Fifty Days of Gratitude: Day 22 and 23

It's Earth Day and, well, I am so grateful for this earth, our "island home", as we often pray.

I'm also terrified for what is ahead - for the stark reality that my grandchildren will grow up with a very different environmental reality than any other generation.

I'm also hopeful - that the generation of my children will find a way to mend what is happening before it is irreversible. (Although every single time I go to a place where they still use actual styrofoam that hope lessens.)

Here is a prayer, attributed to the Tewa tribe:

O our Mother, the Earth, O our Father the Sky,

Your children are we, and with tired backs

We bring you the gifts you love.

Then weave for us a garment of brightness;

May the warp be the white light of morning,

May the weft be the red light of evening,

May the fringes be the falling rain,

May the border be the standing rainbow.

So weave for us a garment of brightness,

That we may walk fittingly where birds sing,

That we may walk fittingly where grass is green,

O our Mother the Earth, O our Father the Sky.

Tewa Indian prayer (19th century), USA

I saw this unusually dark pink dogwood while I was walking through our neighborhood recently