Planting Trees

I rarely sit in the window seat of an airplane. I prefer the aisle where it's easy to get out and a bit removed from a view that anxiously reminds me I'm miles above ground. But yesterday I had the window view as I flew home from New Orleans. Since I had just been at a youth gathering where I co-hosted a session on trash and our call to care for God's good creation, my perspective was a bit corrupted. As I looked out the window at the vastness of green trees all I could think about was the 60 million plastic bottles we throw out in a day, the 1 trillion plastic bags that lay waste after being used for roughly 5 minutes each, and the 64 tons of trash the average American generates in a lifetime. Harsh stats to ingest. And as we simultaneously reeled the documentary "Trashed", we took in hard images.

Trashed: The Documentary

So looking out that plane it was hard to avoid seeing the destruction, the trash, and the pollution. So much green and yet so much black and blue. An earth bruised by our demands to maintain unsustainable lives. What could be seen as prosperous neighborhoods looked more like lines of scars to me. And there lies the tension again - the goodness of homes and neighborhoods, and also the ills of our society, our consumerism and our convenience filled lives.


The youth were asked to make an honest pledge. Something they felt they could do to be better stewards of the earth. Some vowed to encourage their church congregation to change from styrofoam to mugs for coffee hours, others to take shorter showers, unplug electronics - or as one girl pledged, to straighten her hair just 3 days a week, instead of 5. It made me smile.  It's about small steps, and I felt nothing but hope from these youth and the excitement they generated.

At the same time, I left corrupted, and skeptical, wondering if we can communally make big enough steps to heal what we've already deeply bruised. I don't doubt the earth can and will heal itself. The question really is, can it with us in existence? I feel that harsh, honest despair, and yet remind myself that looking down from that airplane I saw the beautiful vastness of green trees staring me in the face, too. The scars have yet to overtake the earth. So, I'll take the wisdom of Martin Luther and plant another tree. Will you plant one, too?

"If I knew the world would perish tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree today."
- Martin Luther

36th Birthday Advice

Tomorrow I turn 36. To celebrate the milestone I camped and canoed down the St. Croix with close friends, followed by indulgent pampering with a day off and a first time facial. They were extremely different and I'm grateful I have the resources to experience both. One left me feeling accomplished, the other guilty. Both made me feel old. Nothing makes you feel your age more than sleeping in a tent or having the spa technician suggest anti-aging cream. I really don't feel that old, but there is something to turning 30-something's corner, being on the other side of the 5-year fence. And this childless woman can't help but feel the pressure of a ticking clock. I always envisioned being a mom. Is that gift and challenge part of my future? God only knows.

This birthday I mark with tension. Good, paradoxical tension, if there is such a thing. That interplay of pushing and pulling in differing directions, questioning their impacts, recognizing most any direction you go has its flaws. As an idealist, I want to think there is a perfect answer, but there never really is. It's always trying to find the best answer between two humanly faulty ones. I worry a lot about our society's ills and the direction we seem to be going as a nation/a world: our unhealthy consumerism and addiction to stuff; an unsustainable pace of life; our sense of entitlement as individuals and disregard - known and unknown - for the harmful affects our actions and expectations have on the greater community. And while I challenge myself to take on these issues as best I can, I take part in their realities and find myself with a closet full of clothes, an over-filled calendar, and justifying the occasional 75-minutes of facial dirt extraction and moisturizing!

So, the tension persists. And it will for a lifetime. So my 36 year-old birthday advice? There's a time to go camping, and a time to get a facial. Just do the second one in moderation!

To Be (a warning of some profanity)

I was recently reminded by someone that God does not call us to do, but to be. Or as another pointed out, we're not human doings, rather human beings. There's something there - and it's helpful when certain voices of incompetence and failure come lurking. Anne Lamott identifies it best, "...that the station is on. KFKD [K-Fucked] is on every single morning when I sit down at my desk. So I sit for a moment and then say a small prayer." Thank you, Anne. You make me feel less alone.

Oh, the station. It's on more than I care to admit. And when it is, I do find it helpful to remember that my worth isn't based on a list of accomplishments. I am Lutheran, for Pete's sake. Haven't I figured it out yet? It's no small feat to turn society's definition of worth and success on its head. And the alternative? To be? Or not to be? Shakespeare, I guess that still is the question. Or is it?

Honestly, I don't know what it means "to be". But I like the sentiment. And I keep praying that I figure it out. 'Cause frankly, doing is completely overrated.