Last month, on March 2, I attended a workshop entitled “Shifting from Climate Anxiety to Climate Action.”¹ The sustainability expert’s presentation was upbeat, encouraging the enthusiastic embrace of climate actions on personal, community and systemic levels, and I came away renewed in my resolve to contribute to slowing down climate change. It was 6pm. I made my way to the TV newscast just getting underway and can still feel my visceral reaction to the clip of national airlines jockeying for position in the holiday tour market amid lifting covid restrictions!² With a groan of deep frustration, my climate anxiety was back!!

Eco-grief and climate anxiety are increasingly impacting human health and wellbeing. I know the dark sense of doom that paralyses me in the face of another “now or never” warning, when all I can see is the relentless drive to profit from the lifeforce that sustains our every breath. Doom accompanied me recently as I made my way along the river-path near home, where, for the past months, I have been gifted with an almost daily opportunity for “forest bathing,” enjoying the company of ducks, geese and a wonderful variety of birds, the amusing antics of squirrels, and the occasional excitement of a deer-, muskrat- or beaver-sighting. Walking along these beloved paths, the darkness in me growing darker with every carelessly strewn plastic bag, facemask or coffee cup, now hopelessly entangled in spring’s greening, I was jolted suddenly out of my self-absorbed stupor by the realization that I could collect some of this garbage! In fact, I could register with the city for a park clean-up on Earth Day weekend, inviting others to join! A first for me. The darkness receding, I felt a bright sense of renewed purpose. Here was some way to act – to passionately care for the very ground on which we stand – to tend, in effect, our collective “self” as an integral part of the whole web of life.

In August 2019, 16-year-old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, made a double crossing of the Atlantic in a zero-carbon boat to attend climate conferences, a 2-week trip each way.³ While such an extraordinary earth-centred gesture may be beyond me, our park clean-up took place on April 23. A drizzly morning, Mom and I were joined by familiar faces as well as some new friends – whole families generously taking time out of their weekend for this spring cleaning. At last count, 21 bags of garbage attested to our common effort.

I returned home, invigorated by outdoor freshness, and with the hope that, someday, there will be no more need for such an activity!

And this is my Easter story for 2022.