Its Earth Day

There was a meteor shower early this morning, and Jupiter still visible in the southeastern sky. I was up before dawn to see them both. Saw Jupiter again, but in the time I had to sky gaze, not one shining ball of light passed my line of view. It felt like a good way to start this special day, looking up, looking beyond my own world. Thinking about how things all work together so perfectly when we take care of them. Later, walking barefoot in the cold wet grass, my feet soaking up the dew, stimulating my circulation with each step, I thought about what changes we could make to live more gently, thinking also about the changes we have made in our lives in the past 30 years. I walked past the garden, thankful for our organic, super fresh veggies and fruits we have available to us.
Clothes gently dancing on the clothesline, our only means of drying clothes. Very little new furniture in the house, and almost no manufactured wood products. No carpets, for easy cleaning and we created no demand for chemical laden carpets to be made. We opt for natural fiber clothing,most of which is what I tenderly call recycled clothing anyway, bought at yard sales and thrift stores.
We limit our paper product use and try to get recycled when we do need it. Last year I purchased two rolls of paper towels for the entire 365 days. We used one package of paper napkins, the rest of the time we use cloth for those needs. Small steps, gentle steps. We don't use fossil fuel to heat our home, but just burn downed trees, which burn cleaner than many woods. We drove a total of 10,000 miles in the past year. There is more we can do and there are probably things we do that are such habit that we forget we are doing them.
As I walked in from doing chores, I was musing over Romans 1: 20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." With this being the case, why wouldn't every person that believes this, want to take care of the very handiwork of God ? I have had so many Christians tell me that all this "green stuff" is akin to Communism (which personally I see no connection whatsoever ) but, more than once I have been told that, so some folks believe it. Pollution hurts us. Carelessness causes destruction of so many delicate life forms. We are dying from the abuse of chemicals and so aren't the animals, the very ones that God thought we should have with us on this planet. Ignorance and/or denial, the kind where you spend your life having your head buried in the sand won't make things better for us or any future generations. This Earth Day, think about what you can do to live a bit more gently on this planet of ours. We are the caretakers, and we are the benefactors too.
Melanie, Mei-Ling and I are heading off for a fun day of celebrating and embracing the concept of doing our part in caring for this planet of ours.