Believe in the beauty of the earth

My roomies have those fridge magnets that are a billion different words that you can mix and match to form your own sayings etc.  While I was waiting for my morning java to brew a few days ago this little gem just happened:

Believe in the beauty of the earth.  

Really, it just happened.  No thought.  No trying.  It just happened.  The each individual word magnet just came to me. Weird?  Yeah, maybe. But honestly that is how it happened.

Take a second to look around you.  No, really look around you. Forget the concrete jungles and SUVs for a second.  Mother Earth is a marvelous creature.  What with her lakes, rivers and oceans, fields and forests, birds, bees and all creatures great and small.  

I have been trying lately to get back to being kinder to the Earth and adjusting my actions accordingly.  I don't think I'll ever be one of those die-hard environmentalists, but I sure can do everything within my power to make a change. So perhaps that is where the saying came from.  The earth is something that has been on my brain lately, so who knows what made those words come to me.

I am fully aware that right now the earth isn't always unicorns and butterflies kind of place, with all the craziness and whatnot taking place in various parts of the world.  I'm not at all saying we should forget those things are happening as they are the stark reality for many many people with whom we share the planet.   What I am saying is to stop for a moment, take a deep breath and reconnect with your surroundings. 

Humans are one of Mother Earth's most brilliant and yet flawed creations.  With all the social networking, cell phones and other electronic methods of communicating we've lost touch with other humans.  When I was a kid if I wanted to see if my neighbour could come out to play I walked over to their house, knocked on the door and asked.  Now, they call, or text to see if the other can come out to play.  Where has all the human contact gone?

I grew up in a small town.  Most people knew just about everyone else.  If you were out for a walk you can be guaranteed just about everyone you met on the street would smile and say hello.  And then I moved to a different province where this is not common practice.  I remember wandering the streets of my new town saying hello to people as I passed and getting not much more than glares back.   Really?  Are people so absorbed in themselves that they can't even smile and nod a hello at someone as they pass on the street? 

I found a quote a few years ago (that I can't find now, of course) that I shared with my team at work.  The jist of it is:

Give someone one of your smiles. It may just be the only one he sees all day.

And while we are one of Her most amazing creations we are also to her detriment.  It is us humans that are slowly destroying Her.

I found this quote recently...(again with the quotes, I know...I dig quotes):

"There is enough in this world for everyone's need but there is not enough in this world for everyone's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi

I, like just about everyone else, like to have things.  I don't need all the latest gizmos and gadgets (says the one who just got a Blackberry....) but I like to have things.  I like books on my shelves, pictures on my walls, and I particularly love kitchen supplies.   But when I stop to think about where those things came from....wow.  That kitchen gadget I just bought was not likely manufactured locally.  It was likely made on an entirely different continent, but someone who was grossly underpaid for their efforts.  That item was then shipped across the miles on planes, trains and ships.  All of which have left one heck of a carbon footprint.  I, like most people, do not think as I am making my purchase about where that item really came from.  Nor do I think: do I REALLY need this thing?

I have also made it a point lately to donate as much of my stuff as I can.  And as I look around me now I can see it is time for another round of  sorting through my stuff.  I have clothes I've never worn or rarely wear.  Time to give them a new home and to someone who could really use a couple almost new pairs of jeans.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is Mother Earth as given us this lovely gem of a planet on which we live.   It is a beautiful place place, and if you've forgotten how beautiful it is I encourage you to take sometime and wander through a local park, or hike a local trail.  Surround yourself with nature for an hour as a reminder of how simple the world really can be.

So, in closing what I want to know is:  what makes YOUR earth beautiful?