Earth Day Reflections

“The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.”
Native American Proverb

I don’t know about you, but every Earth Day my mood oscillates between despair and exhilaration. On one hand, I use the day to be spirtually uplifted by the natural world that surrounds me, and so I experience a sense of deep gratitude for the beauty and bounty of our magnificent home, Planet Earth. Then despair sets in, as I realize that many people on this planet are still so defiantly disconnected to the earth, choosing instead to mock those of us who revere nature and to deny that our species is indeed contributing to the wholesale destruction and degradation of the only home we have. Perhaps mockery and denial make it easier to just go on one’s merry way, plundering the earth without a care in the world. Greed still seems to “trump” green, doesn’t it? (Pun definitely intended.)

Despite every victory, every successful petition or successful community action, we seem to take a few steps back as a species. More land is being laid waste for mining activity or palm oil production and more of the world’s seas bristle with oil rigs, imperilling marine life if—and when—the unthinkable happens. And governments everywhere seem increasingly reluctant to cross the agendas of powerful multinationals, mostly because they like the idea of the wealth these corporations generate for their money-hungry, job-hungry nations.

Are things improving or are they getting worse? Clearly, the global economic crisis exacerbated the situation, but we are fast approaching a moment of convergence that we will no longer be able to ignore, as the increasing shortage of accessible fossil fuels, a shortage of food globally, a dwindling supply of clean fresh water, the loss of workable land and rising coastal waters due to a changing climate (and I will not debate the cause of climate change, as we are well past the point of fingerpointing and assigning blame—we simply need to act, and now) will create even more unrest, more crises, and eventually result in vast numbers of environmental refugees around the world.

Never before in the history of humanity have we faced a crisis so multifaceted, so severe and so final. More than ever we need a new way of looking at the world, a new attitude. We need to wake up to the reality that we are a part of the natural world and that everything we do has a consequence. But we need everybody on board in order to save the ship. Time is running out. This isn’t about choosing sides, being an environmentalist or a humanist. We have to both—they are not contradictory concepts. Humanism and environmentalism are one and the same word, and you spell it “survival.”

So what’s to be done? Plenty! Most of all, stay positive and on message, even knowing as we do that there are those who will never listen…until it is too late.

And what is the message? The message is VALUE. If you value something, you will protect it. We humans must value and learn to hold sacred every living organism on this planet. If we cannot make that colossal leap past our human egos, then we are surely doomed. We can certainly learn from the wise frog in the proverb, who understands and practises the concept of sustainability.

But can the call of red-winged blackbird on a spring morning pierce the heart of someone who has no sensitivity to the natural world? Can a blade of new spring grass captivate someone who prefers to count dollar bills instead? Can you teach someone’s heart to soar with the red-tailed hawk? Can you entice a person to imagine what it must be like to be a turtle, swimming in the still green waters of a pond? Or how it feels to be a muskrat, or a bittern or a heron, making your way patiently among the reeds?

Herein lies our challenge. To awaken others to the true nature of what it means to be human. Maybe that’s why we need this symbolic day after all. Maybe every year a few more people drop their cynicism, sign a petition, or plant a tree.

Now, some thoughts from others for this Earth Day:

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."
e.e. cummings

"If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers."
Joseph Wood Krutch

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

"The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future."
Marya Mannes

"…when I saw the Earth from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations."
Sigmund Jahn, (German cosmonaut)

"Once you have heard the lark, known the swish of feet through hill-top grass and smelt the earth made ready for the seed, you are never again going to be fully happy about the cities and towns that man carries like a crippling weight upon his back."
Gwyn Thomas

"The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech." Dogen

"The poetry of the earth is never dead."
John Keats

We Are The Rocks Dancing...

This is a line from Thinking Like a Mountain, Towards a Council of All Beings, written by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, and the "father" of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess. It is a book about ritual and prayer and healing, not only for an ailing planet but for the ailing soul, because those of us who care deeply about our planet's environmental well-being and mourn the loss of wild habitat and the extinction of species due to human folly and ignorance often endure despair and a loss of hope.

It is also a call to move beyond just thinking about nature and to start feeling what it must be like to be another species. "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," said the Harper Lee character, Atticus Finch.

Well, this takes it a step further, shall we say. We are asked to put ourselves into the skin of "the others" with whom we share this planet; for example, the Swift Fox, the Bowhead Whale, the Peary Caribou, the Mountain Plover, the Lake Erie Water Snake and the Leatherback Turtle, as well as howler monkeys, hummingbirds, bottle-nosed dolphins, curlews and condors, yes, even the lichen, the weeds, the leaves and the rocks.

"In Geneva, the international tally of endangered species, kept up to date in loose leaf volumes, is becoming too heavy to lift. Where do we now record the passing of life? What funerals or farewells are appropriate?"

If we can inhabit their world in our imagination for only a few moments, perhaps we can feel reconnected to something bigger—and grander—than ourselves. We need to leave our human egos at the proverbial door.

"I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots. And am stuccoed with quadrupeds and birds all over" wrote Whitman.

The premise of Deep Ecology is that we are not isolated from nature but very much a part of it. In fact, we are Nature. One and indivisible from it. We're just another mammal here on Planet Earth.

Modern man has suffered a serious disconnect from this fact, this reality. The very real effect of this disconnect is the environmental crisis in which we find ourselves. We have big brains and wield the power, and so we have dominated the earth, but we have behaved with such careless disregard and ignorance that now even we are in peril. The Native way has been the wisest, perhaps, as their spirituality and cosmology have remained deeply respectful and connected to the earth.

Deep Ecology is not just about recycling, reusing and reducing, although these are important activities that deep ecologists engage in. Deep Ecology is about changing one's entire attitude and way of perceiving the world. It is about re-connecting with the world and realizing our role in the great scheme of things. It's about recognizing that we are not separate beings, divorced from nature.

Now, humankind is just as threatened by imminent extinction as the other species. We are just one more species that will not make it if we fail to be wise, right now, at this point in time. So given that we have this consciousness, which is surely itself a product of nature, having emerged and evolved according to the same laws as everything else, we must now use it to make a lasting change, a change that will save our planet, ourselves.

Only we can do this. Yes, we must use our intellects to do the practical work that needs to be done. And there is much work to be done. But today, on Earth Day, feel the connectedness in your bones...

Don't just say, "I am protecting the rainforest."

Be the rainforest.

Awaken your mind to a new way of being in the world.

Remember this: that every atom in your body existed before organic life emerged 4000 million years ago. We share this in common with "them," the other living species of this planet. We are atom, we are mineral, we are water, we are the elements … we are the rocks dancing.

To learn more about Deep Ecology today, please follow the link at the bottom of the blog.

Quoted text above is from Thinking Like A Mountain.

Revel in the joy of being alive today and here on Planet Earth.