Dear Earth

Max Kapp writes, “Often I have felt that I must praise my world for what my eyes have seen these many years and what my heart has loved. And often I have tried to start my lines: ‘Dear Earth,’ I say, and then I pause to look once more. Soon I am bemused and far away in wonder. So I never get beyond ‘Dear Earth.’”

Each week, we offer questions for exploration for the congregation related to the worship service. The following are for the sermon, Dear Earth.

Walt Whitman wrote, “As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles.” Do you consider earth to be a miracle? And yourself, are you a miracle? Why or why not?

In Leaves of Grass, Whitman wrote about the child who went into the world each day and became, in succession, each of the things encountered. As a child, how did you connect with nature? What did it mean? What does it still mean?

Annie Dillard writes, that “our original intent… is to explore the neighborhood, view the landscape, to discover where it is that we have been so startlingly set down.” Do you take time to explore the neighborhood? Why or Why not? If yes, how do you explore nature? How does doing that impact you, nurture you, change you?

Of all of the gifts of the earth, which do you find most amazing? Why?

Do you love the earth at all or enough? How does your love translate into action? How do you work to heal the earth?

What letter would you write to the earth? Would it be a love letter?