With Christmas neatly packed away, we welcome 2020 and The Well’s 20th anniversary. In our twentieth year we remain rooted in the Universe Story, the scientific story of our 13.7 billion year unfolding told with its spiritual music. Fortunately this Story is only getting bigger and more mysterious, as our scientific understanding expands and our spiritual consciousness deepens.
Thomas Berry, a great source of inspiration to The Well, believed in the power of story to transform the fractured relationship between humans and Earth. Thomas awakened us to the reality that “The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.”
In our programming this year we take up his teachings directly, with “What’s So Sacred about our Universe,” an introductory class, and “Evolving Spirituality in an Evolving Universe,” for all levels. We continue with a pilgrimage to Green Mountain Monastery in Vermont during the height of fall colors, the place Thomas Berry cofounded and where sisters are living out his vision of a mutually enhancing relationship with the sacred community of life.
Rachel Carson, the scientist whose Silent Spring (1962) inspired the modern environmental movement, was a primary influence on Thomas Berry as he moved his focus into ecology.
Who better to turn to for inspiration in this present moment of environmental peril than the woman who sounded the alarm over pesticides, calling for humans to master ourselves and live as though we are an equal part of the earth’s ecosystems, rather than the master of all? In 2020 we will draw frequently from the writings of Rachel Carson, setting the stage for “A Sense of Wonder,” a theater performance about her life with actress Kaiulani Lee, on November 8th.
This visionary author who taught the world about ecology had “a unique capacity to fuse scientific precision and lyrical power,” says Linda Lear, her biographer. Rachel Carson was so influential not only because of the truth of her scientific findings, but because she moved people’s souls. She immersed herself in nature and brought to life for others a sense of wonder at the dynamism, awesome power, and fragile intimacy inherent in our earth and in the mystery of life.
If the bald eagle can come back from the brink of extinction, so may we …
by Mary Fishman
Bald Eagle by Keith Williams