Happy Earth Day!
Dear friends, Below are my words celebrating Earth Day over the past 14 years. Hope you enjoy!
O, great being, goddess, mother, home, we earthlings celebrate today your lavish generosity and kindness for giving birth and nurture to us and our sister and fellow living beings. Our gratitude is inexhaustible. Yet we have failed to honor you and have caused great harm to your water, air, soil, plants and animals. We are endangering all your living beings. Please forgive us and wake us from our delusion to right relationship with you. May it be so!
"Why am I so happy? Because the Earth is round!" Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Every event over 5,000 years of human history and 2 million years of human evolution has happened as part of the unfolding of one gorgeous, glorious planet in this vast, mysterious Cosmos. Boundless gratitude!
We do not live on the Earth. We ARE the Earth flowering.
The first time I encircled your roundness, 56 years ago, I fell in love with your oceans, mountains, cities, people and cultures. And I am more in love each day.
the poet sang
the body electric
our body the Earth
alive with all aliveness
that we have ever known
hail, great Gaia, mother,
home for all of us
Earthlings all
gratitude
yes
Celebrating our gorgeous home planet and mother on Earth Day today! Gratitude for air, water, soil, plants, and animals, including us weird humans. May all beings everywhere realize happiness, peace, compassion, and understanding. What are you grateful for?
We do not live on Earth. We are the Earth. We are Earth-air breathers, Earth-water drinkers, Earth-plant and animal eaters, Earth-soil dwellers and tillers, Earth-mountain viewers, Earth-sea sailors, Earth-sky flyers. We have evolved as part of Earth for thousands, millions, billions of years. We are Earth’s children and stewards. Why then have we become Earth destroyers, Earth polluters? We have lost our way. We think that we are Earth conquerors, but we are sadly wrong. As Earth-ice melts, seas rise, coasts flood, islands submerge, storms slam, droughts hit, wildfires rage, crops die, migration swells, we and all Earth-creatures will suffer and die. Wake up, wake up! Protect Earth, our Mother.
Just went to close the front door and gasped at the beauty of an Earth-evening -- blue sky, yellow flowers, green grass, tall brown trees with white blossoms, darkness falling rapidly as we turn away from our sun-star. Do we not live in heaven? May all beings everywhere realize peace, happiness, understanding, and compassion.
EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY
Every day is Earth day
and always has been
the only place we
have ever known a day
or night or anything
else at all
these years, four billion,
two million, 200,000,
5,000, twenty fourteen
hooray for our heavenly
home, beautiful beyond
beauty, alive beyond
aliveness, abundant
for all
and yet, and yet
we humans divide and
hoard and pillage and rape
and harm our mother,
our own body;
but now is waking up time
making up time
time to cherish and conserve
for the next 1,000, million,
billion years or so
yes
let’s
(from my book Earthling Love: Living Poems)
“Earthling Vows”
Earth, our only home
Precious beyond priceless
Gift of the universe
Our mother who gives us life
Earth, our only home
We cherish you and vow
To keep you safe from harm
We swoon at the stunning beauty
Of your land
Earth, our only home
We give you thanks for air and water
We delight in your plants and animals
We celebrate each of your humans
Earth, our only home
We vow to let go of violence and greed
And create a new civilization of
Compassion and understanding
Earth, our only home
(from my book Earthling Love)




Thank you Rob. Very thoughtful essay, full of optimism and gratitude.