’s call in the midst of climate-related issues. Each “Minute” is based on the curriculum Wake Up World, A Curriculum for Faith and Community Groups (available from Cokesbury). Take a minute right now and sign up today: Email adygertgearheart@hotmail.com