The rain comes down. I turn away. I do not bless the end of day.
And when the light comes back to me, I do not thank the world I see.
These are the gifts that I forget. Without remorse. Without regret.
The leaves now fall, and all is still. … Read the rest
Light candles now, In your home For the homeless.
For the displaced With no place They can afford;
For the first peoples Whose lands and cultures Were stolen or degraded;
For the animals Invading your backyards. How dare they walk where they once lived;
For those on islands Swamped by … Read the rest
We all understand that our individual efforts to improve ourselves (t’shuvah) will fall short of solving the climate crisis. Our society, after many decades of avoiding disruptive, transformative change, must act drastically to ratchet back the worsening environmental devastation.
It is tempting, in our culture, to associate an eschatological “end … Read the rest
Elul A thin slice of moon It transforms and gleams As my soul prepares My anticipation Of a new year The cycle Recurring like tides With the Earth The clouds spinning eastwards Turning together The moon and the month Waxing and waning and waxing again The moon and the month … Read the rest
Thanksgiving is always a big deal in my family, but the Thanksgiving I learned the truth was even bigger. I was writing a dystopian novel: bad chemicals in the ground, strange substances in the air. Birds were dying and frogs were heating up. I started telling my older sister about … Read the rest
Humanity, indoors, Blasts The AirCon; The global thermostat Rises in return. Masked, Black-uniformed, Armed, Liberty—turned inward— Demands, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses!” The FEMA team, Turns to the crowd, Water at their knees, Hands out plastic bottles, Plastic tents, Plastic food. We keep dying of consumption. … Read the rest
When you go out And the waves are crashing Over the breakwater Over the tops of the walls At the edge of the land When the rain is finely misting And the wind howls Around the circle at The end of the road You can breathe deep The salt, the … Read the rest
Rashi expresses surprise when the spies come back from the land of Israel in just forty days. After all, he points out at Number 13:25, the land is 400 by 400 parsa’ot, and it should have taken many times longer to make their way through all the land from sea … Read the rest
Ecological grief, or climate grief, refers to the sense of loss that arises from experiencing or learning about climate change. In this time of ecological devastation, this loss is ongoing. The work of tending to our grief is therefore continuous. This ritual is intended to be revisited, revised and performed … Read the rest
Despair is not an option
There is no food down that hole,
And I like to eat.
I have children.
I have grandchildren.
So I have learned to weep,
Expelling grief on a regular basis.
Then I get back to work,
Fighting for our living world.
Judith Black is an … Read the rest
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