Earth Hour to Earth Day

Tonight my family and I are going to participate in Earth Hour by turning off our lights from 8:30-9:30. Since it's been raining on and off all day, we might not get to take that star-gazing walk. Instead, we'll probably light some candles and enjoy some quiet discussion.

This morning I realized that April 22 is Earth Day, so for the next month I'm going to treat it as a second Lent, a spiritual season in which to focus my awareness on Creation. Followers of this blog know that I'm on a news fast for Lent. I've abstained from watching any local or world news on television and I avoid all websites that contain news items. We haven't gotten the newspaper in years so that is a nonissue. Occasionally, a headline will surprise me when I'm standing in line at the store or when I'm surfing the Internet, but I use my yoga training in those times: I just let it pass without judgment.

Sometimes I'm puzzled by the way some Christians react to the idea of creation care, almost as if they equate it with pagan worship. Some even mock the scientists who warn us of the dangers of the abuse we have heaped on our fair planet. When my daughter took Health in our home school, we used an Abeka textbook that was given to us by a friend. I was angry when we ran across a chapter that actually made fun of environmentalists and even denied that chlorine was a threat to the earth! I thought it ironic that at the same time, the United Methodist Women had a campaign to get office supply stores to sell chlorine-free paper because of the dangers to the environment (not to mention our health).

So, between now and April 22, I plan to do some blogging about our duty to care for the earth and ways we can do so.