Environmentalism - what it means to me AND how it relates to my spirituality

 

    For the longest time, environmental activism was my only spirituality.  Or rather, it was there in place of a 'proper' spirituality.  I suspect this is going to be difficult for me to articulate well, so please bear with me.  I'll do my best.

    

    It was at quite a young age that I developed an affinity with nature.  And not long after that I formed the notion (picked up from somewhere I've no hope of pin-pointing now), the notion that the environment is threatened.  In need -very much in need- of protection.

    Some time later these notions/interests melded somewhat -over time- and became a very vague nature-based spirituality.  But I've never felt the presence of deity, so I don't have a pantheon which I revere.  I therefore didn't think of it as anything like religion.  (And I still don't.)

    Part of me would've liked it to be more like a religion for me.  I kind of wanted to incorporate ritual and other specific practices I'd heard about.  But while I felt that nature was worthy of reverence, it didn't make sense to me to 'worship'.  Trying for those rituals and practices didn't feel right to me.

    So instead I sufficed with nature conservation and other environmentally focused activities.  Striving to do whatever I could to protect nature was the best I could contrive to do.

    (Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to claim I'm one of those Greenpeace members who climb the oil rigs and get locked up for it.  I also have a day job which I can't afford to risk losing by getting myself any sort of criminal record.)

    I just do what I can.  I sometimes use the term 'slacktivism', so as not misrepresent the extend of my activities.  It mostly consists of:

- signing (and social-media sharing) petitions etc;

- writing my MP wherever appropriate;

- such things as having an environmentalism related profile picture on social media etc;

- being the energy-saving champion in my workplace (and encouraging things like recycling at the same time);

- litter picking locally, and as conspicuously as possible (of course recycling whatever I can of the items collected);

- supporting the school strikes whenever they occur locally (attending whenever my annual leave allowance permits);

- attending Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace protests whenever I can (especially if they're local) - I can't often participate in the action, but I'll try to make up the numbers;

- raising funds for e.g. Cool Earth Action via Amazon Smile, and donating money to environmental charities when I can;

- using Ecosia as my search engine, both at home and at work.

That sort of thing.

    I've written elsewhere about my journey of exploring Druidry, which is obviously a pretty nature-focused spirituality/religion.  A short version, therefore, is as follows:  I was initially put off, because when reading about OBOD, ADF etc it seemed to me there was quite an emphasis on gods and goddesses.  Latterly, I've come to refer to myself as 'druidish', or following a 'druidy' path.  I'm slowly (glacially!) doing the New Order of Druids Bardic course.  Because although I still don't feel as though theism is part of my paganism, I don't see that it should stop me from learning about all the other aspects.  'Druidy' or 'druidish', to me, represents that Druidry is the closest fit I've found, despite not being an absolute perfect fit.

    I'm relatively happy with the current balance between my environmentalism and my spirituality.  Certainly it's a good balance for fitting in with my other obligations etc.

    I'd love to grow more, especially trees.  And provide homes for wildlife.  But I don't have a garden or access to somewhere where trees could be planted.

    Sometimes I still also crave more on the spiritual side, too.  So I'm still seeking -like an eclectic little magpie- ideas and bits of other practices I can adapt & incorporate into my own.

https://fridaysforfuture.org/

https://extinctionrebellion.uk/

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/

https://www.coolearth.org/

https://www.ecosia.org/

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/

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