What if the world stopped spinning?

What if the world stopped spinning?

If it just stood still on its axis and refused to move?

If at every latitude and longitude, the sun and moon stayed still?

What if somewhere it is always sunrise and somewhere else the sun is always setting?

What if some live forever in total darkness and others in unrelenting light?

What if the earth just took a stand and said, “I will not turn once more, not one degree, not even the 100^th of a degree, until you learn to love me?”

What if the earth were to shout to us, “I have done all I will do for you. I will not provide succulent morsels for your wasteful tongues after you rape me with violence and pollution?”

What if she told us that she was finished with the struggle, that it just was not worth it anymore?

What if she screamed in anger and in pain, “I have no more tears to shed for you. You have hurt me more than I am willing to endure. You come to me for everything you need and give nothing in return.”

What if she said in a voice full of despair, “ It is too hard to sustain life when you choose to kill and maim each other as a way to solve problems.”

“I can not keep spinning. I will no longer enable you to destroy us both. I have given all I have to give. It is your turn now.”

What if in the bright light of the un-turning world, we could never stop seeing all that we have taken from her, if we were forced to stare at desolation?

What if in the perpetual darkness we could never again see the beauty of a flower, a tree, a mountain stream, waves breaking on the sand?

What if some lived in the glory of an eternal dawn or the beauty of an eternal sunset, knowing that the rest of the world would never ever see it?

If it was you, could you stand to know that you were one of the few to be so lucky?Knowing that so many are denied light and so many others never given the respite of the dark?

What if we had no choice? What if the earth just stopped giving? What if there was nothing we could do to change her mind?

No pleading, no promises, no planting trees, no conserving energy, no cleaning polluted waters, no small gestures to show we care.

Would we realize how small these gestures are? Would we be sorry that we did not do more?

What if it was too late? What if the world just couldn’t take it anymore?

~~~

I wrote this more than two years ago and complacency about the environment is still widespread. Yet, I am hopeful. I see more news stories about climate change than I did two years ago. I see more about the environment on social media. So, I think change has begun at a grassroots level.

This makes me hopeful because I truly believe you and I and many millions across the globe will be the ones to accept the honor and privilege of transitioning our species to a new way of living in harmony with nature. We are the generations that will figure how to use our technology to protect, rather than destroy, and we will also figure out when using technology is not the best solution for our health and the health of our planet.

A book that gives us some solutions and lots of hope is Cows Save the Planet by Judith D. Schwartz.  http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/cows_save_the_planet:paperback

What books would you recommend?

The worst storm on record

Please read this very important blog by poet4justice and please sign the petition. We are all connected and what happens next is truly up to all of us.

What are we waiting for? Violence and climate change in our brave new world.

Climate change and the prediction of increasing violence are certainly not good news. My concern about both is one of the reasons I wrote, I Call Myself Earth Girl . But here, at the end of this blog is the GOOD NEWS.We can build that new world—not through technology and arms, but through community and collaboration. Bottom-up, not top-down.

It’s true: we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. And given the impending climate crisis, there’s no point in waiting anymore.

Good news on tiny wings!

More good news... So our broccoli crop had some problems this year and went to flower after the first yield.  Yesterday, my four-year-old grandson went over to see if any more broccoli was growing and he discovered that the flowers were being visited by at least two dozen honey bees! I am so glad that my lack of skill at growing broccoli resulted in a feast for some honey bees. I took this picture this morning, but it was so windy that there were no bees.  I hope my sweet, little, winged farmers come back soon. They do so much more for us than we know. As a child, I was taught to fear bees, but really what we should all fear is a world without honey bees.

Here is a link to a brief article about what would happen in a world without bees.http://www.naturalnews.com/032296_honey_bees_pollinators.html

By the way, you can eat those little yellow flowers - slighty sweet and refreshing. But now that the bees have found them, I'll leave them on their stalks.

Playing hardball with the fossil fuel industry: if not now, when? if not us, who?

Lately, I have been sharing blogs that have particularly affected me. This one touched me to my core. How about you? What does it make you think, feel, or want to do? What is the action we can take to really make a difference?