Winter 2022-2023

The people of Ukraine face a harsh winter. Whole towns are by now flattened, people living in cellars and in rubble without adequate food, water or medical supplies. While the world-wide humanitarian response is unprecedented, there remain huge logistical problems of access and passage.

Over seven million refugees from Ukraine are recorded across Europe. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports that the number of forcibly displaced and stateless people worldwide has risen to 21.6 million.

The COP27 climate conference reaches agreement that the wealthier developed nations, whose activity and growth have largely created the climate crisis, should pay for its abatement in poorer countries. But at the same time some countries are backing away from their previous zero emissions targets in the face of the energy crisis brought about by the weaponization of resources in the Russian war on Ukraine.

German civilians and industry have reduced consumption of gas and found alternative supplies, ending their dependency on the Russian pipeline.

Fiji considers moving its communities from its islands which are at existential risk from climate change.

The world’s population passes eight billion.

Advent. What are we waiting for?

We have the opportunity to change, to not after all lose this precious life, this irreplaceable world. Or will we instead choose to rehearse our ancient grievances, our greed and our hatred, to the point that they sit at the forefront of our minds obscuring the view of our one indivisible life? If heaven and earth are separated by as much as one hair, nothing can join them again. It is only our minds that do this setting apart. We have, for now, the choice.

Appamāda, active, mindful care—the enacting of love. Isn’t this where the necessity lies, and also the deep satisfaction? Every day, tending to whatever comes our way. Imagine, all over the world, people turning to their neighbor, to whoever is standing next to them or appearing in their life, imagine if each person said, “What can I do for you?” Imagine, if kindness and active, mindful care were to catch on.

This text is part of the upcoming book, Digging in the Earth to Find the Blue Sky.

Sheila Ross is an artist, writer, graphic designer, and Zen student of Roshi Robert Kennedy. She was senior designer at Fordham University, New York, where she founded the Fordham Interfaith Zen sitting group. Ross trained as a sculptor at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, participating in the Locked Room project, which led to the book The Locked Room: Four years that shook art education, 1969-73 (MIT Press, 2020). (sheilaross.co.uk)