What an amazing sight–the sun coming over the ridge seemed to focus all its illuminating energy on a single dogwood.
This morning my daily exercise routine was punctuated by a surge of joy.
Looking out the window, I noticed a handful of dried leaves suddenly fly off a little red maple, swirl rapidly around each other, then quickly disperse.
Moments like this one gladden and feed my heart. But these nature delights, for me, have their shadow side as well.
Never far removed from my great pleasure in nature is grief. How quickly my joyous heart becomes my broken heart. I grieve that the natural beauty I see from every window of my home is far less healthy than it once was; I grieve for the many species silently disappearing all around me; I grieve that we are not acting nearly fast enough to prevent climate change from making my little granddaughters’ future very difficult.
For me it can be a challenge to let myself feel all of this, both the great joy and the great grief. But as the poet Stanley Kunitz says, “the heart breaks and breaks, and lives by breaking.” To be heart-broken is to be truly alive.
When I think of our efforts to protect the planet, the decades-old saying, “little victories, big defeats” crosses my mind. We do win victories; the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act have truly improved the quality of our air and water; some species, through great effort, have been saved from extinction; and certain pristine lands have been set aside for protection.
But meanwhile, we are rapidly losing so much more than we are gaining. Scientists tell us we are in the Sixth Great Extinction in the earth’s four billion year history. Species are disappearing at a rate that has been matched only five times before. Ever. What’s different this time is that it’ a living creature–namely humans–that are the main cause. And that’s why scientists have named this period the Anthropocene. Man has become the main driver of changes in the biosphere.
And now we are entering a new era, the era of President Trump. As frightening and discouraging as it is to hear him vow to scrap the Paris climate accord, to open up all of our public lands to oil and gas drilling, and to undo the federal Clean Power Plan, I am heartened by the determination I see on the part of environmental organizations to work harder than they ever have to prevent Trump from sacrificing our treasured planet for the short-term greed of the fossil fuel industry.
I will continue to let my heart break open to the beauty that surrounds me. And I will remember the words of Jane Goodall, “there is still a lot left that is worth fighting for.” We cannot know how successful we will be in saving our planet, but we can never give up on Mother Earth.–April Moore