Sunrise
You can
die for it-
an idea,
or the world. People
have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound
to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But
this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought
of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun
blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises
under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?
What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it
whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.
- Mary Oliver
Think of the things you love. The warmth of the summer sun. The magnificent blossoms of a flowering crabapple as she welcomes the spring. The sound of frogs singing in the marsh. The feel of the ocean when you stick your toes in the surf. The taste of a warm, sweet jersey tomato pulled straight off the vine. Heaven on earth.
Maybe you have a son who has an affinity towards, say, penguins. Perhaps he has a dream to grow up and go to Antartica to study penguins in their natural habitat someday. And maybe, just maybe, he might. But he’s worried that the polar ice cap is melting rapidly and there may no longer be a place for these wonderful creatures to live.
Our lives are filled with material things. Houses, cars, computers, toys. Wonderful things that give us shelter, mobility, knowledge, and joy. The modern conveniences of our lives. And we take care of these things. Our mother always told us to take care of our things. So we do.
There is another home, a large, magnificent home we share with everyone on this planet, with China and India and Europe, with faces we will never see, voices we will never hear, places we will never visit. It needs our care too.
What if we all just did one thing each day? One thing to help take care of this wonderful planet of ours. Just one thing that made a difference. Each one of us. For us. For our children. For the penguins. Imagine what a difference it would make. I'm just saying...
In honor of Earth Day, let's each do something to take care of the earth, shall we?