Everything we are, everything we own, everything that makes up our family, our lovers, our pets, our houses, ships at sea, planes in the air, shopping centers, factories, cities, computers, and, of course, all of the diversity and glory of nature, comes from the Earth. We have Earth Day, when we talk about problems with the Earth and try to fix them, but it’s time for us to celebrate the beauty, glory, and nurturing of the Earth and show our thanks for this source of everything.
Let’s celebrate the time between Earth Day and the day the U.S. celebrates as Mothers Day as Mother Earth Season, a time to look at, appreciate, and celebrate everything wonderful and amazing about the earth and the living things on it.
We’ll find wonderful things in nature and show them to other people. Take an older person out of the nursing home for a picnic or a drive through the woods. Tell children stories of remarkable and beautiful places, animals, plants, or events in nature that you saw before they were born. Give nature parties, play nature-related music, dance, paint pictures, write poems, share photographs about nature and, most of all, take walks. Get up early to see the sunrise light on everything, find out when and where to see the Pleiades rise and set. Look at the landscape from hills, take paths along streams and into glens. Sit in a beautiful place with someone you love. Take it all in and share it with others!
Most of all, take time to feel happy to be alive on this beautiful earth and let yourself feel wonder. Feel the joy of being on this living planet. Tell the Earth how amazing she is and that you’re glad she’s given you this time here. If these were your last days, what would you want to say to this, your home and source that gave you everything you’ve ever known, including your self? As Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” —Rumi
