12 STEP PROGRAM FOR CREATION CARE
By Thomas Cain
We have 12 step programs for many kinds of addictions. If we are misusing the resources given to us by our Lord, for our own ease and comfort, we need to change. We know stewardship is a sacred duty of love and care. Can we dedicate ourselves, instead of to ourselves, to God’s creation, and a personal change in our habits and way of life?
12 STEP PROGRAM FOR CREATION CARE.
1. CALLED to creation care. Feeling the moral pull and purpose to care for the environment. There is a higher power that will help us, whether called a feeling or spirit.
2. RECONCILE ourselves, to our neighbors, our faith, our community and nation, to this estrangement to our natural world that is a crisis even if we are comfortable.
3. EDUCATE ourselves, and dare to educate. The essential part of this step is learning to listen.
4. ADMIT we have a problem, an addiction to fossil fuels, as individuals, as a tribe, as a group and nation.
5. TRY to do better; try to take an action every day, even if it’s a walk outside to look and listen and meditate.
6. INVENTORY - take a serious inventory of our choices and actions. Work to understand your carbon footprint. Brainstorm!
7. ONE - the Power of One is that there is so much that each of us can do, to make a difference. It may seem like a drop in a bucket, but there are millions of drops.
8. NEST - speak out that we not foul our own nest, our home and earth, with excessive carbon and greenhouse gases.
9. COMPASSION - for god’s creation, for each other in our dialogue, and for those who will pay the price for our over-consumption. Compassion for ourselves.
10. ALLOW - others to contribute; allow other solutions. Turn these into a positive. Don’t allow competition and comparison to mar our common goals.
11. RESPECT - Listen to, and respect those, who see it differently. Then find common ground.
12. EXAMPLE - be a good example. Celebrate others who are courageously speaking out, acting, change. Try to be like them.
