Emily Syal, a young adult advisor to the board and coordinator of several NM-IPL campaigns, offered an Earth Day sermon at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church in Placitas on Sunday, April 25.

“Through breaking open our hearts in grief with another and humbling ourselves through a practice of gratitude for the abundant gifts of Mother Earth, we begin to lay down or let go of our egos. Instead of our own individual pursuits guiding our actions, we become transformed to live into the fullness of our hearts – now open, connected, and humbled in deep love for all our brothers and sisters of creation.

One of my favorite fictional characters, Shug Avery, in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple describes this way of love best when she says, “I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed.” This way of loving becomes then a way of living that is for the flourishing of the Whole Earth Community.”