Appreciate
the Mother
“...So
put a
bracelet
on your
ankle with
a
bell on it
and make a
little
music for
the earth
beneath your foot, or
wear a hat
with hot-colored
ribbons
for the
pleasure
of the
leaves and
the clouds...”
Mary
Oliver (excerpt from “The Poet Comments on Yet Another Approaching
Spring;” Thirst, p.50)
Do you follow the seasons
with interest? If you do, then you know that this is the time of year
when all critters begin to prepare for winter. Even though it's still
hot here in Alabama, I have just watched two squirrels hang upside
down, their white bellies like flags of surrender, while stripping
every single berry off a 20 foot tall ligustrum tree. It now looks
like a skeleton with a couple of green leaves at the end of each
branch. Watching, I wonder where they put all those berries in
their small bodies? Surely, their job here on earth is to provide
comic relief for humans, as they hang-on with their toes and cause
the entire tree to shudder with their gobbling. Yesterday, I put
fresh sugar-water into a humming bird feeder and as I was hanging it
back up, a tiny warrior the size of my thumb almost flew into my
face, with his fierce little wings blurring the air around him. I
guess I wasn't moving fast enough for him.
Mary Oliver makes the
point in her poem that the earth and its seasons give us an
endless supply of pleasure. So why not return the favor? We could
play music and dance for joy, or we could walk out and touch each
green being we pass and just say thank you. Don't think for one
moment, that plants do not respond to our touch—they do. Just ask
people who are not “green-thumbs” what happens to their
plants—they die no matter what kind of care they get. And those
green-thumb folks can't kill a plant even through neglect. Green
things thrive on our energy. I once put a ficus tree into a room
where very few people went in my house because it would get better
light. Right away it began dropping sad brown leaves. As soon as I
moved it back to the living room, it perked up and put out new
growth. Carbon dioxide, you say. Yes, and proximity, too.
Today, say thank you to
your favorite green being. Walk on the earth with bare feet. Watch a
fool-squirrel flipping around in the trees. Give back some
appreciation for all that Mother Earth does for you.
In the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment