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Hamid Kirchhof
Greetings Friends near and far,
It is the peak of summer and height of the growing season here in the Pacific Northwest of the US, traditional lands of the Coast Salish people. Berries swell and ripen, leaves flutter in the breeze, butterflies float lazily through the afternoon heat. I give thanks for harvest time in the Northern Hemisphere. If the summer season represented a phase of human life, could it be late childhood and adolescence turning toward early adulthood?
In this newsletter, I invite us to turn our collective attention and care towards the young people of the earth. Not as a remote idea, but children as the living breathing Earth, as the face of God. Not only young human people, but also the next generations of all our relations in the family of life.
“Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.”
- Wess Stafford, president emeritus of Compassion International
“The child is the beauty of God present in the world, that greatest gift to a family.”
- Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity
This week, on the final day of a nature-based youth summer camp I led, I asked the 8 – 13-year-old participants, “What is your hope for the people of the world to remember?” One said: “I hope people treat animals and plants with more kindness.” Another said “I hope people treat other people with more respect.” Yet another said, “There are so many wars in the world, I hope people stop hurting each other and there is peace.”
What do the children in your life request?
Indeed, what do the children of the Earth ask of us all?
To answer questions like these with care and devotion requires slowing down and listening, putting down distractions and devices, being attentive and present, halting the soliloquy of an arrogant adult mind, being curious and uncertain and open.
In short, the inquiry can be a spiritual practice.
To do something about what we hear through that inquiry can be a Ziraat practice.
What do the wisdom traditions call us to remember about our responsibility to the youth in our lives?
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3-4, Berean Standard Bible)
What do you think Jesus meant by “become like little children?”
Hazrat Inayat Khan, grandfather of our Ruhaniat order said, “In giving education to children the first consideration should be that the seeds of beauty are sown in their hearts. When the plant grows it must be tenderly reared. The thriving of the plant is to the credit of the gardener…” I would add, thriving children are a central effect of a thriving community and culture which are like the soil and the garden.
Whether you are a parent, guardian, uncle, aunt, mentor, teacher, neighbor, friend, community member: we are all responsible for what the young people experience.
“It is vital that when educating our children’s brains we do not neglect to educate their hearts by nurturing their compassionate nature.”
- 14th Dalai Lama
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
- Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and statesman
All facets of our daily life have ripples. Those ripples touch all of life. The people most keenly feeling the impact of societal and environmental waves we create are the young, innocent, and vulnerable among us.
“The ultimate gift we can give the world is to grow our tiny humans into adult humans who are independent thinkers, compassionate doers, conscious questioners, radical innovators, and passionate peacemakers. Our world doesn’t need more adults who blindly serve the powerful because they’ve been trained to obey authority without question. Our world needs more adults who question and challenge and hold the powerful accountable.”
- L.R. Knost
In this season, may we re-dedicate ourselves towards daily practices that recognize our lives as relevant strands in the fabric of a collective, generational life.
Please take some time for this.
The quotations, links, teachers, stories, and songs that I’ve included in this seasonal newsletter offer gems of remembrance for the wellbeing of Earth’s children, but the youth we encounter offer us something even more local, specific, and direct.
Take it in, contemplate, and act with kindness.
“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”
- John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States
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