A Mother's Earth Day Promise

There are children who grow up almost completely within the purposeful and accidental forms of developed human societies. There are children who don't know how to play without electronics. There are children who won't be taught where food comes from. There are children who have never seen stars. But the youngest ones, wherever they be, will notice the wild interstices. The city's pigeons or the bit of green in sidewalk cracks are a fascination. The bells and whistles of modernity do not take precedence for a baby.

Having a child has helped to ground me in a reality that melds past, present and future. My little one carries our ancestors' genes. In a way, she brings the past to life. She helps me to recognize our connectedness to the very beginning of time, and the importance of the present moment. Our world is built from generation after generation of individual people's actions, and the future depends on us.

The smallest choices I make today seem to matter a little more now that I'm a mother. My daughter will imitate the subtlest nuances of my behavior. She may carry into adulthood my good examples, and she might pick up some mannerisms I wish she hadn't noticed. No mother is perfect, but my daughter will know that batteries don't go in the trash, and beans can be sprouted in the kitchen.

As my daughter mirrors me, I mirror her. She smiles, I smile. I laugh, she laughs. She notices the trees as the wind blows by, points it out to me. I teach her to lay underneath and look up at the branches. We watch songbirds at the feeder while we eat our breakfast in the morning. I tell her their names. Our wonder increases reciprocally.

All living things have needs. We humans need food, water, shelter, and love. The choices we make at any given moment can serve our immediate needs only, or they can reach deeper and farther, uniting past, present and future. Babies have been eating rice cereal for thousands of years, and if we keep the rice paddies clean, they'll enjoy it for thousands more. But who knows what motivations may obscure future judgements? Even breastfeeding went out of fashion for a time.

Lifestyles are changing quickly these days. As soon as she can talk, my daughter will probably want a cell phone-- or whatever new-fangled communication device is in vogue. She will want to do what everyone else is doing. I must teach her to know herself, so that as new technologies arise, she will know whether and how they can truly serve her.

Lifestyle practices are handed down through the generations. Many are dropped along the way, either because it was no longer useful, or because a generation or two were distracted and the practice was forgotten. My Earth Day promise is to embody the foundations of life, the oldest ways, the tried and true. May they serve to simplify and harmonize. May they preserve through entire lifetimes the natural wonder of youth.

My promise is to care, to live as true as I can, and to pray for all the children with no stars to wish upon.