This is just a quick note of thanks to writer Scott Russell Sanders — and an encouragement for others to read his work. I’ve been reading Sanders’s essays for years now and deeply admire his insights into all matters related to the environment. In his recent essay for Orion magazine, “At the Gates of Deep Darkness” (Autumn, 2018) , he reminds us again of the dangers we face if we don’t take our collective and personal impact on the environment seriously — meaning right now, today.

I imagine there are many readers who, like Sanders, have had to find a way to turn childhood religious beliefs into something more in line with the realities of life on Earth. I know that my journey mirrors his. The challenge for me has been to find a way to create a new sense of moral connection to all of life independent of any organized religion.

I think Sanders sums up the core of this work beautifully when he writes: “Think of how you love whatever you passionately love: music, flowers, painting, poetry, baseball, language, dance, the first frog calls of spring, the return of sandhill cranes, the sound of rain on a metal roof, the full moon in a clear night sky, the splash of the Milky Way, every atom and whisper of the one with whom you share your bed. That is how we must love the world.”