It has been a week of heavy wet snow on the ground and falling from the sky. Gale force winds from the northeast made simple walking nearly impossible. Birds by the thousands seem to be in the neighborhood, having migrated north and come to a screeching halt. They are fluttering around, trying to find small bits of nourishment before heading further north when the weather warms. In the midst of it all, I was driven almost mad by all the references I heard to "fighting climate change". A long hand-written draft of an essay on why we shouldn't be using this phraseology ensued, much of which I have said in earlier posts.
But in the middle of the night last night, what came to me was more in the form of a "confession". Since that word has a lot of baggage, perhaps "acknowledgement of human responsibility" is better. This is my effort today, perhaps, itself a draft needing constant revision.
To the Goddess/Gaia/Mother Earth/Nature:
On this Earth Day, we are beginning to realize what we have done.
We have put short-term human goals ahead of your needs and our own future needs.
We have put profit and convenience ahead of love.
We have gouged holes into you and scraped your skin raw. We have sent toxins into your air and water, poisoning all life on earth and threatening our own children and grandchildren. We have fought senseless wars, and hurt people, other living beings, and the fragile landscape.
We have valued knowledge and information over wisdom, cleverness over true forward-thinking creativity.
We have seen life as a "fight", and thus have fought You. We have allowed people with no capacity to love to speak and create for us. We have been afraid of the power of love, and the size of it, extending across all time and space.
Today, may we release the need to fight. May we openly embrace whatever weather events will help You bring earth into a new balance. May we be awed and astonished by Your power, and grateful to be alive to see it. May we not be afraid of anything, especially "death". May we know that love is all there is, and what we are experiencing is love. May we find a way to wrap our minds around such paradoxes!
Thank you for the birds, the spring snow, the winds, the waves, and Your presence all around us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
