Dr Andrew Shepherd is the Co-Director of A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand. He has twenty-five years’ experience teaching and facilitating learning in the areas of theology, ethics and environmental studies. He works in theological/environmental education with churches and community organizations and also has teaching and research roles with a number of tertiary education institutions. Andrew lives with his family in the Makarora valley, on the doorstep of Mt Aspiring National Park and Te Wāhipounamu – a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We live in a moment of history in which our way of living is characterized by shrill advertising, rampant over-consumption and wanton waste – all with disastrous consequences for the ecological communities we are part of and upon which we depend on for our very survival. And yet, there is an alternative narrative.
Perhaps you are like the rest of us who find it easier to count our irritations, challenges, annoyances, etc., etc., than count our blessings. Our gratitude muscles have grown flabby through lack of use. What we flabby would-be appreciators need is something to make us truly thankful. What better place to start than where we are and what we are standing upon. Dirt.
