Judith Valente's Blog: Mindfulness in the Age of Twitter - Posts Tagged "environment"

I am sitting on the porch of a cabin in the woods, observing the insect drama unfolding at my feet. Large black ants, iridescent green beetles, and a diverse group of arachnids rush back and forth. They remind me of pedestrians in midtown Manhattan scurrying to their offices during morning rush hour. Sometimes like crowded New Yorkers, the bugs bump into each other, briefly pause, and move on.
University of Delaware ecologist Douglas Tallamy recently spoke in my community. Our first instinct, he noted, is to either swat away insects, or else kill them outright. In doing so, we destroy some of nature’s most important agents. Insects pollinate the plants and flowers we admire. They provide food for the birds whose songs we enjoy. Pesticides are largely responsible for killing off about 45 percent of the insect species that once existed. As the biologist Rachel Carson proved in her groundbreaking work, “Silent Spring,” the loss of even one inspect species has a ripple effect on many other creatures.
Globally, scientists have identified 925,000 species of insects. These tiny creatures remind us that we humans represent only a small number of the earth’s family. Pope Francis has called on Americans to foster a “culture of care:” care for oneself, care for others, and care for the planet he calls “our common home.” More than 1,500 years ago, The Rule of St. Benedict urged people living in monasteries to “regard all utensils and goods of the monastery as sacred vessels of the altar, aware that nothing is to be neglected.” Nothing is to be neglected. Our planet is like a well-calibrated watch where the malfunction of one part affects all the rest.
This week, can we commit to doing one act a day that shows care for our “common home?” Maybe we gather our groceries in a reusable bag. Perhaps we drop off our newspapers and plastic bottles at a recycle bin. Maybe we let some harmless spider live.

Spring took its time arriving this year in central Illinois. Finally, the trees are bursting with green leaves and flowering with magenta, pink or white blossoms. The red buds, with their purple-red sprouts, are particularly stunning this year, as if the long winter’s wait made them all the more determined to showcase their spring beauty.

I have been trying to observe the daily progress of the leaves, but they emerge so quickly. One day there is just a thumbnail-sized bud. The next, the tree is in full bloom. It is as though nothing can stop this breathless march toward new life once it begins.

I took a long hike last Sunday with my friend Mary Jo Adams, an Illinois Master Naturalist who is trained to care for our natural areas. Our walk reinforced what I strongly believe: we, as a society, could dispense with all manner of anti-depressants by just taking regular walks in nature.

My friend Brother Paul Quenon calls nature his “guru.” I call nature my healer. There is something magical and medicinal about spending time among oaks, maples, hickories, and flowering plums, not to mention the bluebells, purple trillium, spring beauties and other wild flowers that spring up this time of year.

“Imagine a miracle drug that could take away many of the stresses or modern life… Just take a hike in the woods or a walk in the park. No prescription necessary,” writes Florence Williams in her book, “The Nature Fix.” With so much violence and insecurity —shootings at a major university and at yet another synagogue, and fires being set at African American churches — we seek comfort where we can find it. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative

For me, increasingly, I need the solace of nature.
My friend and I walked to a spot where three massive oaks had sadly fallen —downed by lightening or a tree disease. These oaks had witnessed more than a hundred years of history on the prairie. Mary Jo likes to stop in this place and sit for a while on one of the fallen trunks. I asked her what she thinks about. Nothing in particular, she responded. “I ask myself, what am I seeing, what am I hearing, what am I smelling.” That’s as apt a description of being contemplative as I can think of.

Mary Jo is also an avid birdwatcher and could identify for me the calls of the warblers making their spring passage through our area, as well as the red-headed woodpeckers, plentiful in our area. It felt as if they were singing for only us.

Aldo Leopold, one of the nation’s first environmentalists, was so right when he talked about all of creation being a “community.” It is hard to feel alone or pessimistic when I am among the trees, flowers and birds. Aldo Leopold

The poet Mary Oliver once wrote about “the many trees I have kissed.” Mary Oliver

The late peace activist and environmentalist Wangari Maathai would always tell her audiences, “When you see a tree, you thank that tree for helping keep you alive!”

When Mary Jo and I left the woods, she turned to say to the trees, “You might be invisible to others, but you are not invisible to me.” I returned home that day with a sense of having visited a sacred place. This week, can we remember to pay attention to our cousins, the trees, birds, flowers, insects and animals of the forest. Let us thank them all for keeping us company and helping us, each in their own way, to stay alive.