Letter: Show Mother Earth some love

Millions, perhaps billions, around the globe celebrated Earth Day. Imagine that the one being who brings life to us all is celebrated one day out of the year.

Hiking with my dogs, I marveled at the magnificent gifts of life, beauty, magic, mystery, resources and wonder we humans have been blessed to receive — all at no charge to us. A loving creator literally designed this highly intricate web of life for human people, animal people and plant/tree and mineral people to thrive and enjoy. This Earth was given to us for free.

And somehow the human race has claimed its stake over the Earth, deluding ourselves into believing that we could make laws that would give us the right to own things — even the Earth. Generally, when one owns something of great value they take exceptional care of it. For God’s sake, people build rooms with temperature vaults for their wine — yet when it comes to the Earth, we “superior” humans seem to have a case of amnesia and tear her up, rape her daily for her resources, kill her wildlife, human life, poison her daily, and basically s— all over her, all while laying financial claim and ownership to her.

Today, let’s begin a new cycle in our history. Today, may we all wake up and take a long, hard look inside ourselves and come to remember that we have been given the Earth by a loving creator who asks nothing in return. Today and every day, may we honor our home and stop the insanity of loving her to death by consuming more unnecessary crap that none of us need to satisfy our insatiable egos. Today, may each one of us truly commit to living here in a sustainable manner that eliminates waste and reckless consumption and destruction of wild life and lands that will never be able to be replaced.

May we grow up and mature today by loving ourselves and our planet back to enoughness and wholeness and end our vicious cycle of economic lunacy by spending more than we have while so arrogantly wasting our children’s future, all while telling them how much we love them.

Western society often feels that tribal people must be “educated and indoctrinated” into the modern world. Every child should have shoes or glasses. Well, I sense that those that do not have shoes who still walk the Earth with direct contact with their feet are the few who still remember what most of us have forgotten — the Earth is a living, breathing, conscious being who gives us life and liberty.

We do not own the Earth. We are merely visitors here who have been gifted the possibility of a gorgeous existence. So teach your children well, treat Mother Earth and all her beings kindly every day. Live with humility and honor and respect for the one none of us can live without. Consume less, love more, give more, take less and treat all species kindly.

Alecia Evans

Basalt