An Earth Day Meditation

 

Marge Piercy is one of my favorite poets.  She writes a lot about repairing goodness in the world and the responsibility we all have to make the world a better place.  Piercy is referring to a Jewish concept known as “tikkun.”  The word has a range of meanings: correction, restoration, reform, healing.  Often it is used in the phrase, “tikkun haolam” which translates, “repairing the world.” 

According to the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, God made the world incomplete, one step away from Divinity so that human beings could complete creation through the tikkun.  The story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden claims that instead of taking responsibility for the world, humans insisted on the right to eat from every tree in the Garden.  This made the work of tikkun that much harder, and as a result, human beings in every generation are called to the work of tikkun.

What a wonderful concept to embrace as we think about Earth Day.  In some ways it is sad that we had to set aside a special day of the year to remind us of our connection to the earth and all of the created order.  I am glad we have this reminder, but Native American, Aboriginal, and other earth religions hearken to a time when we did not need to be reminded.  There was a time when our world was not separated into the sacred and the secular.  All of life and all of creation was viewed as sacred.

Tikkun is not about recycling.  It is about healing and returning to the world its soul.  In order for us to repair the world we must also repair our consciousness so that we can see the world and each other as God intended.  So when we think about repairing goodness, we also need to think about repairing relationships.  We need to think about calling forth that which is good in each other and we need to think about creating a healing community that restores souls.  Marge Piercy put it this way:

 

We must act out justice and mercy and healing

as the sun rises and as the sun sets,

as the moon rises and the stars wheel above us,

we must repair goodness....

 

We will try to be holy,

we will try to repair the world given to us to hand on.

Precious is this treasure of words and knowledge and deeds

that moves inside us.

Holy is the hand that works for peace and for justice,

holy is the mouth that speaks for goodness

holy is the foot that walks toward mercy....

 

Let holiness move in us.

Let us pay attention to its small voice.

Let us see the light in others and honor that light. 

(from “Amidah: on our feet we speak to you”)