Let's Make Every Day Earth Day!
Written for Earth Day 2020
Hello Earthlings!
"Gaia, our ancient Mother Earth, is alive and unwell. Yet she can and will heal herself when we stop actively harming her and when we go back to the "business" of taking care of one another, and ourselves, with compassionate, loving kindness.
The elder races of aboriginal, indigenous peoples, the sacred sisterhoods, and the trees, plants, animals, and stones have had an invisible, energetic hand in keeping the earth healthy for and in spite of "modern" people. They cannot do it for us anymore.
We must all work together, as Buddhists say "for the benefit of all sentient beings."
People have begun to wake up and reclaim our stewardship of the earth. We also need to recover our love and joy in being of earth. The earth is not just our environment, not just our primary source of resources, it is the living heart of humanity.
The words "earth" and "heart" are anagrams of each other, what's the hidden message?"
Excerpt from: Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living -
10th Anniversary Edition by Robin Rose Bennett
Every day is Earth day, but you know that. Nonetheless, I send Earth Day Love and Green Blessings to you today. And every day.
We are a people in crisis. But then again, we have been in crisis and mostly ignoring it, acting as if what is going on is normal, our anxieties, our cancers, our need for anti-depressants, suicides, yes, acting like the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling water, not noticing the temperature rising.
Now that we are in a crisis too disruptive to ignore, the powers-that-be in our corporate, cold-hearted, life-thieving government and related institutions are taking the "opportunity" to dismantle any environmentally protective regulations they can get their hands on;
it seems as if the folks charged with the general well-being of the rest of us never touch Earth's life-giving soil, plant a seed, or harvest lettuce, and as if they believe there are technological substitutions available for land, air and water, as if fires raging out of control burning animals, insects, plants, people and property alive are just the price of doing business.
And yet even if "they" are the problem, we are the solution. We can engage in taking action to reconnect ourselves to Earth and her exquisite web of life, say by identifying and learning to harvest an abundant local weed like dandelion, instead of spraying poison on our lawns. We can each join a local group that is committed to bringing change to one vital issue, say: cleaning a local river, stopping a dirty power plant, shutting down a nuclear plant, or protecting pollinators by stopping roadside spraying and planting native wildflowers. All of these are achievable goals, with our help, with our involvement.
All over this beautiful Earth, good people are gathering together to do good things, and you and I must join them. We must not allow each other to get amnesia when Covid-19 passes and act like there won't be another crisis around the corner, because there will be. And we are not prepared.
We can change that, too.
One thing this crisis highlights is that what affects one of us affects all of us. We are all connected, however, unequal access to health care and housing, immoral policies of immigrant detention, unlivable minimum wages and other daily atrocities make the current crisis bad for all, but much, much much worse for some than others. As has been true for a long time, yet I hope this crisis has made our lack of compassionate policies impossible to ignore.
Yes, there are things to celebrate:
Pollution levels have plummeted since the worldwide "lockdowns". The air is cleaner, penguins are walking down the road in Cape Town, and not being mowed down by cars. Sea turtle nests are less molested by humans. People are applauding health-care workers. Health-care workers are risking their health to help others. Herbalists and other natural healers are unsung heroes, too, helping people with preventative medicine, counseling, and herbs for anxiety, flu, and more. And people are engaging in acts of generosity and compassion everywhere, providing free classes, counseling, food donations, sewing masks to give away. Neighbors are talking to each other more. People are walking more. The list could go on and on.
The Earth has shown us in this short time that, given the chance, as I wrote in Healing Magic, she "will heal herself when we stop actively harming her and when we go back to the "business" of taking care of one another, and ourselves, with compassionate, loving kindness."
And yet, at this time, 50 years since millions of concerned Americans took to the streets for our first Earth Day, we need to step up to help Earth have the opportunity to heal.
Among other things, VOTE.
We know that our false sense of disconnection from the Earth has damaged her and all the life upon her, including us. Let's commit to using this crisis as the opportunity for awakening that it is. It is a call to connecting, and engaging in compassionate action, and to call the body politic to accountability.
Support our beautiful young activists in the Sunrise Movement.
Support the wonderful indigenous women activists in WeCan International.
And get informed and inspired by taking part in the 3-day Earth Day 2020
online event at earthdaylive2020 with great livestreams and information.
You can view the talks and events you missed on YouTube.
We were made for these times. Together, we can turn things around. I can see it.
Years ago, Arundhati Roy said, "Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On quiet days I can hear her breathing."
Recently she said, "The pandemic is a portal."
I am saying: Yes, it is a portal. Another world, or rather another way of living in the world, is inevitable. I can see it. Let's make it sooner than later. Let's create a sustainable, just, and equitable world from our most authentic, liberating visions, and let's do it NOW, for love of our home, with respect for ourselves and one another, and with gratitude for this beautiful, bountiful, magical Earth.
Love and Green Blessings,
Robin Rose ~*~
P.S. And remember to eat dandelions, drink nettle infusion, and now and then wear flowers in your hair!