I have such gratitude that where I live has a huge White-tail Deer population, and quite often in the early morning or in the gloaming they stop by for a place to take refuge in my front area of what used to be a hobby farm. If I take the time, is always a wonderfully grounding moment to stop and wait for them to trust me enough to unfreeze and go back to their lives.
=Pause for other thoughts=
Pre-comment - some of my statements can start to sound like I am a Christian - for clarity, I am not anymore.
Your beginning thoughts on the "commandment" startled me, and really makes me appreciate the church that I grew up in more. I can resonate with hearing this statement among a few of my relatives, and it makes me so appreciate that I never had to deprogram this particular side of my upbringing. The message I always took from my birth-church was of congruence with both the day and the biblical concept of stewardship of the Earth. Stewardship not as a dog-whistle for ownership, but of a respect for a creation.
Christians I stridently disagree with seem to have a weird tendency to fight an opinion that they agree with 90%, because of that left over 10%. Reverence does not HAVE to equal worship, and even if it does, if both an agnostic Pagan and a Traditional Evangelical Christian want to respect the existing planet, why must they fight...
Your word painting of the deer that seek refuge in your space was a delight to pause and imagine for a moment this morning. Thank you for sharing!
And, I sooo appreciate your thoughts regarding the fundamentalistic weirdness that permeates the lives of those who cling so tightly to dogma and doctrine that they end up losing the point, and often the people around them.
I have such gratitude that where I live has a huge White-tail Deer population, and quite often in the early morning or in the gloaming they stop by for a place to take refuge in my front area of what used to be a hobby farm. If I take the time, is always a wonderfully grounding moment to stop and wait for them to trust me enough to unfreeze and go back to their lives.
=Pause for other thoughts=
Pre-comment - some of my statements can start to sound like I am a Christian - for clarity, I am not anymore.
Your beginning thoughts on the "commandment" startled me, and really makes me appreciate the church that I grew up in more. I can resonate with hearing this statement among a few of my relatives, and it makes me so appreciate that I never had to deprogram this particular side of my upbringing. The message I always took from my birth-church was of congruence with both the day and the biblical concept of stewardship of the Earth. Stewardship not as a dog-whistle for ownership, but of a respect for a creation.
Christians I stridently disagree with seem to have a weird tendency to fight an opinion that they agree with 90%, because of that left over 10%. Reverence does not HAVE to equal worship, and even if it does, if both an agnostic Pagan and a Traditional Evangelical Christian want to respect the existing planet, why must they fight...
Your word painting of the deer that seek refuge in your space was a delight to pause and imagine for a moment this morning. Thank you for sharing!
And, I sooo appreciate your thoughts regarding the fundamentalistic weirdness that permeates the lives of those who cling so tightly to dogma and doctrine that they end up losing the point, and often the people around them.