Gaia. Mother Earth. The planet. Nature. Outside. Habitat. Whatever you want to call this place, this conglomerate of matter, this energy field where millions of beings live out their lives — this very important element of human life is angry this week. Maybe she has been for a while, or maybe she was just sad and exasperated before. Maybe her soul has run the gamut of emotion and is as confused as we are. But however she’s been feeling the last few years, this week she is angry. You can see it in the brittle, dusty ground of a Minnesota spring, parched for moisture three months earlier than usual. You can see it in the dry leaves, in how they writhe in the breeze, casting her irritation out over the ground. And you can see it in the tsunamis and hurricanes and tornadoes that have increased in power and frequency over the last year years. You can see it in the way the earth shook in Nepal five days ago, leaving part of her surface re-formed and thousands reeling in the aftermath. Her anguish flows out over the cities in their concrete jackets, over the lakes and their expensive waterfronts, over the mountains that have been stripped of their peaks, over the garbage that floods her waterways, and over the corn and strawberry fields that are toxic wastelands due to pesticides. Perhaps she is tired of waiting for people to come around, to wake up and own what’s happening and to see her, to acknowledge — to remember– that she is here and that her wellbeing matters just as much as any human’s does. Continue reading “The Earth is Calling” →