Earth Day Amnesia

When I was a small child, I had a firm belief I could communicate with animals through my mind. I wept for fallen trees and my mother had to cover my eyes if we passed any roadkill before I'd lose it. I read every encyclopedia article I could get my little hands on that had anything to do with animals and the earth. I was an avid "Zoobooks" reader, I was glued to every nature show I could find.

When my mom and dad dragged me to the Kennedy Space Center one summer, I was miserable and bored out of my mind. Amongst the huge structures and impressive space artifacts and towering space shuttles, these ginormous reminders of man's conquest for technology and conquering of new frontiers, I became enthralled with an alligator in a nearby pond. Leaning over the ledge I watched in awe as this animal, millions of years of evolution and survival, merely existed the only way it knew how. A couple bystanders peered over with me, and I started spewing every Alligator fact I could recall, and when my parents returned to check on me, I had a crowd of people gathered and asking questions.

I have always been a deep-feeling person. I have this quality that has turned out to be a curse and a gift. I feel everyone around me, soaking in every anxious thought, every sorrowful expression, every joy and every loss. Something moves me and reverberates in my soul. I have found this trait to be of great aid in my career as a Habilitative Specialist for those with disabilities. But this quality keeps me up at night, brings me to tears and my worries ebb and swell. It pains me to see all this destruction, all this hate, and worst of all, all the indifference of what is REALLY going on.

Earth Day is more to me than a day to plant a tree or pick up garbage. Corny as it sounds, every day should be Earth Day. Where have we gone that we don't remember our roots? This earth has molded and strengthened our species. Our cultures used to be wrought with folklore of the wind, the sun and the leaves, spiders and the stars. How have we gotten such amnesia? Where did we turn away from our heritage? How do we go days without feeling grass between our toes, or looking up at the clouds? This isn't just some hippie shit; I'm talking about what we inherited from our past.

This Earth Day, and every day hereafter, I challenge you to do those things. Walk up to a tree and study the knots. Look at the years that have molded the scars on the bark. Feel the leaves between your fingers and watch the ants that scale its trunk. Observe the deep connection species have with each other, and question where yours have gone. Thank that tree for devoting its WHOLE life to creating air to fill your lungs, then think of football fields worth of forests of these trees being clear-cutted and destroyed like they're merely products. Since when does that tree not matter? That tree you see struggled through drought, fought the wind, soaked up the rain and persevered.

Getting to know yourself is getting to know your past. And your past is all around you.

I've provided some ways for ya'll to make a difference!

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• YourTree.com allows you to pay for a tree to be planted
• Click HERE for a "Supermarket Scorecard" to see where your favorite grocery store ranks in supporting sunstainable fishing.
• Click HERE to donate to Greenpeace, an INDEPENDENT organization dedicated to saving what matters!
• Google your city and find a city-wide cleanup!
• Click HERE to go to Care2.com and just CLICK and it instantly donates to an organization/fund you choose. For FREE!! NO COST TO YOU!!