My Early Morning Walk (February)

When I walked out my front door this morning, the first thing I saw was the garbage and left over food someone had thrown onto the street in front of my house. I picked up most of it before starting my morning walk. A few blocks from my house I saw more trash; this time it was four beer cans, a paper bag and other forms of litter. I decided to pick up at least some of it on my way back home.

I took a route that I had never taken before. I was startled when I walked by a house that had bamboo stalks bigger than any I had ever seen. In fact, they were much taller than the three story house. A fence hampered my ability to take good photographs, but these will at least give you an idea of what they looked like.

I continued walking for awhile and then headed back home. The garbage was still waiting for me.

As I got ready to pick it up, some very tiny flowers caught my eye. I decided to photograph those.

After gathering the trash, I continued on my way home. As I walked, I reflected on the litter, the bamboo and the flowers. I’ve continued to think about them throughout the day.

Several years ago, picking up litter was a major focus in my daily life but that has not been true for awhile. It is time for me to find my litter grabber and to once again support Mother Nature in that way.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature (Acrostic)

Nature

From birth to death and beyond
Offering beauty and protection
Rendering love unconditional
Creator, sustainer, destroyer
Energy that has no bounds
Sharing all that she has to offer

Only “the times they are a-changin”
Feeling our neglect, our abuse

Nature’s crying, can’t save us from ourselves
Another earthquake, people dying
Temperatures rising, ice caps melting
Upon us come floods, superbugs, disease
Realization is dawning, but is it too late
Eager earnest effort is essential

(Note: The quote is the title of a Bob Dylin song)

Written for Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature

Twenty Pounds of Cigarette Butts

This past Saturday, thirteen members of the Seattle area part of the PNW Litter Project made it possible to keep 20 pounds of cigarette butts out of landfills, waterways and stomachs of birds and other forms of wildlife.

Cigarette butts are way more toxic than you might think. They are NOT made of cotton, they are made of cellulose acetate tow and they can take decades to degrade. Investigators in a San Diego State University study once discovered that if you put fathead minnows and top smelt in a liter of water that also contains a single cigarette butt, half of the fish will die.

We have been picking up cigarette butts for the last three years. This particular work party was held in the International District of Seattle and was in honor of Kick Butts Day, an annual celebration of youth leadership and activism in the fight against tobacco use. The event is organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and sponsored by the United Health Foundation.

The weather forecast for Saturday was dismal, one inch of rain was predicted. Nature graced us however. While it was cold and windy and everything was wet due to the rain that had fallen the previous night, there was no rainfall during the 1 ½ to 2 hours we worked.

I like to believe that Mother Nature was pleased with us because after we finished, the wind died down and it was sunny for a good part of the day!

Tomorrow I will be packing up the 20 pounds of cigarette butts and mailing them to TerraCycle where they will be turned into plastic pallets!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward

This morning, I walked while chanting the Sri Lalita Sahasranama. This is a sacred text that I ideally would be chanting daily. As I walked, I was pulled by the desire to be focusing on the beauty around me rather than reciting the chant. I have felt that pull many times before, but it was particularly strong today.

Then the question “Isn’t focusing on the beauty of Mother Nature a spiritual practice too?” came into my mind. Of course it is; about that I had no doubt. I realized what wanted to be doing was to immerse myself in nature, taking photographs to share on my blog and in the GreenFriends newsletter I organize monthly.

For the rest of my walk, I continued my chant, but if I felt called to stop and look at something and/or take a picture, I did. Sometimes I felt literally “called” in that it seemed like a song bird or crow was calling out to me.

I felt “rewarded” for being flexible in my definition of spiritual practice by capturing several beautiful photographs.

I suspect that tomorrow morning I will be going on a nature walk!

*****

Written for Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward

Loon Lake, British Columbia

A few weeks ago, I attended a retreat at Loon Lake Resort in British Columbia, Canada. The area was so beautiful.

Protecting Mother Nature From Straws

When I was in India recently, I used so many straws to drink coconut w to the world’s plastic garbage problem in my face. It also reminded me of a short article I wrote recently for one of our GreenFriends Newsletters. I am going to reprint that article here both to give you information and to remind myself of the importance of changing my behavior. Continue reading “Protecting Mother Nature From Straws” →

Sanskrit Prayer to Mother Earth

Last May, my Sanskrit Class and our GreenFriends group put on a Sanskrit skit for Amma when she held a retreat in the Seattle area.

We started the performance with a prayer to Mother Earth. I love the words of the chant and thought I would share the translation with you. Many Indian children chant this prayer before they get out of bed each morning, i.e. before their feet touch the floor.

May we all learn to develop such respect for Mother Earth.