“We are not going to b able to operate our
Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer
unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate
as common.It has to be everybody or nobody.”
R. Buchminster Fuller
For the past nine months I have been sharing with you many many breathtaking, often hidden arenas where you can absorb the beauty and peace in nature. I have endeavored to reveal often overlooked plants, animals, and trails with which we share this planet on our own eternal journey within our solar system throughout our galaxy as a fragment of the space surrounding our miniature spaceship, the space of the universe. I was also fortunate to be able to offer a glimpse of the beauty of the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina and the remarkable wonder of the Galapagos Islands. I hope you have seized the opportunity to experience some of the miracles yourself.
On this Thanksgiving Day only the coppered leaves of the beech linger to tremble in the cooling autumnal breeze, the remainder of our arboreal population mere skeletons of their summer greenery. The annual pinch of frost smarts our first breath each morning. Colors are subdued, wildlife is thinning, daily activities are assigned more and more to the indoors. Nature becomes more a visual encounter observed through a window. As you sit sipping a steaming cup of hot chocolate, gazing at the brown toned landscape, remember all that Mother Earth has shared with you the past two seasons. Glimpsing a brilliant red male cardinal alighting on the feeder, recall the colors of the warblers, flycatchers, thrushes, and raptors (colors that outnumber the crayons in a super box) that have passed through this same feeder last spring, some remaining through the summer. Noticing now only the cracked, aging skin of a grand maple, keep in mind the parade of blooms beginning with the trillium and trout lilies in early spring.
Though autumn has reached its somber period, do not overlook the usually dazzling fall foliage extravaganza. While muted this year by a wet summer and Irene’s deluge, we remain in awe as we witness the magical transformation from green to red and orange in October. Still to come is the winter’s blanket of white that envelopes us in a muffled purity of snow. Yes we did have an unwelcomed preview on this three weeks ago.
If you allow for all that occupies our lives on planet Earth, think of all her gifts, with no debt to pay off, given to us freely every day, every year, through every lifetime, nothing asked for in return. Then bring to mind all the abuses we lay upon our exquisite planet; the pollution of air, water, and soil, the selfish consumption of nature. We have dumped in her ocean and often wastefully over consumed her fresh water. We pave, we burn, we mine, we are squeezing every last ounce of resources out of her. And nonetheless we expect her to remain peaceful and beautiful for our whimsical adventures into what’s left of the wild, adventures we need to recharge before returning to our “normal” live of consumption. Isn’t it time for us, the human species, to give back just a little.
A thought of thanks and appreciation to Mother Earth would be a start. Then we need to respect and support the initiative of a clean environment. We need to protect our natural resources, not just so they will be here for our children and grandchildren. We need to protect them to maintain a healthy balance of all life on our planet. If necessary I will put it in terms that humans may only understand, how it will benefit humans. Our greed and consumption may temporarily alter life as WE know it on our planet. It will, however, create an environment uninhabitable for humans, to which we will no longer be able to adapt. Yet, planet Earth will survive and even flourish, a simple adjustment.
Thank you Mother Earth for your beauty, your resources, and your patience with us.
