Quiet Reflection

Posted on by Deb

Today, April 22, marks Earth Day. Next Friday, April 28th, marks Arbor Day. 

I continue to hope when I think about these two days.

I direct that hope towards an increasing number of people gaining awareness of why these two days are marked yearly on our calendars and towards those who strive to learn the meaning and significance of these two events.

I focus that hope towards people worldwide who grasp the concept of the massive and influential changes (both positive and negative) our human species brings as we impact our planet earth.

Nope, this isn’t a lecture. I will not admonish anyone for doing or not doing whatever it is they do in relation to and with our planet. We all make our own choices based upon what we know and believe and value. We all are allowed to follow our own path. 

Personally, I can’t imagine the theme of creativity that The Heart of The Matter is embracing this month without focusing on the natural world that our planet has created for us- the wonder and awe in everything nature-made around us- the perfectly simple yet inspiring intricacy that is planet Earth.

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

Rachel Carson

I want to leave most words behind today. There are no pictures either. This is what I would ask of everyone today-

During this week no matter where you live or what part of the world you call home I would ask you to choose one day, a few moments between today- Earth Day, and next Friday- Arbor Day to sit and look at what surrounds you. Open your eyes wide. Maybe you will see tall buildings full of glass reflecting the sky and concrete underfoot. Do you hear the sounds of transit?  Maybe you will see row upon row of homes in carefully planned grids. Do you hear the sounds of wildlife?  Maybe you will see rolling hills, or forest land, or freshwater shorelines. Do you know what lies just out of your sight line behind those natural features?

Reflect on what you see around you for a bit and then try to reflect and imagine what that space once was. How did the land look hundreds of years ago? What animals and plants grew and thrived abundantly? How far into the distance could you see 100 years ago- 200 years ago?

Our earth wants to continue to create places for all living organisms to thrive and the beauty that comes with that creation is astounding. We don’t need words or pictures, I think we just need to be within nature’s space, open our eyes and see without distraction allowing ourselves to take in what nature has created for us… and remember.

It is not often easy to find those spaces. They become fewer and fewer day by day. Someday the spaces will be gone entirely. I ask you to take in the beauty that you find among the forests, gardens, shorelines, mountains, even within small neighborhood patches carefully tended and thriving. Imprint those images into your mind and teach your children and grandchildren to do the same. One day those beautifully created real spaces may only be memories.

51 thoughts on “Quiet Reflection”

  1. This is such a beautiful invitation, Deb — “Reflect on what you see around you for a bit and then try to reflect and imagine what that space once was. How did the land look hundreds of years ago?” Thank you. I can’t think of a better way to hone my awareness. 🥰

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  2. Wow wow wow, Deb – I love how you trace creativity all the way back to our ties to this beautiful planet Earth. What a powerful exercise you suggest. I’m looking forward to finding a few quiet minutes to do that. Thank you for the suggestion, my friend! ❤ ❤ ❤

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    1. I have no doubt you are one that is aware Wynne, given the outdoor experiences you’ve had. I see you sharing simple things with your kids and giving them such amazing lessons about the way our earth wants to share itself.

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  3. Lovely post Deb. Living in a big, built up city, I think its important to be aware of how much industrialisation changed and damaged our landscapes and ecosystems.

    I’m going to change what I was planning to post today, inspired by you and World Earth Day

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    1. Glad to be an inspiration Brenda. I’ve been absorbed in a series of essays that point to many of the tipping points in our journey into and now through the climate crisis. All are enmeshed in both capitalism and industrialization. It always stuns me when the arguments pop up that the fragility of our planet has no connection to human innovation, business or money.

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  4. This is such a lovely post, Deb. I am not too optimistic about humankind’s ability (or will) to improve what they have damaged, or even to preserve what is left. I hope – with all my heart – that I am wrong. And I am always grateful when I hear encouraging words such as your own. I frequently try to imagine things as they once were: I think this is the perfect suggestion for Earth Day 🌍🌎🌏🙏

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      7. I was double checking, most.y because I was t sure if you were displeased with the direction I was thinking of rather than with put shortfalls… If it cheers you up at all, I saw a study that showed that pessimists tend to have a much more realistic view of life, so cheer up, it might mean you have a good grasp of reality?

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      10. Interesting post EW.

        I googled that quote and it’s attributed (with wording changes) to quite a few- George Bernard Shaw for one, even MLK and it seems everyone interprets it a bit differently but quite a bit to the rise of technology and innovation in conquering what lies above and below us. It is the last part that seems to draw difference depending…from some who see the last frontier to master as the earth itself with more advances, to those like MLK who chose to see a human race leaving behind “mastery” if you will and reaching toward cooperation and brotherhood.

        I think the words can be applied in the sense that Patti sees them- again with the focus on the way humans feel they need, or perhaps have a right to gain precedence over the planet. We forget there should be reciprocity in everything that we choose to do here. We are not owners of this place, but stewards who are not doing a bang up job with what we have been given.

