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Written by: Chris Meyer | Everence Financial
This past winter was excellent for skating. My family has a lake on our homestead in a rural, heavily forested region of Ohio. When the ice is good, we enjoy spending as much time as possible with friends and family on the lake, playing hockey and socializing. It’s a great way to be outside and exercise at a time of year when we’re often confined to our homes.
One January afternoon, when the ice was primed for skating, I found myself alone on the lake. My wife was working on a project at home, our kids were visiting my parents, and none of our friends or neighbors could make it over. While initially disappointed, I soon embraced the rare solitary moment.
A half foot of snow covered the landscape in a white blanket and softened the noises—both natural and human—such that it was void of sound. As I skated, I mindlessly mimicked figure skating moves that I hadn’t tried since childhood. I sprinted the 300-yard length of the lake a few times, pausing to catch my breath in the frigid air. I marveled at the leaves suspended at varied frozen depths in the 14 inches of ice beneath my skates and at the picturesque, snow-dusted trees lining the shore. Most of all, I took the experience in without overthinking it.
My hour alone on the ice provided me with a feeling of tranquility that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Later that evening, as I reflected on my experience, I realized that most of my moments of deep peacefulness have occurred when I’m immersed in nature.
As someone responsible for engaging social and environmental concerns—both daily and existential—at Praxis Investment Management, it can be difficult for me to shut my mind off for rest and renewal. The natural world offers one of the few places of quiet that works for me. Nature doesn’t require our intervention or carefully thought-out plans to function—it works on its own. That can be freeing. It gives us an opportunity to experience something wonderful and rejuvenating without planning or overthinking. We just need to go to it, be in it. What an amazing resource!
It seems that we often toil through our lives in pursuit of an end goal of rest or fulfillment, whether that might be a nice vacation, a better home, or retirement. We believe that if we work harder or save up enough, we can get ahead and finally be able to relax. The race for greater productivity keeps us fixated on GDP growth, stock markets, and our investment portfolios as indicators of progress toward these goals. From this perspective, the natural world is valued only as it contributes to economic markers.
However, I believe that after our basic needs are met, the best things in life are often free. Most of us have access to nature in some capacity, including spaces like parks and publicly owned lands. Why should we reduce nature to a commodity for exploitation just to gain something that it already provides in abundance? Maybe we should view peacefulness received through nature as something available to each of us right now, rather than a luxury to work toward.
Our modern lives still require practical tools like insurance and retirement products, of course. But how we prioritize what we really need in life can dramatically affect the choices we make for those necessities. We have the opportunity to combine our care and respect for the earth with many essential considerations, including with our investments.
At Praxis, we believe the natural environment is a finite resource and a gift from God. Our role is to be stewards of God’s Creation, not just extractors of it. We maintain that human flourishing requires thriving ecosystems as well as economies. We pursue impact strategies ranging from company engagement to impact bonds to community development investments that move us toward a more just and sustainable planet.
We strive to instill a heightened awareness that businesses can operate profitably without diminishing the capacity of the natural world to provide us with the sustenance—both physical and mental—that we need to thrive.
The natural world is interwoven with our lives, and we benefit when we embrace its capacity to instill calm and serenity in us. Make room for nature. Prioritize its potential to help us achieve the fulfillment we seek. Protect it and live gently on the earth. Our choices have the power to shape our world.
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