For the beauty of the yard ...
July 13, 2012 ;)
I'm a sucker for beautiful things. I enjoy posting pictures of majestic mountains, or tropical beaches, or quaint cities from different parts of the world.
But grandeur isn't limited to large or exotic places. I enjoy travel, but always look forward to coming home. There's beauty here, too, if on a smaller scale. I have to look no farther than the tiny yard that surrounds my house.
;)
Yesterday the June bugs came out in force, having apparently overslept, buzzing about the grass like rectangular emeralds on wings.
The bumblebees are doing their job, crawling in and out of my squash blossoms, bouncing on the lantana's tiny flowers, occasionally competing with passing butterflies.
;)
We've been given a world that is so amazing. We take from it food and water, stone and wood, all kinds of minerals and the energy required to transform them into useful things.
;)
We didn't earn these plains and forests and mountains, these rivers and lakes and seas. We didn't do a thing to deserve them.
But we must do what we can to preserve them. Gratitude should be motivation enough; concern for our children and our children's children should be all the answer one needs when wavering between financial gain and care for the planet.
To respond to the earth's beauty with the resolve to protect it -- now that has a beauty of its own.
Tony W. Cartledge | 2 Comments | tagged earth stewardship, environment | Print Article | Email Article | Share Article
Reader Comments (2)
Well said! Drought has prevailed here (Lexington, Ky.) this summer until yesterday with high temperatures, though nothing like in 1936, when I was preparing for first-grade. Keeping the earth beautiful is more than ever a challenge now, with 7 billion people atop it. Here is a hymn on the subject: As Keeper of the Earth. Feel free to use if it’s legible enough.
Jim Clark
Great column. I spent years teaching seminars on environmental and safety compliance and how to reduce or avoid having hazardous wastes. As a consultant, I showed companies how to save money by being more environmentally conscious, and rarely recommended anything that would take more than a year to pay back from the savings!!! Often also resulted in improved product or production efficiency. Being waste efficient is often the path to overall efficiency and reduces adverse environmental impact. So often we can access and use resources without damaging the environment; it only takes a change in attitude among managers and engineers willing to work on the problem.