Mother Earth

 

Mother Earth is hurting and in distress.  She cries out in pain, warning us to stop polluting her body and soul. Telling us to stop killing her beloved animals and fish. Causing her body to get warmer and warmer as her distress grows. 

But we don’t listen. We continue to exploit what she has so graciously and lovingly provided by polluting the air, ground and water.  We disrespect the people around us causing more pain. 

Trying desperately to warn us, she sends lightening to start fires; tornadoes, derechos and hurricanes to level the buildings along with floods and tidal waves, trying to get us to start over. 

Shutting our ears to her cries of pain, we rebuild but ignore her lessons as we continue to pollute her skies with the exhaust of our cars and trucks, trains, planes and machinery. We fill her oceans with oil spills and plastic debris killing her precious fish and birds. We create mountains of trash filled with chemicals and things that will take hundreds of years to decay.  

We fight amongst ourselves leaving behind broken bodies and souls along with explosives to maim future generations.  Neighbors who are “different than us” become the enemy instead of friends as power struggles intensify and we race among ourselves to show the world that we have more, hence we are better.  But the more we have, the more trash and pollution fill Mother Earth’s body and soul and intensify her pain. 

Until she can finally take it no longer and in a desperate bid to save herself and us, she sends a pandemic, far worse than the ones that she has sent before as warnings.   

Forcing the world to pause. To stay home. To clear the air of the pollution of our cars and trucks and planes and machinery. To reconnect with our families. 

The animals slowly come out of hiding. With humans gone from their world, they relax and enjoy Mother Earth’s blessings. 

And Mother Earth starts to heal. 

But in our anxiety filled angst, we rush to get back to “our normal”, and as soon as we can we once more fill the roads with our cars and trucks. We go back to disrespecting Mother Earth and inflicting pain on her. With no recourse left, she sends another wave of the pandemic trying to force us to once more pause until she can heal. 

And still we do not listen. 

Dale Weir

Photo by Daniel Jensen on Unsplash