The Earth Deserves More Than Just One Day A Year

“Please educate someone about the birds and the bees, because without bees, humans become the canary in the coal mine, and we make bad canaries because we’re already such sheep.” ~ Bill Maher

♥

This previous Earth Day article for Huffington Post written by Bill Maher needs a re-post. I can’t agree with him more about check-out clerks putting things with handles (like laundry detergent) into a plastic bag to carry.

Come on, people.

Use your hands…and your head. Say NO to one-time use plastic bags. For Pete’s sake, if you can hand carry what you bought to the register, continue on to the car in the same fashion.

(Push carts make great ‘bags,’ to help get the small stuff from the store to your car, in case you forgot your canvas bags. Just always keep a couple of boxes in the boot to keep your stuff from rolling around.)

I will rant no more. Bill Maher is much better at it.

Today is Earth Day. So to honor my mother — as I honor Her every day — I will continue to:

• carry my own stuff in my own bags…or use my quite capable hands.
• use free leaf litter and grass clippings to organically nurture the microbes in my soil instead of buying other organics like peat-based products, liquid fertilizers, or animal manure all of which perpetuate unforeseen problems of their own.
• hire a licensed arborist for maintenance pruning of the more than 100 trees on my property. They do not commit crepe murder in the name of landscaping, and they keep me off ladders and out of the hospital.
• keep the automatic lawn sprinkler turned off (at the switch and the valve), because nature-purified drinking water should not converted to ground water as a general rule. Grasses are the most resilient plants on the planet; they do fine without us.
• add to the animal and plant biodiversity in my own yard. I may not be able to stop other land owners from clearing their trees to make way for concrete, but I can welcome all those displaced birds and insects to my small domain instead.
• be a constant example for my children of the change they want to see in the world, and show them that it’s neither difficult nor expensive.

In addition to all that, I will celebrate this day by:

• enjoying the crick in my neck from having my eyes perpetually in the trees and the skies all day.
• counting all the birds I see and log them for science.
• camping out in a tent on the beach if the weather and tide permits, or, if not, spoon up with Hubs in the truck instead.
• celebrating the foundation of a decades long best-friendship by walking around outdoors all day with my favorite person in the whole world (Hubs, again). I can’t believe he hasn’t ditched me yet.

I will continue to be impressed and in awe over the beauty and magic that is bestowed upon us — in spite of us — every single day.

Before…

…and after!

♥

Earth Day – April 22, 2016
(but it should be every day)