Impulse for your month

via Pixabay

Last weekend I took a walk in the forest. As somebody who lives in the city that‘s something that doesn‘t occur very often. Especially since the months of winter have just passed and spring has only just begun. It was good to be back in the green for walking through trees and relishing the warm April sun. But I also noticed that this forest had changed since I‘ve been there for last time. To be honest the last time was possibly quite some time ago, but I was a bit bewildered nevertheless. Almost all the pine and fir trees were dead which caused big patches of dead forest in the midst of all the other trees. Some of these patches were already chopped down so there was only dirt and dead wood – not a very beautiful sight.
I don‘t know what caused the dying of these trees. It might have been some sort of parasite, it might have been the drought which followed us over the last years. It might have even been the climate change. Whatever it was, it made me aware of the fact that everything is connected.

What does this mean?
Living in a flat in the city it is easy to forget how dependent our life as humans is from our surroundings, from nature, from earth. I step out my door, move most of my time on paved ground and get my food and all the things I need in stores – or I order it online. This way of life is easy and convenient. But it excludes the fact that everything I consume has a source. The food I eat was grown on a particular patch of soil. Somebody harvested it and somebody brought it to the store. The laptop I am currently writing on was manufactured and probably a thousand different pieces from uncountable places were used to craft it. The oxygen I breathe was formed in the leaves of some plant or tree. The water I drink did rain down to earth at some point.
When I am living disconnected from all these conditions and environments in nature, as I usually do and as most people do, it is easy to forget the fact that if something is wrong with nature then my existence is threatened. I cannot see it but it is true anyways.

Everything is connected. If the forest dies, I cannot breathe any more. If a severe drought causes bad harvests, I cannot eat any more. Our society has built a lot of mechanisms to damp or to avoid these effects. But when push comes to shove the dependence of my life and our life as humans on mother earth can‘t be neglected.

That‘s what came to my mind last weekend. And that‘s why we should be more aware and more careful about our surroundings and about nature. It doesn‘t end at my front door. It doesn‘t end within my city. It doesn‘t end at the forest nearby. It doesn‘t end at the country border.

Because I can only live if the earth as a planet lives.

Because we can only live if the earth as a planet lives.

Because everything is connected.