Dear Friends, 

Today is Earth Day! I hope you are able to join us in the sanctuary or online from 7:00-9:00 pm tonight to celebrate. Details are in this newsletter. 

As a teenager, the first label I ever consciously claimed was "environmentalist." It is a label I still strive to live into and that still impacts my day-to-day living. Over my lifetime, I have found that it is a label that means different things to different people. For some, it is about how you live your daily life by composting or biking instead of driving. For others, it means extreme living, such as being off the grid. For some, it means financially supporting the conservation of land and animal species. For others, it is reserved only for environmental scientists. Are you or your family environmentalists in some way? 

My senior year of high school, I was the co-chair of the Social Studies Club. That year (1990-91), we started a recycling program at the high school. We used Club funds to buy blue recycle bins to put around the school. My carpenter dad and I built two large holding bins. Those bins lived outside by the school's dumpsters. The school wanted proof the program would work, so while they agreed to pay for the pickup from the holding bins by the local recycling company, student volunteers were responsible for taking the contents of the inside bins out to the holding bins at the end of each school day. By the end of the school year, whatever proof the administration had wanted had been fulfilled and the recycling program became a regular part of the building maintenance. I am still proud of that.

A few years ago, my wife and I decided to start composting. Since we live in a condo building, we looked into several options. We tried a spinning barrel on our back porch and our neighbors tried a worm bin in the basement. Both of these are good composting options, but they didn't work out great in our building. Finally, we proposed a building wide composting plan that allows us to collect compost like we do here at UCE, which means we can put any organic material, plant or animal, as well as compostable paper into the collection bins and the composting company picks up the bins every other week. Now more than half of our building participates. I learned in the process of researching about composting options that around 40% of the food in the U.S. goes into a landfill and then turns into greenhouse gases as it decomposes. The food we compost is processed until it is nutrient rich soil that is returned to us twice a year for our small garden. 

Our congregation has a great recycling and composting system. Look for the line-up of four bins around the building. Use the bin for compost, the one for paper only recycling, the one for all types of recycling, or, when needed, the one for waste going to the landfill. 

As we find ways to care for our environment, we also receive so many benefits from it. Beyond the physical care the world provides us with air, water, and materials for shelter, there are the spiritual, mental, and emotional benefits. For me, the natural world is the basis of my theology, my guide to slowing down and being present, and the place where I find solace and inspiration. 

Donald A. Cosby describes Religious Naturalism as "the recognition that to be is to be natural and the conviction that nature in all of its forms and manifestations is a proper focus of religious commitment." The natural world, including our relationships with nature and other people, is my theological foundation. 

Rachel Hopman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Northeastern University, and other researchers describe the benefit of spending time outdoors. "20 minutes outside three times a week is the dose of nature that had the greatest effect on reducing an urban dweller's levels of the stress hormone cortisol." I have found that walking to the rose garden just two blocks from UCE and back to the building clearly benefits my mind and mood on any given day. 

And, even when I can't be out and about, or when life is exhausting and I spend a night watching television, I have been able to fulfill my curiosity, experience joy at this marvelous planet of which we are a part, and find beauty and awe in the natural world by watching documentaries like Night on Earth, The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station, or Our Great National Parks. 

There is always an invitation to feed your spirit with the wonders of the natural world and a simultaneous invitation to care for it. And if life is overwhelming right now and contemplation of the benefits and concerns of the environment is too much, that's okay. Take care of yourself. Reach out when you need. You are a valuable part of the world. 

I'll leave you with these 10 ways that I regularly try to make every day Earth Day: 

Yours in the interdependent web of life, 

Rev. Susan