Creation

When I was a tween, my mother decided she would volunteer to be the leader of my Girl Scout troop. Ugh.

It had become increasing difficult to find mothers who wanted to chaperone the more outdoorsy events. When the topic of sleeping bags, campfires, and mosquito-laden adventures was raised during our monthly meetings, the silence of the adults in the room was deafening. 

My mother was a rough-and-tumble kind of girl back in the day. She wore overalls. She braved the frigid New England ocean. She could identify most trees at just a glance and kept a copy of the "Peterson Field Guide to Birds" by her favorite chair. I still have her dog-eared copy.

She taught me to love and respect the created world, as she did. Taking on my Girl Scout troop was no big deal.

This past week we marked "Earth Day 2024," some 54 years after its inception. The current theme is "Planet v. Plastics." It's hard to imagine a solution to the overwhelming heap of polymers with which we have poisoned our earth. But as my mother's example has shown me, the first step is to throw yourself into the fray.

"Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and my soul." - John Muir, naturalist and conservationist