The Living Earth

Welcome to the Earth Day Blog Carnival

This post is part of the Earth Day Blog Carnival hosted by Child of the Nature Isle and Monkey Butt Junction. Each participant has shared their practices and insights of earth friendly, environmentally conscious, eco-living. This carnival is our way to share positive information and inspiration that can create healing for our planet. Please read to the end of this post to find a list of links to the other carnival participants. Happy Earth Day!

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The Living Earth: A Meditation in Science and Reverence

For a moment today, she asks you to pause, to experience her directly.

Take a deep breath; this atmosphere that keeps us alive, warm (compared to space), cool (compared to Venus), and protected from the vagaries that roam the solar system, pitting the surfaces of other planets, and scorching them with radiation. Breathe out and nourish the plants that share this planet, our brothers in breathing. Exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale. This is the action that separates the living from the dead. Pause to appreciate it.

Pour yourself a glass of cool clear water. Drink. Splash your fingers in a pond, or a creek, or a puddle. This water that flows over, around, and through your body has been here for billions of years and will sustain the living for billions of years more. These atoms have passed through the bodies of whales, the walls of cells, and the rock that lies beneath your feet. They, like you, were born in cosmic fire. They are not always water; sometimes they are ice, or snow. Sometimes, they become part of a moving body for a time, before returning to the living earth. We live in a magic place in the universe, where water can flow, can form ice, and can float about in vaporous trails. Rare indeed, this triple-point. One of the blessings of our planet. Pause to appreciate it.

Take a step outside during this day and look up. It is light. This sun that shines on us gives us the energy we are made from. The plants drink it in, draw in the air and draw up the nutrients from the soil, and food is born. (It is not living to be food, but food it becomes, nonetheless.) This is the truth: we are solar powered, born in sunlight to a living planet. The warmth of the sun drives the wind, drives the water cycle, pulls water uphill to run back down. Even the coal, gas, and oil that we burn are captured sunlight, stored through the ages. Recognize our place in the cosmos, the fact that we burn, that the spark of life is in each of us, and in the world around us. Pause to appreciate it.

Sit upon the ground. Place your hands in the earth. Plant a seed. Smell the soil. This, too, is alive. This soil beneath our feet, like our bodies, is a teeming ecosystem. These bacteria work together with plants to capture the nitrogen from the air. These ones break down old leaves to free their bodies for the next round of life. These ones keep the fungus at bay. Pick up a rock and wonder at the ages upon ages that it took to grow, to smooth into this round pebble, or fracture into these sharp shards… how it came to be where it is sitting. The atoms that form this rock were born in the heart of a dying star, billions of years gone by. Pause to appreciate it.

This earth, this planet, is an accretion of star dust and ash, drawn together in this moment in a magical blaze of consciousness. You are a part of a symphony so vast as to be utterly inconceivable. This planet is a majesty of the universe. Just for a moment, pause.

Pause to glory in it.

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Visit Monkey Butt Junction and Child of the Nature Isle to read all about the Earth Day Blog Carnival.
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Going Green in 2011 – Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama discusses the way she and her family are going “greener” in 2011.

Our Greatest Teacher – Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro shares her experiences with her children and nature, their greatest teacher.

Dreaming of Spring Gardening – Erin of the Waterloons talks about the ultimate in local food, her backyard garden.

Earth Conscious Minimalism – Nada at miniMOMist thinks minimalism can help you save the world — as long as you don’t just toss everything in the trash! Check out Her list of places to donate (bet you haven’t thought of them all!).

Blessings to the Earth – Amy at Anktangle believes that a simple act, such as being intentionally grateful for our food, is just the catalyst we need to bring about large-scale change.

Eight Movies to Inspire Change – Mrs Green at Little Green Blog shares her top 8 movies that have inspired her to take action to make the world a better place. She’d love to hear your suggestions to add to her viewing list!

Can I Have a Green Period Too? Kelly at Becoming Crunchy shares the environmental impact of switching to sustainable menstrual products, along with offering a great Mama Cloth giveaway for anyone interested in making the switch (and for those who already have and want to increase their stash!).

An Eden to Call Our Own – Lucy at Dreaming Aloud shares how learning to care for the Earth starts in her own garden.

Elimination Communication – Melissa at the New Mommy Files discusses the environmental impact of diapering, and why elimination communication was the best choice for her family.

The Living Earth: A Meditation in Science and Reverence – Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante asks you to pause to wonder at the blessing of the fact that our living planet is here at all.

Earth Day Anthem – Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro created a poem in honor of Mother Earth, women and nurturers everywhere.

The Plasticity of Compromise – Zoie at TouchstoneZ shares how she is working to compromise on healthy family living and avoiding plastics whenever possible.

Earth Day Resolutions – Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares why she has decided to make Earth Day resolutions, what those resolutions are, and how they are a step up from her current efforts at green living.

Is it time for you to say “Enough!”? Mrs Green at My Zero Waste asks you to rise up and say ‘Enough!’ on Earth Day.

Homeschooling with the Earth – Terri at Child of the Nature Isle shares her desires and dreams for Earth-based learning and the ways her two young children have already started a natural curriculum.

Beyond the Green Sheen – Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction offers some advice on how to avoid greenwashing and make purchasing choices that really have a positive impact.