Earth’s Gifts

Dear daughters,

Sometimes when I find myself feeling overwhelmed or powerless to what is happening in the world, I slow down and remember what the world continues to give us every day.

The air we breathe. The food we eat. The water we drink. The materials we need to build roofs over our heads.

Everything we need to survive, the earth provides. She has done so since the dawn of mankind.

All of the other bluster – the engineering and the development and optimization and efficiency… it’s undoubtedly innovative and unquestionably valuable in a lot of ways to our way if life, but sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t all be easier if we just slowed down and went back to the basics.

After all, our earth has supported humanity for all of our existence. Maybe the answer to our problems is simply to replace growth and greed with gratitude. To stop taking our earth for granted.

I know it’s not quite as simple as that, but maybe that’s where we can first turn our energy in trying times when we are drowning in despair. Maybe it all starts with forgetting about the economies and the political parties and the societal models and just letting ourselves be grateful for the gifts our earth gives us every day.

I think we should give it a try – an exercise in relief for me and unknowing resilience for you. It might not take the sting out of all of our modern day problems, but it’s worth a shot, right?

With hope and gratitude,

Mom