Good Friday Grieving Meditation, 2012

4-6-12

All over the world people celebrate today the crucifixion of Jesus. Tonight we mediate
on the crucifixion of the planet.
Quietly we hold the struggling polar bear.
We think on the bees.
We remember the silencing of the toads.
We think on the vanishing fireflies and swooping bats at night.
We consider the the towering red spruce dying of acid rain in New Hampshire.
In silence we hold the ocean as it receives the nuclear waste from Fukashima; we hold
the whales and porpoises, the fish and coral, the seaweed. The sickness of those
beings suffering and dying from nuclear radiation poisoning in Japan.
We grieve the chimpanzees, the elephants, the hippos, the gorillas and alligators.
In dread we imagine our grandchildren’s lives without wilderness.
We hold the vanishing primal tribes, Africa oppressed and exploited.
We imagine the ice plunging into the sea, the climate changing unbearably. We hold
the future with our children in it and their children and we think on them.
We imagine the hope and compassion for all that lives that must guide our and our
children’s lives.
We imagine the sharing of all the planet because there is no other option.
Tonight we hold in compassion the suffering of all living things, those oppressed by
poverty and hopelessness and those driven blind by greed and murderous rage.
We hold the young and old the tyrant and the slave, the deaf, dumb and blind and all
that is green, all that is wet and all that is living and growing.
We hold fear as all that we know is changing in ways that we cannot control.
And we hold the beauty, the courage, and the love of the many humans and animals,
their devotion and courage in difficult times.
In gratitude we hold the indescribable beauty, majesty and mystery of the universe and
the gift of life as we have received it.
We hold hope, the power and the peace that is in our communion, our shared
meditation and consensus to do what is in the best interest of life to the best of our
ability trusting in our instincts to know together what that is and to act upon it.