Earth's Lesson

One of the Earth's infinite lessons to all Living Beings is found this Spring season in the humble leaves on the Forest floor. Most of the leaves fell last Fall. With the snow and rain, with the freezing and thawing, and with the acts of processes and organisms we cannot even see, the leaves are beginning to biodegrade. Those wonderful nutrients that the beautiful leaves took from the Earth, Water, Air and Fire are now being released back to the Earth.

As we shift into Spring, little plants awaken through the decomposing leaves. They recycle those nutrients found here and found since time began. These little plants will grow, flower, and bear fruit. Some will serve as food for critters. Others will serve as homes. All will be companions. The Spring will pass into Summer and the Summer will pass into Fall.

Assuming conditions are right, those brand new leaves will grow toward their fullness. Then they too will cascade to the ground this Fall. Over the Winter and the following seasons, the Earth's processes will break them down making them available for all those generations to come.

I think about our little actions as Humans. In our Human-centered world, we put on blinders to the consequences of our actions on others and the Earth. We contrive remarkable products and technologies but they do not biodegrade in the Earth's order of things. Many of them will be around for decades, generations, millennia, and beyond. Just look at our landfills. They are becoming "land-fulls". Separated from the lessons of the Earth, we are increasingly mired in our own waste.

We have some very important things yet to learn.