Reflection
One of the most disturbing trends of the year that has passed is the increasing separation, polarization and lack of respect for the diversity and richness of life on this planet both human and nonhuman. An annual global event that takes place the first week of every year, 7 Days of Rest, aims to begin the new year by co-creating a global unified field of intention and experience dedicated to the healing and replenishment of the planet and all its inhabitants. For 2020, 7 Days of Rest & Radiant Diversity will be dedicated to exploring and remembering the essential nature of life-enhancing diversity. It will try to cultivate our capacity to engage with ourselves, each other, and the world around us with greater empathy and wisdom, and help us to learn about the vitalizing nature of our similarities, differences, and complementarities.
Prayer
May we learn to love one another.
Action
View the video and reflect on the diversity of life and your own appreciation and gratitude for it. Click here for video
Suggested Reading
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right.
Pope Francis
The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.
Thomas Berry
In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
Maya Angelou
There can be no purpose more enspiriting than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.
E.O.Wilson
Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness.
Ola Joseph
Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
Albert Einstein
The minute we become an integrated whole, we look through the same eyes and we see a whole different world together.
Azizah Al-Hibri
Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.
Jacqueline Woodson
For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect.
Desmond Tutu
What we have to do… is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.
Hillary Clinton