Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for Cultivating Resilience, Taking Action, and Practicing Hope in the Face of Climate Change

by Elizabeth Bechard

One of these practices is gazing: looking with love, openness, and receptivity at a landscape, image, or being that we might otherwise look away from in shame, horror, or sadness. Johnson describes her experience of sitting vigil for a clear-cut forest: “Being willing to gaze at the broken forest, we discovered that what we had feared would be too painful to bear was not. The first sight had packed a powerful punch, but as the reality of the place seeped into our consciousness, we were able to settle down into what it offered. The forest’s past blended with the details of its present existence. And we saw that it did exist. Existence had not ended with clear-cutting. What was before us in all its waste and clutter and decay was a forest—not a pretty one, but touching in many unexpected ways. By confronting that existence, we recognized our own abilities to face truths that not only didn’t incinerate us but enlightened us about all kinds of matters in our personal lives. We had simply shown up and been willing to see, and we were seeing things we had never expected.” In order to gaze at a broken place, you have to stay long enough to see it.