🌍Earth, Home, and Healing
Environmental Justice as an Act of Love
As we celebrate Earth Day this April, we at Love Before All are reflecting on the deep relationship between love, land, and freedom. Environmental justice is not just a policy issue or a climate concern. It is a profound matter of people, place, and power. And it is inseparable from racial & economic justice and collective wellness.
For centuries, Black, Indigenous, and frontline communities have cultivated a sacred relationship with the Earth. These communities have planted, protected, healed, and harvested—not just for survival, but from a deep understanding that the Earth is not a commodity but a living relative. From Gullah Geechee land stewards in the American South to the water protectors of Standing Rock, these legacies of earthwork are acts of love and resistance. Yet, these same communities are often the first to suffer and the last to be protected when environmental crises hit.
In a time of rising sea levels, food deserts, climate-induced displacement, and environmental oppression, we must ask: who gets to live in safe, clean environments? Who has access to green spaces, nutritious food, and breathable air? And how do we build a future where no one is disposable?
Environmental justice requires a shift—from extraction to reciprocity, from scarcity to abundance, from dominance to interdependence. At LBA, we believe that sustainable futures are built not only through legislation or innovation, but through love-centered, community-rooted leadership that understands the Earth as part of our collective body.
To practice earth-based care and build sustainable justice, we offer the following:
1. Reconnect with the Earth Take time to walk, plant, observe, or simply rest outside. Let your senses guide you back to the soil, the sky, the breeze. Healing begins in presence.
2. Uplift Environmental Stewards Support local farmers, land trusts, and Indigenous land-back initiatives. Share their work, donate if you can, and learn from their wisdom.
3. Practice Mutual Aid with the Planet in Mind Whether organizing a neighborhood clean-up, sharing seedlings with a neighbor, or ensuring your community has access to clean water—local acts of care matter.
4. Advocate for Policy that Protects People and the Planet Environmental harm is often political. Call for infrastructure, protection, and investment in communities most impacted.
5. Rest Yes, rest. As Tricia Hersey of The Nap Ministry reminds us, "Rest is resistance." Our bodies are ecosystems too. Sustainability starts within.
This Earth Day, we invite you to return to the truth that the land has always held us. It has fed us, rooted us, and reminded us that we are not separate from nature—we are nature. Let us honor the Earth by loving it the way we wish to be loved: radically, responsibly, and in relationship.
With Love, Land, & Freedom,
The LBA Family
#EarthDayEveryDay #EnvironmentalJustice #LoveBeforeAll #CollectiveCare #LandLiberation #EarthAsRelative
