Back-Campus Cleanup and Meditative Walk

Friday afternoon we held a back-campus cleanup and meditative walk. The event was co-sponsored by every single religious life group on campus: Earlham Christian Fellowship, Bahai Club, Buddhist House, Earlham Young Friends, Jewish Student Union, Interfaith House, Questing Catholics, Unitarian Universalists, and the Muslim Student Association. Earlham Environmental Action Coalition was also a co-sponsor. We started in a silent circle on The Heart, then got to know each other by sharing our favorite things about nature. Warm sunshine, vivid colors, blowing leaves, and God's presence were some of the answers given. We then set out in two groups for back-campus, hands gloved and trash bags in tow.

We walked in the back-campus woods for about an hour, some in silence and some not. We made sure to keep track of recycling and trash so that we would not have to sort it out later. By the end of the hour, we had more than 10 bags filled, along with a blue kiddy pool and a sled! We closed the meditative walk with another silent reflection circle around the bags filled with trash. It felt good to see the difference that we could make in just one hour, but it was also sad to think how much more there is to do. All attendees expressed interest in attending another back-campus cleanup, and we plan on having another one next semester.

In other news, steering committee members are working hard on outreach to local churches. We are also just starting to plan a discussion, hopefully led by Earlham religion professors, that is centered around environmentalism in sacred texts.