Wood Chips
From the shores of Lake Superior (The Third Coast)
Some of us thought the impact of the coronavirus would disappear after a few months. COVID-19 continues to be reaping frightening costs to health and the economy in North America and around the world. Our country is, in dramatic ways, now being exposed for its gross inequities, socially and economically. The gap between rich and poor, the ingrained systems of privilege that continue feeding this shameful characteristic of our country, become more and more evident.
Underneath society’s fixation on the pandemic and the toll it is extracting from us, pollution of our planet continues. It takes spiritual courage to face what’s ahead. Environmentally, the horizon is haunting. Barry Lopez, a naturalist, writer, and my one-time neighbor in Oregon, during an interview in 2019, eloquently made this prediction and lifted these questions: “Hell is coming. What will be the abeyance that can save us? Who will be our navigators?”
One hopeful and powerful thing each of us can do is pay attention to specific relationships that connect us personally. Be gentle and generous with one another. Make an extra effort to be kind. Ground. Anchor. Tighten our safety belts, but let’s do that together. Give thanks for the simple beauty of each day. Trust the answers to Lopez’s questions will appear sooner than later. And hold to a promise that they will bring us and our planet together in new and precious ways.
Jon Magnuson
The Cedar Tree Institute
“Wood Chips” is a series of brief reflections written by Jon Magnuson, Director of the Cedar Tree Institute.
