Piloting Faith: What do these plants want from us?

A Word for the Day...

This past week I met Dr. Susana Bustos, a professor of psychology, and independent researcher on entheogenic shamanic traditions of the Americas. She has invested a lifetime studying the healing powers of ancient herbal medicine in the Amazon. Today she watches as Western culture becomes more and more interested in alternative models of healing. As she puts it, "Young people are interested in learning the "old ways."

She is curious about this. In our conversation, she asked:

• What are the deep Western needs that these practices are meeting?

• Are we at a critical moment when the natural world is pressing us to realign ourselves with an ancient, holistic knowledge for our very survival?

• What do these plants want from us?

What do these plants want from us? I've never considered that. If we believe that all of creation is an expression of God's generative love - of God's own self - why wouldn't plants have an investment in our collective healing? They are of God. We are interwoven together in the very fabric of our creation.

I find that enormously comforting. We continue to cause such terrible harm to the planet. But maybe we can listen to its wisdom of how to stop, and finally how to heal.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, CEO of the Center for Progressive Renewal

Prayer for the Week

God of all that is good,

When we look around this world, we see great beauty–echoes of
heaven, evidence of every good and perfect gift.

But we also see terrible pain–tragic shootings, broken relationships, abused power,
malnourished children. And so we pray…

May your will be done today, on earth as it is in heaven, and let it
begin with me.

Loving Creator, grant us strength to be instruments of your goodness.
Show us what to do and how to do it.

May your will be done today, on earth as it is in heaven, and let it
begin with me.

Give us, your people, the conviction to do more than just pray
your will be done–as though it were happening outside of us, and
carried out by other people. Let this be our most heartfelt desire
and deepest personal commitment.

May your will be done today, on earth as it is in heaven, and let it
begin with me.

Amen.

(adapted from The Prayer Wheel by Patton Dodd, Jana Riess and David Van Biema)