A half a century ago
my character yelled:
“I’m responsible!”
on stage.
I’m not certain that,
back then,
I knew what the phrase meant:
“I’m responsible!”
Now, decades past,
I understand that,
at my core,
I’m responsible.
It’s silly to blame
anyone else
for anything bad
in my life,
because it’s all good,
as long as
I think it is
and want it to be.
I’m responsilbe
for that.
You blame me,
us,
them,
for stealing your dreams.
“How Dare You!”
you shout,
face twisted, contorted
into emotion.
Sadly, no one told you,
no one guided you,
to know,
no one can steal your dreams.
Just you,
and only you,
can let your dreams,
hopes,
desires,
visions,
slip away.
You can blame others
all you want,
as loud as you want,
but the truth is this:
You’ve lost your dreams?
That’s on you.
I’m called tree hugger,
greener,
environmentalist,
eco-warrior.
I call myself
those names, too.
But when I see
red-faced screamers
demanding that
governments and nations
make accords,
do something,
force compliance,
I back away.
Giving government
more power
is not where I’ll waste
my waste-fighting
eco-warrior
energies.
Haven’t we learned
from Muir,
Thoreau,
Leopold,
and others?
They DID,
and they wrote
about what they DID.
Movements started
with the power of
DOING,
with the power
of words.
They introduced others
to the beauty
and wonder
and peace,
and joy
found in God’s Creations,
in Mother Nature.
They partnered
with God,
with Nature,
to help folks,
the common man and woman,
feel love for
and wonder at
all God’s creations.
Because how will I
partner with,
love,
and protect
a creation
I’ve never experienced?
This was prompted by an essay on individual responsibility in environmentalism.
My daughter ripped me/
about my land’s micro-trash./
Now, pockets are filled.
Backstory: A few years ago, my daughter came to live at our house in NW Georgia. Our objective at Spirit Tree FarmsSpirit Tree Farms is to create a place of peace and healing, where folks can come and connect with Nature, tap into their God-inspired creativity, #FindNatureJoy.
One day, as she and I were walking in the woods and fields, she turned to me and basically called me out, saying something like: “This place is not what you’re trying to have it be. It’s not peaceful. There’s no Zen here.” Taken by surprise, I asked her, honestly, what she meant. She pointed around and said (I’m paraphrasing) :”You come out here and leave plastic bottles and pieces of paper and shreds of plastic bags. You say you’ll clean them up later, but you don’t. You’re trying to partner with the Earth, and have Earth and this land be a healing place, but there’s micro-garbage everywhere. It doesn’t work!”
I looked around and saw that she was right. Ribbons of torn plastic, busted milk jugs once used for watering native plants but now falling apart and useless, plastic bottle caps, pieces of paper, all were interwoven with the very plants, trees, grasses, and wildflowers we were trying to grow! I was not being authentic at all!
Since then, because of her ripping on me, I’ve been much more aware of micro-trash on our land and elsewhere. Does it still exist? Sure! It’s micro-trash, and despite my Boy Scout, nature observation and trash-pick-up training, I do miss things. (And having the neighbor’s dogs and local racoons and birds get into bags and boxes and shread and spread things doesn’t help!) But it’s a lot better than it was.
I used to come back from my nature observation and grounding walks in the woods and fields with bags of micro-trash. Now, it’s rare if I fill up my pockets with litter.
I hope my daughter is proud of my efforts. I’m certainly grateful for her example and chastisement! In fact, I sent her a text with this haiku, then said:
I’m always thankful every time I pick up a piece of micro-trash in my yard, for your chastisement and vital lesson. Thank you.
A grateful Dad
After all, if we expect Mother Earth to heal us, we have to be partners with her, and help heal her. And we can all, always, do better.
What if it is just/
that simple? Climate change cured /
by our repentance?
Back story: Marnie (CreationGirl.com and SpiritTreeFarms.com) posted an Instagram reel quoting the Old Testament, about healing the Earth.
In it, she said: “Do you worry about the state of our nation? The state of our world? About droughts, fires, the environment, the future of your children, and grandchildren?
If so, this word of encouragement from the Father found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 is for you:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.“
It’s not about everyone else changing. It’s about me changing. It’s about you changing. We can all be more kind, more loving and forgiving. As we change, our world changes.”
#bethechange #bethechangeyouwanttosee #healourland #healournation #turntogod #heargodsvoice #scriptureoftheday #dailyinspiration #encouragementfromthefather.
A friend of mine is a great example of individual eco-activism. She takes personal responsibility for the environment. During the past year, at great inconvenience (and, often, expense) to herself, she has avoided any plastic packaging (including food). Knowing how much recycling of plastic my family does, I can only imagine how hard this is. Yet, because she is into practical, invididual eco-activism, committed to the environment, that’s what she and her daughters do!
The other day she posted on Facebook about how her sister had joined her, and how they were finding uses for glass jars of yogurt. Her sister wrote about it in her blog. In stark contrast to people calling for corporate and government actions, and yet doing little individually, this woman is into individual eco-activism, doing something personally — which I believe is much more powerful than sitting in the middle of a busy city street intersection, or speaking at the UN, to protest climate change. I wrote this on her Facebook:
You can’t change the earth’s/
degrees, but by degrees you /
are changing our world.
OR
I can’t change planet/
degrees, but I can change by/
degrees my own world.
My wife made this FrontPorchSense.com video about personal responsibility and individual, practical environmental activism. It fits in nicely with her logical view of not waiting for the government to fix things you can take care of yourself.
https://frontporchsense.com/2019/09/practical-environmentalism
I wrote this blog post in NaturesGuy.com about the difference between being an Environmental Protester and an Environmental ACTivist with personal responsibility.
I’m seeing a lot of news stories and videos about environmentalists striking and protesting about climate change. A 16-year-old woman took a boat from Sweden to New York City, skipping out of school along with millions of other of her classmates, to take to the streets and rally and protest and complain about climate change. Everyone wants someone to fix the environment.
All this environmental awareness reminds me of when I was a little bit younger than this woman, maybe about 13, and some Senator from Wisconsin organized the first Earth Day. Funny thing is, I don’t remember huge numbers of strikes or rallies or taking to the streets in massive protests. What I do remember is a bunch of concerned people wading waist-deep out into the extremely-polluted Milwaukee River and pulling garbage out and making a difference. A place where carp could barely survive and trash abounded, now sees salmon spawning. I guess what I’m saying is that I’d like to see a lot more people doing something instead of just saying something. Like with the #cleanCatoosa2019, or the #LDSEarthStewardship projects. These mean I have to get my butt off this rocking chair and go do something. Like rip out more of my lawn to plant it to wildflowers.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/…/jb_modern_earthday_1.html
PS: When you listen to all these so-called environmental activists, like this woman (#Greta) from Sweden, all I hear them saying is “we (nations of the world) have to reduce emissions by X percent, we have to stop doing this thing by X percent.” They come up with these massive requirements that nobody can fathom and thus no individual can do. These activists are pushing the responsibility onto governments, on the climate change agreements in Kobe and elsewhere.
And that won’t fix the environment.
I don’t recall any of them ever standing up and saying “Will everybody please just stop using plastic for a year?” (Like my friend Cindy A is doing.) “Will everybody please just walk to school or to church or to work or take mass transit?” “Will everybody please just pick up one or two items of litter a day?” “Will everybody please just recycle?” Those are immediate, personal actions that will help fix the environment.
When we change the projects of “Fix the Environment” into the large percentage solutions and push those projects onto the government, we abdicate our individual responsibility. My personal call is this: This week, will you plant a flower, a tree or shrub? Will you pick up a piece of litter or two a day? Will you walk to your neighbor’s or your siblings or your friends a quarter of a mile or a half a mile or to school or work instead of driving?
I will. Because that attitude, and those actions, are what is going to fix the environment. I’m going to start tomorrow by ripping up some of my lawn and planting it to wildflowers for the bees, and transplanting some trees to where they will grow faster and add more CO2. Because I believe in doing instead of not doing, making changes individually instead of protesting and expecting the government to fix the environment.
Because individual actions change attitudes. And many changed attitudes, doing something, will change the world and fix the environment.
What if we all just/
practice Earth Etiquette and/
not wait for others?