To honor the earth like a child is to pay attention.
Notice the way water trickles through mud, creating a miniature river basin before rushing beneath the street.
Look up at the way cottonwood leaves sparkle with silver as they wave back and forth in the rustling wind.
Put your hands in the dirt and gasp with delight to find a wiggling worm, holding it up like a prize.
Peer quietly into a nest to count blue robin eggs, whispering as if voices could wake them up.
Roll down a hill, laughing at the thrill of spinning gravity.
Exclaim over sparrows, cardinals, and woodpeckers. Make sure the birdfeeder is always full.
Point out litter in the street and in the grass, rushing to throw it away.
Cry when trees are felled or wildflowers are mowed over.
Rejoice when seeds sprout and vegetables are ready to harvest.
Learn how to swim, float, and dive over and over until your lips are blue and your fingers are raisins.
Collect ordinary rocks, big ones and small ones, rough and smooth. Unremarkable, all. Keep them in your pockets. Under your bed. The secret compartments in the back of the van. Stash them in old shoes and the corners of the porch. Never forget whose are whose.
Let Mother Earth soothe your soul, and tend her wounds when she needs you too.
Happy Earth Day,
—NK
This is beautiful! Thank you for the reminder
Lovely. Thanks, Naomi!