BeFriendingBeFriending Creation A PublicationCreation of QUAKER EARTHCARE WITNESS Affirming our essential unity with nature Vol.33 Number 2 • APRIL-MAY-JUNE 2020 In Uncertain Times By Mary Jo Klingel I HAVE HEARD the conventional if” are frequently unconscious, wisdom that the business community but they are felt in one’s body as needs certainty to function, and that anxiety that can become part of our the stock market needs certainty processing—it gets locked into place to grow. When I hear that, I think, neurologically and it is passed down “Well, what you are really saying is from generation to generation. that you need to know that you will This pandemic may be our continue to make money even if generation’s Great Depression, that means that you take more than leaving scars for years. I know how your share and your competitors profoundly the Depression shaped make less money.” It speaks to an my father’s entire life. My parents assumption that I have a right to were comfortable financially in their have what I need and not worry later years, but my father never Photo by Kathy Barnhart about what the other person needs. stopped saving tin foil or keeping In Uncertain Times That conventional wisdom leads small pieces of string to tie together 1 By Mary Jo Klingel directly to the abuse of our lands to make a big ball of string. By saving and waters and people to provide string, he didn’t need to buy it. I What I’m Learning value to those who have, and want think he did that automatically and 4 By Shelley Tanenbaum to have, even more. As we are seeing never asked why he did it, what he Population is Personal now, it also doesn’t work. None of us was afraid of, what was dangerous 5 By Stan Becker can claim to own the resources that about not having enough string. Or are evaporating in this pandemic was it really a deeper fear, the fear Endless War, Endless world. The demand for certainty is of not having enough? Or not being 6 Environmental Harm a fantasy. enough? By Emily Wirzba and Alicia Cannon Nevertheless, that certainty has Today we have many resources to Quakers Caring for God’s such a hold on our culture that it help us to know what to do with our 7 Creation By Jim Kessler is worthwhile to ask why it is so fears. Psychology and neuroscience pervasive. Why have we not seen have plenty of answers. Let me offer How Will I #ShareMyCheck? through this illusion of a need for some of what we know. 8 By Hayley Hathaway certainty? I would suggest that To work with your own anxiety, Youth Activists’ Earth Day underneath the claim to certainty first, own it. Acknowledge that 8 Demands is fear. That fear often takes the you are anxious, with no judgment form of a “What if?” question: What of your fears. Our fears need not Listening in the Wilderness, if I don’t have enough money? be secret, and have less energy if 9 Walking in Love By Mey Hasbrook What if I don’t have enough food? brought into the Light. Breathe If I were a Poet What if I don’t have a big enough deeply, and then get on with 10 By Allen J. McGrew house…or big enough golf club? whatever calls to you. However you Questions that start with “What are led, that is your path, perhaps Mutual Aid & Local Food Continued on page 3 Sufficiency in the Era of 12 COVID-19 By Bob McGahey BeFriending Creation www.quakerearthcare.org BeFriending Creation Vol. 33, No. 2, April-May-June 2020. Newsletter of Quaker Earthcare Witness. Our Request to You ISSN 1050-0332. Published quarterly. Dear Friends, We publish BeFriending Creation to promote the work of Quaker Earthcare On behalf of our Steering Committee, Witness, stimulate discussion and action, To make a donation share insights, practical ideas, and news staff and volunteers, thank you for being of our actions, and encourage among part of the Quaker Earthcare Witness to Quaker Earthcare Friends a sense of community and spiritual network. Your much-needed support connection with all Creation. Opinions Witness, visit expressed are the authors’ own and do allows QEW to work for environmental not necessarily reflect those of Quaker justice and a right relationship with the <quakerearthcare. Earthcare Witness, or of the Religious Earth. Society of Friends (Quakers). The editor org/donate> or send is responsible for unsigned items. Please share our work widely and broadly, always Can you make a donation to support a check to Quaker attributing it to Quaker Earthcare Witness. Friends’ Earthcare work? We know Earthcare Witness, Interested in being a member of that each donation comes with moral QEW? Membership is open to all who and spiritual support to continue our P.O. Box 6787, demonstrate a commitment to support work on the environmental crises