This week of Advent we hung our banner of joy. It is a Chinese dragon with the character for joy (Sarah grew up in Taiwan). It is stained and used to have six bells sewn on the bottom… the banner is over 35 years old now.
Joy… sometimes an elusive feeling for poor people, depressed people, and as our daughter Jessica recently wrote, a elusive feeling for people younger than me because of climate change… the feeling that the future is bleak.
I have felt intense joy holding my sons after they were born… joy and an intense feeling of responsibility.
We were entrusted with this earth. If we do not start changing our habits, we will kill ourselves off. And long after we are gone the planet will heal and some kind of life will emerge again, but the joy of children’s squeals of laughter will be silenced, the roars of tigers will be quieted, no more majestic trumpets from elephants, no more whale songs…the silence will be deafening.
Whether you “believe” in climate change or not… whether you think climate change is “man-made” or not… we don’t want to risk the silence. We want to do our part, if for no other reason then for our children and grandchildren to feel joy again.
-Kathleen
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