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Ecological Grief and Hope
“I feel like I want to cry right now,” said the man at my workshop. I was teaching shamanic journeying, a form of meditation that induces a light trance-like state and allowing the practitioner to access “non-ordinary reality,” the unseen, imaginative, intuitive, and dream-like aspects of consciousness. In the journey I led that evening, this man had seen a group of animals, all of them frightened, angry, and disoriented. He was grief-stricken at the suffering and bewilderment of animals seeing their habitats destroyed. I could tell he was exercising restraint with his feelings here in this circle of strangers and neighbors. Nevertheless, we talked about how impossible it feels, how helpless we seem to be despite our complicity in causing climate change. We spoke of bearing witness to that sadness, holding our animal and plant brethren with compassion and sharing their grief.
Because it is grief: so many of us are grieving the havoc we have wrought on our own home. It seems like too much, too heavy; we think we’re too insignificant to make a difference and it’s easier and less painful to just look away. We feel the moment of sadness, say something like “I wish we could do something,” and then go on about our day. Or, feeling brave, we sign a few petitions, donate to a cause, buy a reusable water bottle.
But the sadness remains.
