I made fresh pesto tonight, but not with the basil I planted this year. A small sacrifice. After "the animals" terrorized my precious pots of herbs and peppers last year (I overlook a wood), I decided that this year I would be crafty and beat the animals at their own game. By suspending my herbs in a hanging basket on my patio, I thought certainly I would have my fresh basil for pesto this year. Nature had another idea. A mother bird thought my sheltered basket with fresh herbs growing abundantly was a perfect place to burrow a nest and lay her eggs. Her singing wakes me me in the morning and her nest grows bigger and bigger. A choice. To let the basil die for lack of watering and preserve the nest, or let the basil grow full with watering and run the risk of damaging the eggs and killing the potential lives of the song birds I enjoy so much. The birds won. The seasons of life intrigue me, and I write often about them. All this, as I correspond via e-mail with my endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic - an impressive man with more letters after his name than in the entirety of his full name - Ian D. Hay BSc MB ChB PhD FACE FACP FRCP (E,G,I & L) Dr R F Emslander Professor of Endocrinology Research Division of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic. Through reading his research and then dialoguing via e-mail, I am awed by a man that doesn't stop asking questions of me, the research, and the medical field. His passion and reverence for life are clearly exhibited by not only his desire to "cure" me of disease but ALSO increase the quality of my life beyond. Probing questions about who I am beyond my illness and desiring to know what makes my heart sing - he is a man that loves life and the humans that walk it.
Life is precious, and what that really means unfolds before me each day. This morning, as I pondered the nest with the crackled brown stems of what were basil plants hanging about it, I listened to Sunday "Weekend Edition" on NPR. "This I Believe" is one of my favorite segments that is played intermittently. Today, the essay was written by Michelle Gardner-Quinn, a University of Vermont student, who wrote it for her environmental studies class. Titled "A Reverence for All Life," NPR quietly noted before it was read by Michelle's professor that two days after reading the essay in class, Michelle was kidnapped and brutally murdered. A tragedy beyond comprehension! Michelle's Earth Foundation has been established in her honor. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12444698 Tears flowed as I listened to the essay this morning and knew then that I must distribute it.
"I believe in upholding reverence for all life. I believe that humanity has a responsibility to the Earth and to the life that we share our experience with.
As a child, I found joy digging in the dirt, examining the miracle of life. Everything creepy-crawly was fascinating to me, and I spent countless hours in my backyard exploring what wonders lay beneath. Although some people might be repulsed by this notion, these creatures did not represent slimy pests to me. Rather, such experiences in the natural world taught me about the diversity of life that could be found in any microcosm. I felt attuned with the cycles of life, my favorite being the spring.
As a child, I found joy digging in the dirt, examining the miracle of life. Everything creepy-crawly was fascinating to me, and I spent countless hours in my backyard exploring what wonders lay beneath. Although some people might be repulsed by this notion, these creatures did not represent slimy pests to me. Rather, such experiences in the natural world taught me about the diversity of life that could be found in any microcosm. I felt attuned with the cycles of life, my favorite being the spring.
During these budding months, I could watch the egg sacks of praying mantises as they opened or collect robin-blue egg shells that had fallen from the nests. This was where I felt a strong connection to the natural cycles of creation. This connection has inspired awe in me that I feel strongly to this day. It is a feeling deep within me that has inspired my passions and pursuits as an environmentalist.
As I grew older, I discovered that this reverence for life was not shared by all of humanity. Rather than respecting the natural world as a community of life, the environment has been valued in terms of the resources that could be exploited. Industrialization has turned life into an industry, and systematically destroys the essential diversity that provides richness to the human experience. Our self-inflicted ecological crisis has reached such a point that we no longer endanger isolated bioregions. So many toxins have been spewed into the atmosphere as a result of our industrial greed that the climate of our planet is changing at an alarming rate. Climate change threatens all life forms by altering fundamental natural cycles, giving little time for evolutionary responses.
These detrimental impacts are visible today as polar bears lose their habitat of sea ice, the sex of sea turtle eggs is skewed, whales have less krill to feed on, and coral reefs are bleached, to cite just a few examples. Climate change also has a detrimental impact on cultures and humanity's well-being as more people are becoming environmental refugees. Little is being done to curb this crisis and, within our lifetime the ecological functioning of planet Earth will be forever altered.
I believe that my connection to all life forms prevents me from sitting back and watching this catastrophe. I believe that we should understand our place in our regional ecosystems and communities, as well as pledge our allegiance to the Earth as a whole. I believe that all creatures, whether they are found in my backyard or halfway around the globe, should not suffer as a result of human greed. The reality of climate change is here and now; it is the environmental battle of our generation and generations to come. In honor of all life, I am dedicating myself to preventing this worldwide ecological crisis."
