Monday February 4, in the Classics in Religion series. This group is open to all and meets Mondays at 11 a.m. to Noon at the Penn Yan Public Library.

This fall’s Classics presentations have brought us an introduction to various forms of Earth Spirituality, but have only scratched the surface. In hopes of offering further discussion, Sally White will provide a review of the topic. Let’s explore together what a more vibrant spiritual connection to the Earth and its inhabitants might mean, what it asks of us, and what it offers in return.

What comes naturally to many indigenous cultures is something we in western societies have largely lost through growing distance from the land and the sources of our connections. Even in our modern lives, however, movements arise to try to recapture this sense of the Earth as sacred and critical to our well-being as citizens of the global ecosystem. Something in us still responds to Earth’s messages, and each generation finds new prophets to spread the ideas of reverence for the Earth.

Is Earth spirituality a religion? How is it best expressed? Is it about a “Creator,” or focused on the “Creation”? Bring your questions and your ideas and let’s talk!

Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.
—Albert Einstein

There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.
—Aldo Leopold

Facilitator:

Sally White has been Earth-oriented as long as she can recall. The appropriate expression of that awareness, however, has been a lifelong challenge. Her explorations have taken her through poetry and science, Hinduism and paganism, skepticism and mysticism, in fact a whole lot of “-isms” and “-ologies” in a continual exploration. She is a writer, ecologist, and historian who recently returned to the Finger Lakes area after decades in Colorado.