*4.1. Attending*

Virtually all writing on ecological justice begins with attending—attending to the gifts of the earth; the lives of plant and animal creatures and water, rocks, and soil; and the tragedies of land and habitat destruction, carbon escalation, heavy burdens on poor and marginalized communities, and global warming. Living in reverent relation with the ecological community is an important starting point for reshaping theologies, worldviews,

and practices. Reverence begins with attending: being present to, learning from, and caring with and for creation.

Diana Ventura describes the central method of practical theology as "prayerful attentiveness for human flourishing" (Ventura 2021), a definition rich in possibility. I propose stretching her definition to "prayerful attentiveness for cosmic flourishing." The term "prayerful" suggests a posture of openness to all that the world has to communicate, including the sacred endowment of every being. "Attentiveness" suggests that people open all their senses so they may experience the fullness of the earth in living detail. The aim of cosmic flourishing embraces and cares for the whole of creation. Following this path, practical theologians would attend to shrinking wetlands, communities suffering from food insecurity, and trees and forests. Their attending would not only include the damage and destruction thrust on these communities, but also the lifegiving practices of the wetlands, communities, and trees themselves, practices that reveal their beauty, strength, and potential. Others have already paved this pathway in works such as *The Hidden Life of Trees* (Wohlleben 2016) and *The Songs of Trees* (Haskell 2018). To be attentive is to walk among the trees and wetlands, opening to their wisdom, and to engage in interdisciplinary study so foresters like Wohlleben and biologists like Haskell and Kimmerer can teach us and awaken our senses.

Attending requires that we use all our senses beyond seeing and hearing, which often function as primary in Western societies. I advocate, with Richard Kearney, the practice of touch, which he calls our "most vital sense" (Kearney 2021). If we are to attend to creatures of the natural world, we need to touch and smell and taste as well as see and hear. All the senses reveal uniquely, and each can be employed as appropriate to the subject of our attending. Touching and smelling a leaf or the soil of a farm reveal far more than sight alone.

Attending also requires that we observe communities and systems, as Leopold, Bowers, Boff, Gilio-Whitaker, and Kim-Cragg have done. Separating land from people, one creature from others, a wave from an ocean, a tree from a forest will distort our knowing. Relationality is vital to understand if we are to expand practical wisdom. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe has discovered that the best way to communicate climate change with other people is to point out the tangible effects of climate on what matters most to them. She does not try to convince people to elevate the priority of climate change, but to recognize how climate change affects the issues they already hold as top priorities: health, families, jobs, the economy, community well-being, and the well-being of persons on the margins (Hayhoe 2020, pp. 136–37). Hayhoe is doing more here than offering practical advice; she is underscoring the importance of attending to communities and systems—to wholes. Attending to systemic relationships can uncover surprises, as when ecologist Jane Zelikova traces the relationship of ants with the seed dispersal of trees and climate change (Zelikova 2020, pp. 335–36). Attending involves observation and reflection on both details and wholes in the ecosystem.

Practical theologian Jennifer Ayres has offered a good example of attending to details and wholes in her work on food (Ayres 2013), which narrates particular stories and events as well as food systems, attending to them directly and through the work of others. Attending is a pathway to better understanding and action, deepening our practical wisdom and living practices.
