My youngest nephew is standing at the gates of adulthood, appalled by what he finds beyond them. He has a lot of company, of all ages. But I feel particular sympathy for the youngest and tenderest among us. It is one thing, at my age, to acknowledge that I will not see the promised land in the span I have left. But for our young, too many are wondering if they will have land at all. Instead of celebrating their love for the world, they are already mourning it.

Ira wants to be doing things but feels the tasks are overwhelming, as, indeed, they are. Coming to grips with the multiplicity of things, too often disastrous, that we have no control over staggers the imagination and drains the soul. Yet, like so many, he is not standing still. He is willing to step into the fray. At 26, he was one of dozens of people running in the primary for New York City mayor on an anti-corruption platform.

Let’s begin with the assumption that creativity engulfs the whole universe and each of us. It’s not a question of becoming creative, it’s a question of enabling the creativity that’s already suffusing us to proceed more effectively. ~ Brian Swimme ~

I vividly remember the existential crisis of my twenties, though it was almost fifty years ago. Then it was the Vietnam War. The ongoing battles for civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights. Watergate. Corruption. The environment. Crises that only have new names now, if that. Some are more urgent than ever. Although I can still hear echoes of that time, I have lived a life full of experiences that showed me why living is both challenging and gorgeous.

When Ira and I talk about the state of the world, I do very Aunt Betsey kinds of things. Urge him to help get his cohort to vote. Try to convince him that his curious, playful self would have a good time taking his engineering degree into the new field of biomimicry. But what stayed with me after a recent visit was his asking where I find comfort in the face of our challenges.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
~ Rachel Carson ~

I go out into nature, I said. For at least an hour every day, I am grounded, enmeshed in the Earth I rose from. Reminded of the deep love I feel for the growing, rustling, blooming, singing life around me. Reminded that there are mysteries my being both flows out of and into.

That we carry joy with us, no matter what our other burdens. Its readiness to leap out at the slightest provocation — a beam of light glinting through the forest canopy, a rustle of golden leaves, raindrops on a petal — assures us that joy is a state of being. A gift of the Earth that created creatures to feel joy. The photos accompanying this essay are from moments that suddenly filled me with joy, paired with quotes that buoy courage and commitment.

It isn’t only the beauty and peace of the natural world that I find sustaining, though both are enormous. I also find myself inside a cosmos that formed everything surrounding me, including my walking, conscious, visual self. The powers governing and endlessly creating the universe and the tiny piece of it I am traversing are the same energies flowing through me, through all of us, continually creative. And continually healing.

I try to remember that it’s not me, John Seed, trying to protect the rainforest. Rather, I am part of the rainforest protecting itself. I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into human thinking. ~ John Seed ~

This last is very important. Being with the growing green world assures me that Earth is capable of healing herself and is determined to do so. She may ultimately shrug our clever but unwise species off her beautiful shoulders and go on without us. But she may rise in us as agents of healing and evolution. This is the most mysterious and wonderful vision — that we embody the energies that create the cosmos minute by minute.

From our limited point of view, the problem is that Earth’s evolutionary time frame is long, full of fits and starts, trending backward and forward. Given the arc of history, there are no assurances that we will be born into a peaceful time or place. This is very discomforting for the human race at this precarious point, especially for those starting in life, afraid their generation may see us out.

The dying down of the zest for life is the greatest danger to the whole human venture and to the whole venture of the planet. ~ Thomas Berry ~

My vote for the best advice ever given goes to theologian Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” The answers to the question of what enlivens us, however varied, will all have one thing in common: what makes us come alive is something we love.  

One thing that grief has taught me is that love is a powerful organizing force in our psyches. We can most easily see this when we lose a life partner. When our children grow up, and we face an empty nest. When we lose a meaningful role of any kind. The love continues as strong as ever, but our energies float free of their moorings without its animating focus. In a world that seems to be falling apart, we may experience a diminishing of personal significance. We can lose faith in the future or in hope that we can surmount our difficulties. A lot of energy gets unhooked from its familiar anchors.

Love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces.
~ Teilhard de Chardin ~

Over time, the response is to turn to another passion, sometimes to find a new one altogether. But, as we see from the bitter rancor governing our culture today, losing meaning and predictability can easily lead to choosing difficult passions to fill the void. Even when we don’t choose darker directions, and most of us don’t, finding our way to the energies that will foster transformation can be hard.

But passionate love is one of those crucial energies. A friend once shared the Buddhist tenet that love and fear cannot exist at the same time.  Mothering through the wilds of adolescence at the time, I could easily see how fear and love can coexist. And now I hold both fear and love for our planet and all its dazzling and formidable manifestations.

But I apprehend the underlying wisdom. We can’t afford to look out at the landscape and see only what is going wrong instead of what we can love back to life. If we do, we won’t have the energy to do the work it will take. Anger and fear can be potent motivators, but they are exhausting places to operate from. Love is inexhaustible.

If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.   
~ Hildegard of Bingen ~

On the other hand, burying our anger and fear, or feeling them and holding onto them, immobilizes us in a tangle of fury and despair. Another Buddhist tenet is to allow everything to rise, feel it all, and release what needs to go. Eco philosopher Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects helps people do this through a spiral of grief, gratitude, and renewal. These complex emotions arise, she points out, from our greatest gift as humans: compassion. Honoring them allows us to recommit to our work, to the things that make us come alive. To live out the love we feel for our cause.

Don’t apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. ~ Joanna Macy ~

There are environmental activists and organizations who have made profound contributions for decades. Others still in their teens have lit sparks that resonate worldwide. Millions and millions of people are working tirelessly to save rivers, forests, mountains, salmon, birds, bees, insects, and habitats. People are working on redesigning our built environment, solving the problems of poverty and hunger, inventing new economies. In the midst of what looks like endless turmoil, rivers are getting rights to thrive, vast biodiversity corridors weave together, there is real progress on renewable energy.

Will it be enough in the face of the difficulties we face? Will we summon the courage to transform? There are no guarantees. That’s the hardest thing to say to the young. Our efforts may not bear the fruit we long for. And yet, for the sake of those to come, it is up to us to come alive, to bring passionate love to what we want to heal, to weave our strands into the fabric of our planet. Trusting that through such love, it is Earth herself who is handing us our thread.

In this moment, is it still possible to face the gathering darkness, and say to the physical Earth, and to all its creatures, including ourselves, fiercely and without embarrassment, I love you, and to embrace fearlessly the burning world? ~ Barry Lopez ~