Earth Day was on April 22, and there were many activities and celebrations designed to make us think about how we are treating the earth. Maybe this year on May 8, Mother’s Day, we can continue the conversations and actions to save Mother Earth. Climate change is real, and pollution is an issue we can’t put off any longer. Fires are raging in the droughts of the southwest and west. Blizzards keep popping up even at this time of year in the north. There are more tornados than there have ever been, and heavy rains and flooding are ravaging many parts of our country.
The whole country feels unsettled and wondering what will happen next. But still we carry on as usual, hoping it will all go away. Well, it’s not going to, not on its own without major changes on all our parts. We must find a way to save our planet and ourselves in the process. Some people don’t think climate change has anything to do with our human activities, even though the science shows differently. I wonder what it will take for people to realize the truth and take action to slow the progress of the destruction of the world.
What can we do? We can drive less, combine our daily errands into a single trip out; recycle everything that is recyclable; support the use of readily available energy sources, like wind and solar; conserve the natural resources we have, especially water. Contact your representatives in Congress asking them to support the current agenda for slowing climate change. We must do even the small things that can become larger things if more people are participating.
This poem came to me after I saw a picture of a polar bear starving on an ice floe.
Polar Bare
The Polar Bear’s full white coat is shaggy now,
and hangs loose on his shriveling body.
He paces on the thin strip of ice
that has broken loose from the main
and is floating free.
He has nothing to eat and nowhere to go.
He will die soon,
as will many others.
I can’t look at the picture any longer,
but it is too late;
the image is imprinted on my brain,
and I carry it with me.
Write about your feelings on climate change and how you think you can help change the course of our current lives to slow its damage.
What do you do now that positively affects the damage being done to our planet?
And, not to forget mothers, write about your mother and how she has impacted your life. (This could be about Mother Earth, too!)
Mother Earth certainly needs our love and attention, but this Mother’s Day I reflected on my own mother and wrote this Acrostic.
MOTHER’S DAY
Missing. I wonder what I’m missing. If
Only my Mother hadn’t died so young. It’s sort of a
Tease, wondering if or
How our relationship might have progressed.
Entering my “mature” years,
Remembering the lack of closeness between us, I
Sometimes fantasize that we would have come together as
Daughter and Mother, chipping
Away at that emotional barrier to form a deep and meaningful connection.
Yet, I know that is an unlikely scenario and I’m grateful to be at peace with the
woman she was.
I love this poem, honest and satisfying! Thank you for responding!