The Song of Earth Day
What is the role of Earth during perilous human times?
Friends and readers of Mother E—
Happy Earth Day April 22, 2025.
How do we respond to this moment? April 2025 is Earth Month in a climate-warming year amid an uptick of deadly strife and growing crises. “Uncertainty” might be the understated word of the month. Peril is a more apt word. I can’t do justice to these times with simple prose, so I’ll bring a loose poetry to the job.
Robin A.
The Song of Earth Day
In the tangled web of lines laid over the country, a spider flexes— grasping, devouring, sowing confusion. Fear seeps in like a slow drip of poison.
Cries echo in the city canyons at the greed of the monied halls. The hourly cycle runs red with anguish while shrouded bodies are carried off in grieving arms. Is this really us?
Night is for the unrested— with mornings that hit like a bad dream. Is this deepening crisis the beginning… or an ending? Everything is upside down and it’s easy to teeter, off-balance.
But wiser ones tell me to pause—to lift eyes to the horizon and away from the churning chaos. Believe in your own story, follow your higher goals, they say. Boldness is needed. If you act, you might gain something, but if you don’t act, you will surely lose. Leap now. And if you fall, the land will catch you.
Gaia/Earth holds us in the same way she did a year ago, or a thousand years ago. Look beyond the narrow realm of human-obsession. Find the love story in the midst of this crisis.
Even in a degraded world, there is still much to admire. Vast tree nations share elemental resources with their neighbors; feathered friends still soar the skies and sing the breeze, and furred creatures walk the night paths. They all understand the impermanence of Earth and the permanence of the life force.
In times of uncertainty, be ready to ask— what do we believe in? REALLY believe in? From acts of courage to living in harmony with Earth, the many possible answers spin and weave into a shimmering whole. What do you believe in? I’ll start with mine.
Believe in beauty. Today, the morning rose golden and the eve was a blaze of pinks. Honking geese passed overhead and paused my breath with their beating wings and surety of course.
And did you ever stand on the edge of a continent and marvel at the grand curve of Earth? I’ve decided beauty isn’t optional— it’s required for survival.
Believe in the force of life. Tiny miracles reveal themselves if you lie on the earth: umbrella mushrooms, glossy beetles, industrious ants, humming bees. Oh my!
And overhead, the background twitter of leafy birdsong under the blue dome of the Pacific Flyway. Pulse of life everywhere, even in that sidewalk crack sprouting green shoots.
Need to still and ground yourself? Sit down and thrust your fingers into the earth, into that elemental force. Gaia is carved into our mortal beings as children of Earth.
Believe in each other. Communities and communes, Councils of Beings, congregations, congresses, cousins of man— Earthlings all. Join the fireside chats and rallies for a cause. Reach out. Be a brother/sister, mother/father, cousin/friend to someone else. Cherish the mentors and caretakers of humans. Hearts open, not closed.
Believe in longing. Listen to your heart’s desire since it’s a wise organ. It has universal wants— to experience more love and understanding, to dwell in harmony, to build a better world. Follow your longings and see where they take you. Feel the quiet, insistent force saying, “This is important for your soul.”
Believe in your dreams. I often dream of places where I want to wander—rocky desert paths winding under the shadow of chocolate-covered mountains and piercing blue skies. I dream of sandy shores on the Pacific ocean—in the place of fog and whales. Loving trees, I dream of wild forests that belong to themselves. I dream of every place I’ve ever lived and cherished—because the land, our values, and each other are all that we have. Hold fast.
I also dream of a society that furthers The Six Essentials for everyone: food, clean water, housing, healthcare, honorable work, and belonging. Hold on to abundance over scarcity. Earth provides.
Believe in your future on a green and blue planet pulsing with life for over three billion years. Believe in your future in a solar system moving through a starry galaxy named the Milky Way, embedded in an infinite multiverse. Does that make you feel a part of something much bigger and grander—or maybe just much smaller?
Be small in a mighty way. Be the ant who joins with others to move the immovable mountain. Be the voice who finds a choir to sing hallelujah at sunrise.
In the midst of greatest obstruction— friends arrive.
The I-ChingKeep watch for them and be a friend for others. Hold onto your vision for a wiser, more inclusive world.
Carry your freshly-remembered beliefs out into the world. Wear them, speak them, share them, live them. Your larger self can ride out the hard times as a surfer rides the swelling wave, aware that this too is a passing state.
Nurture your desired future with tender hearts and hands, like green shoots. And if you fall, the land will catch and hold you, because
Earth abides.
🌎 💚
Friends and readers,
You haven’t heard from me in a while because I took a break from writing Mother E when life intervened. First it was a major move to be closer to family, then a knee injury that sidelined me from walking much. The writing took a back seat to my in-person community and medical needs (I’m better now). Going forward, Mother E will be occasional rather than regular. Thanks for being here!
Robin
Absolutely Divine Robin! 💝🙏
Glad to hear you're feeling better. Are you still on the coast? Paula