Sunday, September 21 was the International Day of Nonviolence. It was a holy privilege to pray, meditate and bear witness on 59th Avenue in New York City. Hundreds of thousands from the Peoples’ Climate Gathering streamed past 60 of us who participated in an Earth Vigil gathering organized by the Lost Bird Project and the Rochester Zen Center with support from the Gandhi Institute.
Our group arrived the day before (Saturday) and meditated for hours just past where the march officially commenced, on a knoll in Central Park next to the street. We returned after sleeping on the floors of an empty building in Brooklyn and resumed the meditation by 7 am, though some of us also joined a nearby sunrise gathering of indigenous leaders from throughout N America who gathered to pray for the success of the march and for planetary healing.
Those who all too often come last in our society were first as hundreds of youth of color and indigenous peoples started the river of humanity that flowed past for hours. Sitting in meditation, bearing witness, my tears also flowed for hours. The beauty and the creativity of our species represented there felt like medicine. The variety of issues represented-mountaintop removal, extinctions, rising CO2, fracking, economic injustice and many more-broke my heart open.
Hundreds of thousands raised their voices while millions worldwide watched, marched at home and hoped.It feels too early to say what is different now, though the Rockefeller family’s announcement to divest from fossil fuels feels like a good start. Let’s join them in changing the business as usual mindset. Thousands of individual acts of any size or significance, when gathered together as they were on Sunday,represent a mighty force.
by Kit Miller
