This weekend one of my favorite holidays occurs. Oh it
isn't one that will be marked in red on the calendar - some calendars don't
even include it. And the banks won't close and the mail will still
be delivered. But it honors a very important figure in our lives - Mother
Earth. April 22 is Earth Day.
A couple of months back I wrote about how important it was
for us to get out in nature. With the cold weather leaving, this weekend
is your perfect chance. Contact with nature increases our health, our
mental well-being and our creativity. It slows us down and focuses
our awareness on something other than ourselves and other than the fast pace we
are all living in.
If you get a chance, take a walk with Mother Earth.
Notice her beauty, her nurturing qualities in the flowers, trees, and
animals. Also notice what we do to her when we don't care - the
pollution, the littering, and the tearing up of her form.
How we treat her is exactly how we treat ourselves. When we
don't care, we pollute ourselves with unhealthy things, we litter our minds
with noise and busyness and we don't allow ourselves the rest and relaxation
that would bring about calm and creativity.
Spend some time in nature this weekend and treat yourselves
with love and kindness by extending that time to every day of the year.
Talk a walk, take a picnic, take care of yourself and Mother Earth
There is a patch of woods I know
where I walk
and look and feel.
It's along a road where cars
speed by on their way to
somewhere else.
Driving by you watch
the road and other traffic,
out of the corner of your eye
this wooded strip is always
green and never changing.
But if you walk it, as I do daily,
you see that nothing is the same.
That every day a new miracle appears.
One day you pass to see
tiny little branches coming
from the leaf strewn earth
Start of new trees, you think.
After all they resemble the cluster
of leaves above which shade you.
But then a day or two later this
tiny branch is home to
a yellow flower. You had
not even seen a bud the day before,
Yet here is a little cup of sunshine.
Yesterday there were berries --
deep wine colored berry clusters growing
on variegated vines along the ground.
Today they are gone. Probably
dessert last night for
a family of birds or mice.
Grass grows tall along the edge
of the road.
The grass stalks are the ones
that as children, we would place
between our fingers
and whistle.
Look closer and you will find
a thread vine twisting
the blade, hugging tightly the grass
like two long lost friends
not wanting to part.
Morning glories blooming blue in a
patch near a maple tree.
Are they wild
or did someone drop seeds out
a car window as they sped by.
What is this?
Back along the tree line
is a row of plants.
Prickly stems and leaves protecting
a cluster of buds.
I wonder what they'll look like.
Maybe tomorrow they will open
and peek at me.
As I turn and head for home
sure that I have seen
all the treasures my patch
has to give me,
I come upon a rare
stem of yellow asters,
daisy like flowers I've only
seen in white and purple.
I would have missed it had
I not turned around.
A car passes me, speeding
to an adventure unknown,
too fast to see my tiny
yellow asters.
Too bad for the driver,
for all they see is a blur of green.
poem © 1999 Cheryl
Fillion
blog © 2017– Cheryl Fillion
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