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      11. It’s a good point: a bunch of people said it in somewhat different contexts. Like you said, MLK also used it in his Nobel acceptance speech, not in an Earth-day context but it fits what you said about how advanced we are in some ways and yet have a long, long, long way to go in other ways?

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    2. Thank you Brenda. I will be honest- I have to dig really deep to feel much hope knowing what lies underneath the rhetoric. I hope because I have grandchildren and the thought of what we are leaving for them is almost too much to comprehend. My gut instinct is very much aligned with your words.

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  5. Lovely post. We celebrated Earth Day with a tour of our regional landfill and recycling centre. It’s sad to see the amount of waste we generate on a daily basis, but good to see the impact of recycling and composting programs on reducing the waste that ends up in landfill.

    It is interesting to think of what the land we inhabit once was. When I was in my early 20’s, my friend had a boyfriend who worked at a gas station. We used to go visit him at work. At that time, the gas station was out in the country surrounded by farmland. Fast forward 10 years to just after we moved into our house. I realized the gas station in our neighbourhood was the same one I visited with my friend. The farmland is now the area where I live.

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    1. Thanks Michelle- that means a great deal given your determined focus on the environment and sustainability. It is so hard to see the impacts to the planet and know how little people in general really know about why. It is even harder to know that so many just don’t care. I take to heart everyday the words of the blogger I mentioned to you- Cecelia- that we can only do our personal best and that trying is better than simply doing nothing.

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  6. My walks always include looking at various plants, and flowers and listening for birds and other creatures. Unfortunately, they also include the sounds of traffic. I’m not someone who could live in a cabin in the woods, but the city I grew up in with lots of fields and farmland has definitely morphed into more of a concrete jungle.

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    1. I can relate to this, Margaret. I was born in a small town of 5,000, but it’s grown by 300,000 in just 30 years. I enjoy my daily walks, but miss the open space and critters of my childhood.

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      1. That’s a huge jump in 30 years Erin! Was the land surrounding bought up and incorporated? I grew up in the same area as Margaret and we have lost almost every farm at this point to warehouses, tract homes and strip malls.

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    2. I know you are aware of the days of driving south toward Graham and what the land used to be. I choose not to go to places that have wiped out open spaces that I once knew as green and lush if I can help it. It not only makes me feel very old it also breaks my heart to remember what has changed and not in a good way.

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    3. I’m actually not sure why it grew so dramatically, but my guess is that the Phoenix metro used to be very affordable, thus lots of transplants moving here, and my hometown (now a suburb of Phx) has been regularly rated in in the top ten safest, most liveable, and best place to raise a family since the 1990s.

      Oh Deb and Margaret, that must be so heartbreaking. There used to be dozens of cattle farms about two miles away (and the smell wafted), which have since been converted into a huge freeway and thousands of new homes.

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      1. I was thinking a lot about my visits to Colorado as I wrote these specific comments yesterday as well Erin. I feel like Denver is this huge eyesore smack dab in-between what is trying to be both useful farmland (and not succeeding), natural high desert/prairie and then amazing mountains. That whole concept of urban sprawl south and west of Denver with highway after highway woven through- they have perfected that part. I literally feel like I stand on the edge of two totally different worlds when I’m there. It’s depressing, and just hard to look at or accept.

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      2. I have very fond memories of visiting Denver, and specifically Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park in the mid-90s. Part of me wants to go back, yet I worry that doing so will spoil my special memories of the music box shop and candied apples in the windows. Even generally speaking, everyplace has the same big box stores, chain restaurants, and convenience stores. As a child, I enjoyed trips to Sedona and Tombstone, but those once-interesting places have become repulsive tourist traps. The character and charm is being buffed away everywhere. It is really all so depressing.

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      3. Estes Park seems to be smallish still with the shops- the trouble is the millions of folks trying to enter RMNP from the one road in which is why they try to time entries- sadly it’s a zoo. I would suggest just treasure the memories…

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  7. It is an appropriate and much needed suggestion, Deb — one needed everyday. Your last line is powerful. I would add this: if the natural beauty of the world becomes a memory, so perhaps will humanity.

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    1. That is profoundly correct Dr. Stein “if the natural beauty of the world becomes a memory, so perhaps will humanity.” and so incredibly sad. Neither you nor I will experience the growing impact of what is to come and my heart breaks for what my granddaughters will inherit.

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  8. I love this exercise, Deb. Nature walks were one of my favorite activities as a child, and one that I picked up again when my world shrunk due to illness, then further due to the pandemic. There’s something so powerful about tuning into the frequency of the world around us… nature is grounding yet inspiring, predictable in broad strokes but novel in the details. We just need to open our eyes to it all.

