Earth Day, 365 Days a year…
Earth Day began in 1970, and evolved over a period of seven years before being launched across the country by founder Senator Gaylord Nelson. You can read a more detailed historical account here. Over the years, Earth Day has continued to evolve…but generally speaking, Earth Day is held every spring close to April 22nd…and several groups sponsor their own “Earth Day” celebrations in the weeks preceding, or after the 22nd.
We are a huge fan of the earth, to say the least, but just as we encourage everyone to surge the sun…Earth Day is more than clean-ups once a year…Earth Day is a spirit, an awareness, and action in light of that awareness. Earth Day is every day, and each of us walks in bigger shoes than we think. The annual event of Earth Day is a good reminder of how many shoes are walking…but I encourage us to think about how we dance the rest of the year…after all, what’s an Earth Day without a little fun! It might encourage us to practice those new steps the rest of the year…
The earthdaynetwork has a great calculator on their site…something for all of us to put things in perspective, and think about adding a few new steps to our dance repertoire…and perhaps turning on a few thought lights, while turning off a few literal lights…and, of course, surging the sun…The image of earth from space at night astounds me…we light up much of our world in the evenings, and that’s a lot of energy! Where does all that energy come from…? Do you know your local power mix? How much of your local mix comes from renewable resources?
I’m humbled and awe struck when looking at various images of the earth from NASA, and somehow these images (or looking at the Milky Way from a camp site in the Utah desert, or wherever you have good night visibility and can catch this vision), puts things in perspective for me. We are all connected, and we’re the sum of each part we play.
In the spirit of Earth Day, we all can think globally, but we all dance locally. It’s hard not to feel insignificant, inconsequential, and powerless when hearing messages on where our earth may be headed…but ours is a mission of planting some energy seeds, learning, and having a bit of fun along the way.
I did find an interesting post about “Saving the Earth“…there are so many different things we can do. Anyone out there surging the sun…? The summer is a great time for buying or making your solar fountain, or buying that solar cooker you’ve had your eye on (you can even make your own)…you can charge your electronic gear with the sun…just search for “solar backpacks”… Try something new, and whichever Energy Seed you choose, more power to you. Happy Earth Day…wherever you are.