Blog Action Day was YESTERDAY

Dang it, I messed up.

I have this nice Blog Action Day icon on the sidebar and everything, and I was all set to post on October 15th, and then I forgot all about it, so here I am now. Better late than never...maybe.

The topic was supposed to be the environment. I signed up for this topic because I'm passionate about the environment, and when I say environment what I really mean is nature.

It's hard not to be passionate about nature. It's our nature to love nature. This very moment I'm looking out my window to the lemon-yellow boughs of the locust tree in the side yard, glowing in the midmorning light. A song bird is calling nearby. The sugar maple is touched with crimson and pumpkin at its tips against a sky of washed blue, and the air is October-clean.

That's nature, just from my open window. I have written poems and essays in a feeble attempt to process the ecstacy nature bestows upon me, just because I can't keep it to myself.

And here we are living in a time when we're collectively damaging such an incredible gift. Until extremely recently, we seemed to understand that this would be a bad idea. But somehow within this generation the Industrial Age and the Petroleum Age have peaked and collaborated to create an instant world that hands us anything we want, and we are deeply conditioned (one might say genetically conditioned) to take what the world hands us when it's available. No matter what the cost. Especially when the cost is not directly apparent.

I don't care for pessimism, mainly because it's depressing and doesn't help anything, so I won't launch into a tirade. However, I think most thinking people realize that the time is upon us to make changes, both personally and globally.

In the past year our dry, windy valley became host to an enormous wind farm. The other day, when I filled up at the Safeway fuel station, there was a sign stating the station was powered on wind energy. These kinds of changes give me real hope that on a public level, we're changing our direction. Recycling bins are everywhere, farmers markets are thriving, and millions of minds are working on the problem of how to keep humanity thriving while remaining in balance with the earth.

And it's a good thing, too. Because the earth is pretty awesome. Just look out your window.