As Summer 2025 drew to a close and we entered the warning Season of Creation, I found myself pondering the catastrophe that is global heating. In recent years I’ve become increasingly concerned by this planetary crisis, as witnessed in this year’s wildfire season on the Atlantic Coast, changes in the growing seasons, and the extreme, sometimes fatal, weather events now affecting us all.
In my own family I also recognized movement toward a new season. In August I returned home to visit my parents in Ontario, as I do every summer. But this time, instead of rest, reconnection and recreation, my task was to assist them with major adjustments in their lives.
I spent my time helping them prepare to close down aspects of their modest farm. I fixed fences, repaired household items with my brother-in-law, rubbed down the donkeys and tagged sheep for sale at the market. My parents’ life-chapter as farmers is rapidly drawing to a close, and this loss brings with it anxiety, uncertainty and grief.
My parents have not only been shepherds of sheep, but also shepherds of souls. Their journey has taken them from the British Isles to the high Arctic, and from the Atlantic Provinces to central Canada. Always their travels have encompassed compassion and justice for others and their vocation in the church.
Ever since they retired in their mid-seventies (and now into their nineties), they have been blessed by the companionship of a small flock of sheep, goats and three donkeys, all of whom they have tended with care.
Now, as the Season of Creation draws to a close in early October I am meditating especially on my parents’ journey. In my prayers I recall deep and searching conversations with them, and my appreciation of how they have navigated life, especially during this, the last season of their earthly existence.
Dialogue with my parents has reminded me that to be attuned to creation is to be in harmony with Presence, Companionship, Partnership. Having a healthy, nay, holy relationship with creation, hugely benefits humanity as well as the animal and plant kingdom.
In October we bless animals, celebrate the harvest, and offer prayers of thanksgiving and remembrance. We take stock, both individually and jointly; we pray, we gather together in family and in committed communities, as we enter the season of Autumn, acknowledging our Creator as manifested through our encounters with His creation.
This year, as we celebrate the blessing of the animals, let’s consider the blessing that all creation brings to our lives. In what ways does the entire natural world bless us?
For those with the good fortune to have animals in our care: in what ways are we a blessing to them? How do we support and sustain the entire created order? Do we take enough time to honour the creeping, crawling, flying, swimming, walking, running beings that dwell among us?
This island home we inhabit has been altered and in places destroyed by our human footprint. Our arrogance and self-centredness have caused immeasurable suffering for other creatures and plants. We hold an unrealistic presumption that our planet can provide us a never-ending bounty, and that we ourselves do not need to change in any way. We assume that all creation exists to serve humanity and not the Creator — and for this we need to repent.
As I reflect upon my parents’ shift into a new season of their lives, I find myself examining my own wandering pilgrimage. Have I been awake through this Season of Creation? Have I honoured flora and fauna? Have I heeded the lessons they seek to plant in my heart? Has this translated into action on my part to protect and nurture our created world?
I realize that too often I fall into anthropocentricity, and I need to be brought back continually to a proper vision of my place in the cosmos. I am reminded of Marc Gellman’s Does God have a Big Toe? which tells us poignantly that we are charged to work as partners with the Holy One and with His created order.
Witnessing my parents’ journey, I see now that I am not above creation. I am called to be a partner and coequal in sharing the earth’s resources with all life around me.
May we shift from master to minister;
From steward to servant.
May we be
Friend to animals large and small
Forever thankful for their presence and impact on us,
in this,
God’s beautiful bountiful earth.
