Heat wave: Hydrate. Rest. Take (and give) care.
It will take concerted effort and energy to enact our commitment to a relationship with our earth based not on taking, but on care-taking.
Hello friends - a short post today. If you are one of the many folks I know who are in places experiencing the current heat wave, please be mindful of your health and of those around you. Hydrate. Rest. Walk in the early morning and/or late evening. Tend carefully the critters who depend on you. Check on others who are less resilient to sustained extreme heat. Share information about cooling centers in your community.
Consider those whose work cannot stop or be moved indoors. I think in particular of the good folk who harvest the food we eat. Hard work, in hard conditions. I’m deeply grateful for their labors, and for being able to walk to my town’s center on a Saturday morning and hand money directly to small farmers for the fruits and vegetables that sustain us. (Our privilege extends to a working refrigerator filled with salad greens, berries, cherries, and other delicious stuff we can eat cold for the next nine to ten days, no cooking required.)
And, maybe: take in this message from our beloved earth. She is changing. We are changing her. There is no doubt about that. The doubt comes in how well our human species will be able to adapt to these changes, over time. With any luck, we’ll get through this heat wave. But it will take concerted effort and energy to enact our commitment to a relationship with our earth based not on taking, but on care-taking.
Be safe and well, dear ones.