大象传媒

Good morning.聽 Some friends have moved into a Kentish farm house.聽 It鈥檚 been a working farm from at least the 15th century if not earlier. Bits were added and taken away and one outside wall is now inside, giving the impression that you鈥檙e living in some kind of a stage set.聽 There are ponds for fish and one to soak the cart in to swell the wood so the grain wouldn鈥檛 leak through the cracks.聽

The ancient wooden beams and the black and white studding on the outside add to its charm 鈥� and for me, with聽 my pragmatic hat on, add to reasonable concerns about how long it will stay up and whether bits of it are about to crumble.聽 There are no foundations, just wood footings that you built the house on, preserved for centuries in the damp clay of the land.
When they were considering their move, a surveyor came back with his report.聽 鈥榊ou need to sit down鈥�, he said.聽 鈥楾here is everything you would expect:聽 the beams are riddled with woodworm.聽 There is evidence of death watch beetle.聽 However, it has stayed up for all this time and anything that woodworm might have eaten has already been eaten:聽 the core of the beams is likely to be sound.鈥澛�

This was and is a building that has adapted and been adapted to the earth and the land around it over the years.聽 It鈥檚 almost an ecosystem in itself.聽 On Earth Day, which is today, it a bit like a parable for the way we could work in partnership with the earth and its inhabitants.聽 And not only death watch beetle and woodworm, but there in the bathroom with its uneven floor and tiny window, a colony of ladybirds gathers daily to keep warm overnight.聽 The job for the first person in the bathroom each morning just now is to open the window to release them into the garden for the day.

So pray this day more sensitivity to the way we care for the earth and wisdom to live in harmony with its creatures.聽 Amen.