We are in the season of creation. It is a time for celebrating the beauty and fruitfulness of our gardens and allotments, our fields and woodlands, and to give thanks for God's generosity to us. He has provide a planet home which is able to sustain an abundance of life and life forms. We are so very blessed, aren't we? I am very conscious of this whenever I walk across the fields or tend my garden. Life is all around us. Praise be! It is also a time for remembering that the world is not just ours, it is his and it also belongs to the creatures who live alongside us, and it belongs to the generations who will come after us. I've been reading a book that has been helping me reflect on this and think about my own lifestyle. It has made me even more aware that everything that I buy or consume comes at a cost to future generations and to our planet's wellbeing.
In her book, Just Living, Ruth Valerio wrties about Earth Overshoot Day. It is the day in the year when we - as a human race - have consumed the amount of natural resources that our planet can sustain / replenish in a year, and the amount of waste (eg. carbon dioxide) it can absorb. After this, we are in effect borrowing from future generations. When Ruth wrote her book in 2016, the Earth Overshoot Day was 19 August. Eight years on, in 2024, this milestone was reached on August 1. Our ecological overdraft is growing at a rate that is unsustainable.
What can we do? Well, each one of us can look at our lifestyle - what we consume - and think about the changes that we can make to reduce our own consumption and waste, which will help our carbon footprint. We can recycle more and put our black bins on a diet. I'm going to make a start by pledging only to buy clothes when I need to replace any essentials that wear out or get damaged, and learn to live with enough clothes. 'Enough' should be our guide to daily living. Having more than enough is what is causing this ecological overdraft.
Let's be comfortable with having enough (and no more). It will mean that there will be enough for the generations who are coming after us - our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Every blessing,
Revd Katrina