By Stephen Shick

Momentary Meditations are published every Monday to awaken what Rachel Carson called “the sense of wonder” and what Albert Schweitzer called “a reverence for life.”

Looking deeply into our interdependence with all life on earth helps us know what we must do.

In our harried world, these meditations are meant to serve as a renewable resource for compassion and love.

We hope that viewing Momentary Meditations will touch that part of you that seeks peace within yourself, with your fellow human beings, and with the wondrous world of which we are but a part.

Rachel Carson is best known for her book, Silent Spring, that exposed the dangers of pesticides and rekindled the modern environmental movement. But she also deeply believed that a sense of wonder, awe and imagination is critical to caring for both nature and human beings. Her small book, The Sense of Wonder, explores nature with children and caring, compassionate adults. Rachel Carson put it this way, “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

Stephen Shick is the author of Be the Change and Consider the Lilies (Skinner Books). Shick has taught at the Harvard Divinity School and is the former head of the SANE Education Fund, the Unitarian Universalist Peace Committee, and Consider the Alternatives radio.

A Nod of the Head

This Barred Owl and I frequently visit the woods near the Bedford, MA, reservoir. I am always delighted at our encounters; the owl is more guarded. We both enjoy the hardwood trees and nearby water. These surroundings invited me into the beauty of the natural world, for the owl, perched on a well-elevated branch, they were the ideal place to scan for its next meal.