Eco-Spirituality: A visual poem exploring the relationship between humans, nature, and spirituality - written for the 5th annual Environmental Justice and Social Work Symposium

today, but also long ago

a hummingbird in the warm morning light; a beautiful greeting

There are so many things to be outraged over, and simultaneously there is nature's beauty.

It just exists. 

Would we be able to know this beauty if it didn't also reside within us?

bird songs, our breath, earth, and the blue vastness holding the moon, sun, and stars 

a dance of interdependence 

the sky is always a dependable refuge;

a weightless,

luminous echo

yet, manmade imbalance is coming into a fuller picture of destruction

vibrating cells of stardust - we've forgotten our sacred origins

tethered to materialism

with a willingness to betray sentient beings and nature by rejecting our common foundations

while bowing to false gods of profit

in contemplating our impact on nature and beings, 

solutions arise

that honor the interdependence of all phenomena

Meri Stiles 

                    5/14/25 

May we all be well