I just heard an owl calling in the early morning dark. Happy Earth Day. The quiet has dropped like a shroud over our small town. The sounds of cars, planes and the train muted. Soon as the sun begins to rise, the first call of the fledgling hawk will pierce the air calling for breakfast. In the last month or so of quietude the earth has refreshed, skies are bluer, spring flowers in new colors sprout beneath my feet that I must have missed before as I walked quickly along the roads and trails with always the next thing in mind.
As we huddle in fear for our survival, look outside, walk in your neighborhood, say hello, from a distance, share this brief interlude in life when Earth Day is forcing us to simplify, to reset and think differently. And learn from nature, how quickly the natural world has changed in just a month and realize that we will evolve and change and get through this but life will be different.
Soon a gradual re-opening may provide an opportunity to decide how we want to embrace some of what we have witnessed in nature’s ability to so quickly adapt and change. Can we think anew?
Shocked into appreciating our fragility on earth and shocked how our impact resonates across the globe this is truly, Earth’s Day.
Lesley Miles
Morgan Hill
Submitted on Earth Day, April 22
