The media wants to love Pope Francis and I see why but in many ways they miss much of his message (not just on the Environment).
I have always been a great lover of spaces on earth where the built environment intersects with nature. The Wild has its own allure but what does it for me are places we have interacted with the nature in a special way (farms, structures, homes, etc). I have included some pictures from Yukon, but also from my travels over the past 15 years.
Here are some of my favourite passages from Pope Francis' text.
Such sobriety, when lived freely and consciously, is liberating. It is not a lesser life or one lived with less intensity. On the contrary, it is a way of living life to the full. In reality, those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there, always on the look-out for what they do not have. They experience what it means to appreciate each person and each thing, learning familiarity with the simplest things and how to enjoy them….
Even living on little, they can live a lot, above all when they cultivate other pleasures and find satisfaction in fraternal encounters, in service, in developing their gifts, in music and art, in contact with nature, in prayer. Happiness means knowing how to limit some needs which only diminish us, and being open to the many different possibilities which life can offer" (222-223).