Being Resilient AND Fragile

My family and I journeyed to Yellowstone National Park this summer. One of the sacred spots of the park that filled me with awe, gratitude, and just put a big ole’ smile on my face was being near the Grand Prismatic Spring. This ancient, bubbling, and happily steaming giant water wonder is known for its rainbow of colors, made possible from 1000’s of years of partnering with thermophilic bacteria, who thrive in this extremely hot and delicate ecosystem.

Like “synergy” in the business world, the buzz word these days among non-profits, churches, and climate conversations is “resiliency.” Yet, what does it mean to be resilient? What does resilient community look like? What must a church or organization gracefully hold in tension in striving to live resiliently? The Grand Prismatic Spring teach us that resiliency and fragility are two sides of the same coin…two sides of one life together with the whole community of creation that goes by many names…Wholeness, Wellness, Shalom, Kingdom of Heaven, Eloheh, Mutuality, Harmony, and Balance.

Sir David Attenborough brought this reality home for me in his recent documentary “Ocean.” He reminds us that ALL life on this planet emerged from our oceans. We are water people alongside the krill, whales, and dinosaurs. In this reality, it makes sense that the human body is 2/3 water! (I love how his storytelling always begins with gratitude, gift, and wonder.) Yet, as his story of the oceans unfolds, it becomes clear how humanity has done extensive damage to marine habitats with pollution, plastics, and overfishing. In a matter of hundreds of years, humanity has broken and altered parts of creation that took million of years to form and learn sustainable balance. Attenborough shows us how life is fragile and easily broken. “YET,” as Attenborough notes, there are damaged places that were abandoned by humanity as lifeless…and in only a few short decades of being left alone…life has come back with vibrancy and zest. He speaks with hope, because for Attenborough, the oceans are a visible reminder that we also live on a highly resilient planet…that is inviting us to practice living WITH and in partnership with the whole community of creation.

Resilient community is more than disaster preparation, response, and recovery. Resilient community is about humanity seeing itself as equally part of the whole community of creation. The Grand Prismatic Spring teaches us that life finds a way, even in the most extreme of circumstances, but the pool’s shifting watery edge reminds us how life is as fragile as a few degrees of temperature change…or a few inches of shoreline shift. Life is a beautifully dynamic balance among all things on this planet, and to disturb one piece of the planetary mobile makes all the other pieces move.

So, what if being resilient community is also about becoming more aware of how we are also fragile and precious community? In planting community gardens, let us also fall in love with our pollinator neighbors and learn how a changing climate will impact the whole community of creation where we live. Resiliency is about standing with all, and as author Randy Woodley notes, “we are remarkably related to everyone and everything.” (Journey to Eloheh, p214). Resilient communities do create plans and preparations for future disasters, but also are attuned to the prophets of our time (climate scientists to indigenous voices), who can spark new ways of how we see ourselves AS PART OF the world…which can fuel our passion and love FOR the world, and give us the courage to fight for policy and laws that honors all creation as sacred and with rights. Our oceans, the Grand Prismatic Spring, honeybees, and all creation are pointing us to a core truth…that all things have been created with the gift of resiliency, and the calling to risk our fragile and finite lives in all sorts of ways for the precious community and world we are part of.

What reminds you these days of how fragile and preciously created you and all things are?

What is resiliently and persistently happening around you that is sustaining and renewing you and all creation?

Go and be God’s resilient and fragile gift for the life of the world!

Peace, Harold