As my daughters and I drive to school each morning, we pass by the grounds of the NASA campus just outside of Houston. For those unaware, NASA boasts a beautiful forested area in which diverse wildlife flourishes, including several herds of deer. My older daughter adores these deer and peers out her window each morning to catch a glimpse of the quiet creatures nestled amidst the grass.
As this search for deer became our daily practice, I noticed something magical happening. While one of my girls was looking intently for the deer, her younger sister was noticing the other elements of creation. “Look at the blue birds! See the pretty flowers! That big branch fell.” Her sweet observations were thoughtful and caused us each to widen our perspective, to see more than the single animal we were focused on finding.
This gentle exercise of looking beyond the deer opened our eyes to a multitude of God’s wonderful creations. The vibrant cardinal, the delicate wildflowers, the craggily branches, all greeted us each morning. The simple practice of noticing God’s creation with openness, curiosity and respect has aided our family in developing a deeper understanding of our responsibility towards creation and God’s creatures.
We have adopted this perspective on our evening walks as well, inviting a hope of what we will discover while intentionally remaining open to whatever wonders God has in store for us. On a recent hike, this openness created quite the stir when we discovered a small group of baby alligators in a nearby pond. While our initial reaction was fear (and rightly so), we took the time to talk about what alligators ate and how without their steady diet of insects, fish and amphibians, our ponds would become ecologically off balance. We all have a role to play in caring for our earth.
Our family enjoys researching the names and traits of the animals we spot, which fosters a sense of closeness with them. Quick Google searches taught us that baby alligators are called hatchlings, and — more importantly — that their mother remains close during their first year of life. We are all learning the importance of respecting the boundaries of the natural world in terms of alligator habitats, poisonous plants and birds’ nests. If we cannot respect nature, we cannot love and enjoy it well.
When we engage our curiosity about God’s creatures, not just the gentle deer but the snarky alligators, we open ourselves up to communion with creation: the creatures and plants who not only nourish our home, but also share it with us. “Laudato Si’” speaks to the importance of an “ecological conversion.” This phrase is defined within the document as a “transformation of hearts and minds toward greater love of God, each other, and creation. It is a process of acknowledging our contribution to the social and ecological crisis and acting in ways that nurture communion: healing and renewing our common home.”
As a parent, I often ponder the inheritance of the earth I am passing down to my children. The ecological crisis our world suffers from cannot be solved by mere sentiment or grand ideas. As stated above, we must transform our hearts and minds, then take that new perspective and move into acts of communion, healing and renewal. Fostering love, respect and a broad perspective of God’s creation is one way that I strive to prepare my daughters for shouldering the mantle of ecological care. So, as we plant our gardens, trek on hikes and simply gaze out the window, we are learning together to consider the many ways God invites us into communion with his creation.
The Season of Creation, celebrated from September 1 through October 4, is a wonderful time to reflect on how we respond to these invitations for communion with creation. One way my family does this is through what we call our Examen in Nature. If you would like to join us, take a short walk (there is something intrinsically comforting about strolling as you notice and ponder) and consider these questions.
Examen in Nature:
- What are we thankful to have noticed?
- What were we expecting to see?
- What did God surprise us with?
- How did our expectations affect our feelings around what we discovered?
- Were we open to see and hear what God had for us?
- What emotions did we experience when we noticed something new?
- What are small changes we notice in nature day to day?
- What will we hope to see tomorrow?
- How can we help God care for his creations?
