these consequences so that we can do what is best for our planet. Yet, as I mentioned before, Einstein claimed that science is insufficient for telling us what should be. Science cannot tell us the sort of world that we should live in. This is why science and religion make such a remarkable pair. Religion is a means by which we are able to reimagine how the world is meant to be. People of God desire the world to be a place of compassion and love for all living things. To see the world as sacred is to see the nature of God in everything around us. We are called to preserve this sacredness of the natural world as people of faith. So look closely through the microscope or high into the trees, and use both your scientific and your spiritual wisdom to listen to the earth and strive to make a difference in the beautiful world around us. The Sending: The Crooked Tree Prayer May the crooked trees of this world continue to grow. May they continue to harbor wildflowers at their feet. May we learn acceptance and live and let live. May we each be fed in a way that does not cost the earth. May we learn to live gently and lightly, and not sweep away all before us when we are hungry. Let our hearts be filled and our demands slacken and fade away. Let us find the time to sit still and see all the parts of the crooked tree within us and accept it as it is. May all the parts of ourselves and in nature be witnessed and honored. Let us humans with all our crooked ways find a path to beauty that wild flowers might grow at our feet. Let it be so. Amanda C. Vesty
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Agora/Fall 2020