of the work of Quaker Earthcare Witness Albany, CA 94706. and who support its work at the Monthly our times. or Yearly Meeting levels, or through Thank you. other Friends organizations. Quaker Even before the global Covid-19 Earthcare Witness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation; contributions are tax- pandemic, we witnessed a growing deductible to the full extent allowed by law. change in consciousness in both the general public and the Religious Society of Friends—more and more people are recognizing the magnitude of the VISION AND WITNESS WE ARE CALLED to live in right ecological problems that we are facing, and make effective, spirit-led change. relationship with all Creation, recognizing Last year, we were able to reach out to growing numbers of Friends, and that the entire world is interconnected and still meet our budget. This year is filled with uncertainty, but we do know is a manifestation of God. WE WORK to integrate into the beliefs that we can use our virtual tools to continue to connect Friends who care and practices of the Religious Society of about the earth. Friends the Truth that God’s Creation is to be respected, protected, and held in We’ll be offering more online webinars and resources this year. In April, reverence in its own right, and the Truth that human aspirations for peace and justice we hosted a successful online Steering Committee Meeting of more than depend upon restoring the earth’s ecological 60 Friends from across the US and Canada. We are also hosting monthly integrity. online worship sharing opportunities in partnership with Friends General WE PROMOTE these truths by being patterns and examples, by communicating Conference. Instead of traveling to Yearly Meetings this year, we’ll be our message, and by providing spiritual sharing our work virtually through online sessions. and material support to those engaged in the compelling task of transforming our relationship to the earth. Would you like us to “visit” your meeting? We welcome invitations to host Steering Committee Clerk: virtual adult education sessions for your Meeting. Please share with us how Mary Jo Klingel, else we can support your meeting in engaging with Earthcare concerns. [email protected] General Secretary: Shelley Tanenbaum, P.O. Box 6787, Scientists tell us that we have to make huge structural changes over the next Albany, CA 94706. 510-542-9606; five to ten years to avoid several tipping points. As Friends, we know that [email protected]. this means expanding our sense of spirituality to include interconnections BFC Editor: Hayley Hathaway, with all facets of the natural world, and listening to Spirit to take collective 1726 Agua Fria St. Santa Fe, NM 87505 action. As people of Faith, we are called to this challenge. [email protected]. Website: www.quakerearthcare.org Please consider making a donation to support Quaker Earthcare Witness Twitter: @quakerearthcare today. Please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] Facebook: facebook.com/QuakerEarthcare if you have questions. Thanks again for being part of our network. Together we are making a difference in the world. Earthcare Calendar June 15, 2020 Deadline for In Friendship, articles for July-Aug-Sept issue Shelley Tanenbaum, General Secretary BeFriending Creation • www.quakerearthcare.org • April-May-June• 2 HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING? Continued from front page as simple as calling a friend or weeding your garden or taking a walk. Sit still in the Light or walk in the Light. Nourish your own soul. These are not as easy to do as they are to say, but they are possible. These days I have been working with my own anxiety by looking at my home, really seeing it, and not liking what I see. I have been sorting, opening boxes, asking myself, what is all this stuff? I have been finding unused knitting needles and yarn, and listing them on my little community virtual bulletin board. It is really fun to see the joy when somebody gets a bag of needles or yarn for free. Please listen; really listen, especially to the media (but not all day). Use our Quaker skills of discernment. Are you practicing social distancing? I am not. I will not. Nope. I am practicing physical distancing while I connect socially. How absurd to give up connection. We are all still tribal beings. I can look across seven or eight feet and still smile at another person. I can also look across a continent and smile and wave QEW Steering Committee members gather online for our Spring Meeting. to another person—through the online magic of Zoom. It is amazing how rapidly the change to virtual meetings How Can I Keep From Singing* has occurred for Friends.