I haven't been posting recently because I really just haven't had the time. Between 50th birthday parties, a wedding, a play, James' graduation and so much more, we have been back and forth from Brisbane every week for almost 2 months.
But this week was particularly special. I had the privilege of speaking to a group of campus ministers about my Lenten journey. It was an amazing experience. I was talking to one of the campus ministers who attended one of the workshops I ran. She was participating within the workshop, but she had been thinking about something deeply. At the end she came out with something so profound that I just had to share it with you. She talked about how in Genesis we are old about the original sin and how it was the first disruption and break between the Paternal Father and humanity. This was when we ate from the tree we weren't supposed to. And now, we pollute and we aren't meant to, and just further and further breaking that relationship with the Father. - SO TRUE. And that is why, in my mind anyway, every act against creation that contributes to the pollution of the environment should be considered a sin. A lot of people beg to differ on this.
Some things I wanted to share with you from my past few weeks include a new book that I am loving. What is going on in Brisbane with Al Gore.
The new book that I am absolutely in love with comes from this website https://www.drawdown.org/ . The website is being continuously updated and has more recent information than the book, but I am really enjoying the book. Drawdown lists the top 100 things that we need to do to curtail the climate crisis and sequester the carbon emissions. Sequester - means to consume the carbon back into the earth. Yeh, new word for me too. Highly recommend it... get on it.
In Brisbane at the moment Al Gore was speaking to some Brisbane climate leaders and he basically told QLD that we need to invest in renewables and not invest in 'dinosaur' industries like coal mining. I just love him so much, ever since I watched his ted talk and then went and watch the inconvenient truth and inconvenient sequel. He is just so amazing and he is calling out QLD.
Also in Brisbane last weekend was the green heart fair. Which was great. They were giving away free native plants which was cool. But I am critical because every government run agency that was presenting there was not very zero-waste.... and THEN, on the way down this weekend I heard on the radio all the ads about how the city council want Brisbane to reduce its waste. BUT, where is the infrastructure? Where is the big composting scheme? Why doesn't Brisbane have like 7 different bins like Japan does? So, as much as they are taking a step in the right direction, there is much to do in that space.
So this week, I am trying to encourage my work mates to recycle in different ways. I have some containers ready for them to put a range of objects in that I will then go and recycle. I just pray that I don't get into trouble for doing this, and that people will take the opportunity.
Please pray for me and for the planet.