I was just recently thinking of this topic and it is probably something I have talked about before so therefore I am going to keep this post very short. We have this responsibility to take care of earth. Yes, we do live on it, but that does not necessarily mean it belongs to us. It works the other way around. That leads to me to my first quote of this blog post by Chief Seattle. He says, “The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” In other words we belong to this earth and whatever we do to this earth is directly related to what we do to ourselves. Earth has done so much for us like keeping us alive so therefore we have to fight for it and keep it clean. In other words we have to take care of it like it has taken care of us for quite a long time. That brings me to my next quote of this post. Ernest Hemingway says “Earth is a fine place and is worth fighting for.” After all it’s given us so much like life, love and natural beauty. The least we can do is fight for it and keep it in all its natural glory.
This is all so important, especially in today’s world as we unfortunately have global warming and that means our earth is not functioning as it should. After all the water runs out and once the trees are all cut down we have no other resources because it is not like we have another earth to live on. This earth we currently have is all we have. That leads me to another quote by Mahatma Gandhi who says “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” In other words the earth provides what we need as humans like food, water and shelter, but it cannot provide the superficial things we do not necessarily need (the things that we become greedy about).
There is so much more I can say, but I will conclude by sharing one more quote. This is an important one by Peace Gypsy who says, “Mother Earth, one of my absolute favorite places… where the sounds, the energy, the beauty, and the life pounds into your every fiber of being, letting you know that you are alive. I will always respect and honor this gift of creation that we call our home.” This quote explains the importance of earth and why we have to respect her. I am also sharing the following visual poem titled “Earth’s Beaty” because one thing we can still do for this earth is admire its beauty. I hope you all enjoy this one!
When I was in college I took an interesting class my senior year. It was Nature Writing. One of the writers we talked about and read in that class was Wendell Berry. I always try to broaden my horizons when it comes to reading and following an author/poet’s work. Wendell Berry is one of those people for me. He and Mary Oliver are similar in some ways because they both bring nature into their work. I feel Oliver’s is simplistic in some ways and Berry’s work is slightly more complex. Anyways, one of Berry’s pieces/poems that I came across was “The Country of Marriage.” I am including the text from that poem down below.
I. I dream of you walking at night along the streams of the country of my birth, warm blooms and the nightsongs of birds opening around you as you walk. You are holding in your body the dark seed of my sleep. II. This comes after silence. Was it something I said that bound me to you, some mere promise or, worse, the fear of loneliness and death? A man lost in the woods in the dark, I stood still and said nothing. And then there rose in me, like the earth’s empowering brew rising in root and branch, the words of a dream of you I did not know I had dreamed. I was a wanderer who feels the solace of his native land under his feet again and moving in his blood. I went on, blind and faithful. Where I stepped my track was there to steady me. It was no abyss that lay before me, but only the level ground. III. Sometimes our life reminds me of a forest in which there is a graceful clearing and in that opening a house, an orchard and garden, comfortable shades, and flowers red and yellow in the sun, a pattern made in the light for the light to return to. The forest is mostly dark, its ways to be made anew day after day, the dark richer than the light and more blessed, provided we stay brave enough to keep on going in. IV. How many times have I come to you out of my head with joy, if ever a man was, for to approach you I have given up the light and all directions. I come to you lost, wholly trusting as a man who goes into the forest unarmed. It is as though I descend slowly earthward out of the air. I rest in peace in you, when I arrive at last. V. Our bond is no little economy based on the exchange of my love and work for yours, so much for so much of an expendable fund. We don’t know what its limits are– that puts us in the dark. We are more together than we know, how else could we keep on discovering we are more together than we thought? You are the known way leading always to the unknown, and you are the known place to which the unknown is always leading me back. More blessed in you than I know, I possess nothing worthy to give you, nothing not belittled by my saying that I possess it. Even an hour of love is a moral predicament, a blessing a man may be hard up to be worthy of. He can only accept it, as a plant accepts from all the bounty of the light enough to live, and then accepts the dark, passing unencumbered back to the earth, as I have fallen tine and again from the great strength of my desire, helpless, into your arms. VI. What I am learning to give you is my death to set you free of me, and me from myself into the dark and the new light. Like the water of a deep stream, love is always too much. We did not make it. Though we drink till we burst we cannot have it all, or want it all. In its abundance it survives our thirst. In the evening we come down to the shore to drink our fill, and sleep, while it flows through the regions of the dark. It does not hold us, except we keep returning to its rich waters thirsty. We enter, willing to die, into the commonwealth of its joy. VII. I give you what is unbounded, passing from dark to dark, containing darkness: a night of rain, an early morning. I give you the life I have let live for the love of you: a clump of orange-blooming weeds beside the road, the young orchard waiting in the snow, our own life that we have planted in the ground, as I have planted mine in you. I give you my love for all beautiful and honest women that you gather to yourself again and again, and satisfy–and this poem, no more mine than any man’s who has loved a woman.
Anyways, it is a beautiful poem. I never really read any of Berry’s poems until recently because of a competition on DUP. My poem was runner up, but first let me just reiterate my point of Berry’s connection to nature like in the poem I just included above. He ties it all together and makes the connection between nature and marriage. I could go on and on, but I think I will let that poem speak for itself. I will conclude by bringing up a quote I think goes along with what this post talks about. Berry says “The earth is what we all have in common.” In other words the one thing that connects us together is our earth and that itself says so much.
There are so many other quotes I found, especially by Berry. I will bring two more quotes to the forefront. Nature is very important to our existence. Berry says, “Whether our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice that we do.” That is one of the other things we talked about in that Nature Writing class. Social/Environmental Justice and how important our environment is. It is the deciding factor in a lot of things.
I know I have brought this up before, but we must care for this earth. Berry says, “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.” Enjoy the poem down below and go out to enjoy nature, something that is around us every day. It is meant to be enjoyed and cherished as it is. There is a picture I included in additional to the poem.
Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels.
The Promise of Marriage (Wendell Berry Tribute)
I dreamt of you walking towards me As you leave the shadows behind and The lights within your soul are brighter. I want to meet you alongside the river’s Edge – my sanctuary and where I see Us building our first home. My hand Wants to touch your skin – an igniter, A spark and something that delivers
Its promise of protecting us. I was just A wanderer, lost and unsure of where I was going next, but then you came Wearing your heart on your sleeve. Your willing heart craved wanderlust Too. You are a woman with long hair, A smile that goes with it and a name Beautiful as a dove’s call. The leaves
On the tree become greener as you Approach and meet me down the aisle. There I vow to shield you as you did It countless times, even when I was Undeserving and with the clear blue Sky above our heads I love every smile Along with the tears that already slid Down your soft face. We take a pause
To take it all in, enjoying all the early Mornings and late evenings. We laid Our love at the Earth’s feet. We look as Fall, winter, spring and summer change, But our love that sometimes turns curly Stays the same. Are we what we prayed For? We have love that is raw like topaz People dig for and is a mountain range.
