The Lives Our Lives Prepare
If we will have the wisdom to survive,
To stand like slow-growing trees
On a ruined place, renewing, enriching it…
Then a long time after we are dead
The lives our lives prepare will live here.
Excerpt from Wendell Berry, “A Vision”
This short excerpt by Wendell Berry captures in poetic form the heart of evolutionary consciousness. Beyond the language of evolutionary consciousness which can feel just a few steps beyond us at times, the concept is simple and profound. It is attractive and saturated with implication in our everyday lives.
We, as humans are not destined to be stuck in the grim places that keep us at war, that separate us, that leave us living with anxious expectation. We are capable of sensing our ultimate belonging to each other. We can know that we are part of a larger whole. We do care about life beyond our own particular life span.
There it is. The invitation to accept the responsibility to engage the life that is ours personally with all its challenges.
There it is. The commitment to be part of a larger planetary community that changes the course of history.
There it is. For now and for a long time after we are dead, what is the life our lives are preparing?
Margo Ritchie, CSJ