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    1. I know I get a bit harpy on the “leave the phones behind and just put yourself into the experience” but I suppose it’s my way of trying to get folks to think about what we are losing more and more quickly. I am so glad to know that you understand and find meaning as I do, thank you 🙂

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  9. You’re preaching to the choir here. I like your nudge: Do you know what lies just out of your sight line behind those natural features? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Obviously it’s about tuning in, but with all the noise in our world it’s easy to forget that simple question and get lost in your own head instead of noticing.

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    1. Yes it is so common to be wrapped up in a cocoon and then suddenly you look up and everything is different or gone. I borrowed that nudge in part from an amazing book Braiding Sweetgrass- one of the best books I’ve ever read, and from personal experience as well. It’s about going deeper than the surface really. There is so much hidden just out of sight.

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  11. Thanks for sharing this, Deb. I’m very familiar with Earth Day but I didn’t know about Arbor Day until I read about it on your post. It’s wonderful that there is a day that encourages the planting of trees which is so important during these times of climate change. And tree therapy truly is one of the most healing gifts of nature.

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    1. I’ve heard mixed comments about the National Arbor Day Foundation, but the original intent is simply to plant trees rather that be due to deforestation, recovering lands harmed by erosion, or even just on your own property. Carbon capture is a tree’s job and we need that desperately.

      I know that I’ve never not felt better after being in a forest 😉

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  12. “Nope, this isn’t a lecture. I will not admonish anyone for doing or not doing whatever it is they do in relation to and with our planet. We all make our own choices based upon what we know and believe and value. We all are allowed to follow our own path.” Appreciate your thoughts here!

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    1. Thank you, and for reading as well. I know my choices are not everyone’s choices. I can only be responsible for myself and my actions and hope fervently that I leave something better for my grandkids.

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  13. You paint a beautiful, yet devastating portrait of life as it is today, and how it might be in the future, if what we cherish slowly fades away. “One day those beautifully created real spaces may only be memories.” Oh goodness. The eternal, cockeyed optimist in me is working overtime to believe that humanity is finally waking up to the realization that we created our own situation for better or for worse, and that through a massive shift in consciousness, we can begin to repair the damage that we have done. It begins with one mind at a time. Please, oh please, can everyone please try to believe that things are getting better even as they appear to get worse? 🙏🙏🙏 (I beg you please to pardon my passion—I can’t seem to help myself!) 😊

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    1. Oh Julia, I wish that I could see a perfect, or even semi-acceptable ending to the crisis humans have brought to our planet. Sadly climate science and facts tell me of a different ending. You are right about a massive shift in consciousness being needed but we are really past the one mind at a time point- we were in fact past that long ago.

      I’m choosing to continue to live my life in the best way that I can as a caretaker of our planet because I refuse to contribute to making things worse. I hope others will choose to do the same. It certainly doesn’t hurt to be an optimist and hope but I will have to leave that task to you. I would be ecstatic to be proven wrong 🙂

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      1. I know how hard it is to envision what we cannot see, but what we are seeing now is dragging us into the depths of despair. Perhaps what we need is to see with new eyes. A recent meme from A Tree of Light (http://atreeoflight.org/) says the following: “Human activity has become a threat to the planetary life for the first time since the formation of the earth—billions of years ago. The massively destructive aspect of human power appears daily in headlines around the world. Invisible to the mass media, however, is the shift in consciousness that will soon establish a new planetary reality.” There are already millions (maybe even billions) of “one-minds” joined collectively in the work of helping to raise the frequency of the planet. Each new one-mind recruit that joins in this mass effort inches humanity one step closer to a new reality. We need as many as we can recruit. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and caring so much about the heath and well being of our earthly home, Deb. May we all trust that a divine plan is at work, and keep the faith! 🙏🙏

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  14. I have taken a deep dive into what it looked like here a 150 yrs ago…read diary entries from the early 1800’s when the settlers were just coming to this part of America, even before Iowa became a state…the timber, the wildlife, (elk, black bear, buffalo, 6 ft long sturgeon, the crystal clear streams you could see all the way to the bottom…..As I’ve grown in my understanding of soil stewardship, a part of me grieves for the loss of top soil, that was once measured in feet, is now measured in inches….as I’ve grown to understand what healthy soil looks like, it gives me a rush to be able to do an earthworm count in my garden soil…teaming with microbes…I see myself as a steward of this little postage stamp of ground on which I live…

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    1. Oh Doug, I have no doubt your POV and desire is to do everything possible to care for the land you farm and be productive at the same time. I imagine the prosperity those early folks saw in the land around them. They had no idea of what reality would be. Can you imagine having any idea that forests would be gone, concrete roads would outnumber animals, those innovators and business men would disregard the impact their factories and products have on both the land and human lives… I remember even 50 years ago that my area was forest land and our valley was farm after farm. No one ever imagined that they should find a balance at the least or realize that the planet isn’t simply full of endless resources and bounty.

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