I had every intention of having a lovely Earth day post full of photos from our festivities, but sadly instead we had a sick day. Lu and I had a park play date planned with fun Earth day activities. We had to cancel though, because Kam stayed home from school and before long Lu was feeling icky, too. We enjoyed lunch out in the back yard at least. It was a beautiful day, yet nothing went quite as I had hoped. This too shall pass. Next year, I think I'll take the initiative and celebrate the weekend before just in case. Well, I'd still like to share these inspiring words from the
DailyOM.
April 22, 2013
Together on Earth
Seeing the Bigger Pictureby Madisyn Taylor
When we see a photo of our earth from space, it is hard to feel ourselves as being separate from all others.
Seeing an image of the planet Earth taken from space inspires awe in many of us, since we can clearly see the connectedness of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, sectioning ourselves into countries and states, forgetting that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth. We share everything on this planet, whether we are conscious of it or not, with other people, and those people are our brothers and sisters. Keeping a photograph or painting of the planet Earth in a prominent place in our homes can be a positive way to remember our interconnectedness.
Meditating on the fact that any sense of separation we have from one another is truly an illusion, we will naturally begin to make more conscious choices in our daily lives. The simple act of preparing food, or determining how to dispose of our refuse, can be done with the consciousness that whatever we do will affect all our brothers and sisters, no matter how far away they live, as well as the planet herself. When we foster this kind of awareness in ourselves out of a feeling of awe, it becomes easier to be conscious than to fall back into old habits of thinking of ourselves as separate.
When we contemplate the earth in her wholeness, we attune ourselves to the truth of the bigger picture, which is the Earth, and all of us, every one of us, living on her body. We are connected to one another in the most intimate way, because we literally share our living space. As more people become aware of the reality of our interdependency, things will shift in a positive direction, and much of the discord that we see now will give way to a more cooperative, loving conscious. This is happening already, so as our consciousness grows, we can join with the many other minds working to live in the spirit of togetherness.
A terrific reminder of the bigger picture and our interconnectedness. To celebrate the Earth I plan on taking the
Earth Day challenge on
The Kind Life. I am going to start with #3 unplugging my wireless router every night (and anything else I can get away with ;) hubbee) and #4 save water. I am guilty of leaving the water running while I brush my teeth and long showers (I think it's due to trying to drown out the noise
outside the bathroom door... aka children). But I will sacrifice for the planet. ;) I'm already pretty good at #5 and #11, but there's always room for improvement. And if there's time (with the littles) I'll try to squeeze in #13 and #14. Any suggestions?
What are some of the ways you celebrated Earth Day?
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