Creation Time & the Air we Breathe

                                                   Change Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador (red dot)

...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

    Genesis 2: 7 NRSVue

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

    John 20: 9-23 NRSVue

When we travelled to Newfoundland mid-August we were booked on Air Canada so we weren't sure whether we would get there --we flew two days before the strike began-- or whether we'd be able to get home two weeks later. 

All was well, although there was another significant issue. Wildfires in Newfoundland, a notoriously soggy  province, affected highway travel and air quality. When we go there, almost annually, we stay on Change Islands, alongside Fogo Island. As I've noted before, this is the edge of Canada and one might figure impervious to issues such as wildfire smoke. Not so this year, although smoke hasn't been a minor issue on these isolated islands, for the most part. 

One day we went off-islands to visit Twillingate where there is great hiking. As we returned to Change Islands on the ferry the sky was a weird colour and we could smell smoke. It turned out this was smoke from Nova Scotia, drifting across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We were grateful that this was only one day but it was a reminder that there is virtually nowhere in this country without diminished air quality. As I've mentioned beforfe, I didn't know until a couple of years ago that there is an Air Quality Index website but I check it now, and we have an air purifier and change our furnace/air conditioner filters more often. This is our new reality. 

                                                     Wildfire near St. John's NL during August

Earlier this year a group of US congressmen sent a "dumb as a sack of hammers" open letter to Canadian poliiticians asking them to address the wildfire smoke that was ruining the summer for their constituents. How do these people get elected? There are no national or provincial borders when it comes to the air we breathe. 

 

During Creation Time in the Christian year we consider many aspects of "living with respect in Creation" and there are many excellent resources to that end. I haven't seen anything on the "spirituality of air" but there are lots of biblical passages which speak of wind and breath. The Creator breathes life into the Groundling, Adam, in Genesis. A week after the resurrection Jesus appears to his disciples and bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit by breathing on them.

We are coming to understand that the vital but usually involuntary acts on inhalation and exhalation can't be taken for granted. A recent report in Canada suggests that the significant gains in air quality made during recent decades are now threatened by the fires accelerated by climate change. Maybe this should be a Creation Time/Season of Creation/Creationtide theme?