Earth: Have you Seen Her Lately?
I recently tweeted a link to a site with interesting photos around the world. It was sent to me by a friend with the blurb: “This is insane!!!!” I quickly saw the photos and emailed her back “That is so freaking cool!!!” without even thinking about it.
Then I thought about it.
I did all that while sitting at my open back door, my garden not ten steps away. I hadn’t been out there yet this morning. When I walked out I see there are three water lilies in active bloom – a bright, exuberant orange; a soft, feminine pink blush; and, a contemplative white one. Actually, it’s only 11am – lilies bloom with the sun, but you have to live in relationship with them to watch it. Slowly, during the day they yawn open, coming to full expression in the heat of the afternoon, then closing back up to sleep at dusk. To know this one has to be out with them – SEEING them – all throughout the day. To not be in relationship with the lily is to not know it at all.
So now I am left wondering what is the fascination with sitting at a computer to click on a link that takes me to a photo of a great canyon in Nepal – 2D, flat, with some fingerprint smudge I need to clean off the top left corner – instead of walking 10 steps to my lilies, which are 3D and in motion and waiting to be seen by me, to be in relationship with me?
I am reminded of an excerpt from Rabbi Gershon Winkler’s book Daily Kabbalah: Wisdom from the Tree of Life:
The world was created with ten utterances. But could God
not have created her with a single utterance? Rather, it is to teach
you how precious the earth is, how great is the reward for
those who cherish her and how great the consequences for those
who abuse her.
-Babylonian Talmud, Avot 5:1
What does it mean to cherish the Earth? Can it be as simple as simply SEEING Her? Acknowledging she exists, first, and then receiving all the abundant treasures she has to offer? (I have been to art galleries around the world and I have never seen anything as wondrous as the lilies out my back door). To acknowledge and then receive is 2 parts of a 3 part formula of relationships – the last bit is to give something back.
I love seeing photos of canyons in Nepal. They certainly have their place. But I also love being in relationship with what is right in front of me. So I ask a question, of myself as much as anyone, Earth: Have you SEEN Her lately? And if so, what did She give you, and what did you give back?
