A Dot on the Earth

blue, silver, and grey clouds flow across the hills around Grand Coulee Dam

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. Last Sunday, on our walk south of Grand Coulee Dam, I turned back to look towards our town across the reservoir on the other side of the dam. The sky, painted in layers of silver, greys, and blues, filled the scene as high as the eye can see and flowed slowly along in its multiple layers making even the Grand Coulee Dam look small. And we, walking on the hillside, just dots in the sand, spots on the earth, really– nothing in the universe. We may have built wonders on this earth, yet many seem to refuse to take care of our only home, this earth.

I am wholly convinced that, if all of us do not make a concerted effort, with a sense of universal responsibility, we will see the gradual breakdown of the fragile ecosystems that support us, resulting in an irreversible and irrevocable degradation of our planet, earth.
Dalai Lama / Franz Alt
Our Only Home: A Climate Appeal to the World
p 116

And yet, we can do something…

Did you know the Nature Conservancy goal is to plant a billion trees to help slow the crisis of climate change. Planting trees is something we all can do, and it’s something that can be done, must be done, as well as eliminating our use of fossil fuels.

Flourishing trees clean the wind
Help us breathe the sustaining air of life
They please the eye and sooth the mind
Their shade makes a welcome resting place

In Vinaya, the Buddha taught monks
To care for tender trees
From this, we learn the virtue
Of planting, of nurturing trees

On a certain day, month and year
One should observe the ceremony of tree planting
Thus, one fulfills one’s responsibilities
Serves one’s fellow beings
Which not only brings one happiness
But benefits all
excerpt of song
Dalai Lama
Our Only Home: A Climate Appeal to the World

For more information, see NPR: Dalai Lama on Climate Change and NASA: Climate Change: Vital Signs.

Will we, the tiny living dots on a blue planet ignore the signs and phase out like dinosaurs? Or, will we, in our small spot in space build a better, sustaining system to maintain ourselves on earth? On days like last Sunday, I feel small and helpless, but today, I say, we can do this. How about you?

Poetry

A Dot on the Earth

On a winter day
clouds layered and grey
some silver, some blue
as high as the eye can see
and we, a small spot below
a dot on the earth so old
just nothing in a universe’s view
amazing we even came to be.
Sheri Edwards
12.05.23 337.365.23
Poetry/Photography