QEW Tips for Earth-friendly living

"PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH" is the maxim that Friends who are active in the Earthcare movement are reminded of from time to time. —And that is what many Friends we know are doing. But putting into action everything we know is often "more easily said than done," to quote another maxim.

Serving as "patterns and examples," (as George Fox advised Friends to do) helps to establish our credibility before the world and make the message a "living witness" not just an abstract philosophy.

Acting regularly on what we know, even in seemingly small things, can be personally empowering for activists, who are constantly under the threat of burnout from trying to save the world by focusing on big issues they believe "matter most." (In realilty, all those little daily acts can add up to big impacts over time.)

But we must be wary of the many checklists of ways to live more lightly on the planet, if following them means stretching for impecability on every point. That's a recipe for a different kind of burnout, even craziness! (Self-improvement is often more effectively attained in a supportive group, either from a Meeting community or as a kind of 12-step program.)

What we should be striving for is "perfection" in the original sense of "wholeness," as explained more fully in Lisa L. Gould's booklet, Be Ye Perfect: The Quaker Call to Wholeness. <link to booklet>In brief, when we work on "soul care" we are working on Earthcare at the same, according to Jack Phillips, author of the QEW booklet, Walking Gently on the Earth, an Earthcare Checklist. <link to booklet> When we are inwardly transformed to indentify with and live in unity with Creation, we don't have to beat ourselves up with constant reminders of our missed opportunities (like those "Oh, no , I could have had a V-8!" TV commercials). We will naturally be guided toward many of the things the checklists talk about.