“Earth, Planet Earth, she’s the only one we’ve got, with the only Sun we’ve got, brings the wind and blows around her, follow the wind and find your fathers, face to the sky and you wonder why. But you must kiss the ground, that’s what he says don’t you know, as he blows to and fro, that you must kiss the ground you walk upon. Sun up bring the dawn, down to the dusk, the sun sets and that’s a must.”

~ Winds; Rhombus.

 

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, living in a tiny little town in rural New Zealand, I spent most of my time outside in nature. I rode my bike everywhere, I trekked into the dense scrub behind my house and made houses high in the trees.

My parents’ home, which they still live in, sits back from the other three houses on our street, and our yard stretches the full distance behind them. When I was young there was about 3 huge willow trees that lined our front boundary fence line. The bases of these big beautiful trees, sat in a small galley from our front yard, and on the other side of these trees was one of the neighbour’s fences.

My family was friends with each of these three neighbours, apart from the lady in the middle. I had no idea why we didn’t talk to her or what her problem was, but I remember thinking she was mean. Child logic and all.

And, for whatever reason (I’m pretty sure there is never a good one), this old lady had decided that the local dump wasn’t where she wanted to dump her rubbish. No, instead she was dumping it over her fence at the base of these beautiful big willow trees.

When, one day, I was outside exploring and found this horrible site, my heart sunk and my social duty kicked in. I HAD to clean this mess up! I was completely astonished and confused as to WHY someone would improperly dump their rubbish, and I remember asking my Mum, to which she replied something like, “some people just don’t care”. A true statement, but that attitude wasn’t going to clean it up! So, I took it upon myself. I grabbed a rubbish bag and climbed down the galley to the piles of rubbish and begun to pick it up. 6 year old me, was going to fix it!

I was down there for hours, and I didn’t even mind. I felt like I was making a difference and I was helping the planet!

It was all going great until I accidentally grabbed a stinging nettle bush as I tried to pick up a piece of old lady trash.

Now, If you have ever been attacked by stinging nettle you know how painful, especially to a 6 year old, it can be. I was in tears as the rash started to come out, but I didn’t want to stop. I was so angry with myself for not being more careful!

But, as I was such an outdoor adventurer, one with nature child, I knew that relief could be gained from the humble Dock leaf that Mother Nature plants near every stinging nettle, coincidence? I think not!

I quickly rubbed the leaves into my hand and waited for the relief.

It helped to some degree, but as it was the palm of my hand it made the job of cleaning up a lot harder. Still I trudged on, determined to continue cleaning up the mess.

That afternoon I walked back to the house, hands swollen and sore but feeling like I had done good job. My mother was NOT impressed that I had continued on and tried to ban me from undertaking my new job the next day. I was distraught at the thought of not being able to finish my cleaning mission that I begged and begged until we came to the compromise that I would wear gloves the next day and that Mum would supervise me. Mission back in track!

I don’t remember if I was ever able to clean up all the rubbish or not, but I do remember the old lady watching me pick up her rubbish. I also don’t know if my Mum or Dad had a word, or two, to the old angry lady about the rubbish, or if she just felt bad on her own, but somehow after all that cleaning up the old lady begun to talk to me, and she stopped being the old angry lady and become one of my favourite people to go visit

Fast forward 24 years and I now live in Brisbane Australia, in a townhouse with a tiny paved backyard and no grass.

I still love Mother Nature very much but I am rather disconnected to her being so closely surround by the concrete jungle of a large city.

I mostly drive everywhere, however on one particular morning I woke up and decided I was going to walk the 2.5km each way trip to my local coffee shop, to get my morning coffee. My plan was to go bright and early but I fluffed around and didn’t get ready until late (8am). I had almost talked myself out of going, but thought NO I need to go and do this!

So I started my walk. I have never walked this path before, yet I have driven it a hundred time and more. So as I walked, I was astonished to see how much RUBBISH littered the sidewalk.

It was extremely upsetting and I felt sadder and sadder the further I walked.

Then, that social duty kicked in and I told myself that at the café I would ask for a rubbish bag that I could take with me so I could pick up the rubbish on the way back.

For some reason at the coffee shop nerves set in and I was almost too afraid to ask for a plastic bag. I wasn’t sure where this fear was coming from but I pushed through it and got a plastic bag. Then I set off to clean up my suburb!

Yet when I stared walking I felt that same fear creep in, my adult brain was throwing me curve balls and doubt was asking me silly questions like “what will people think, this is so gross, you’re picking up trash!”.

These doubts had never even entered my psyche when I was 6 and on a mission, yet 30 year old me was freaking out that complete strangers would think I was strange. That’s when another voice piped up, I’d like to think it was 6 year old me, saying: “but what about the planet, what about all the defenceless animals this rubbish is impacting!?”

You’re right, little me! And with that I pushed aside my ego and the fear and I began to pick up all the trash I could see as I walked.

And. Wow, there was a shit load of rubbish!

I filled my plastic bag to the brim and I know for sure I didn’t pick up every single bit of rubbish. I found I even had to become discriminant towards what rubbish I was picking up, paper could stay, glass could stay, plastic COULD NOT!

Plastics do not decompose they just brake down and get smaller and smaller and end up in our water ways, rivers and in the oceans.

The majority of the things I picked up were plastic supermarket bags, slurpee cups and lids, straws and icy pole wrappers.

 

 

Each time I would bend down to pick up another item of rubbish I felt such disappointment! It was evident that the main culprits of this trashing of our planet was the youth of today. Kids that had grown up completely unconnected to nature, so much so they would feel it ok to disregard their rubbish on the side of the road. I could see this behaviour being perpetrated again and again, as these kids grew up to become adults who didn’t have any regard for the planet, then their kids would continue doing the same and so on and so on.

This isn’t ok! Our planet can’t keep going the way it’s going and continue to sustain life! All the animals including us need this planet, the planet doesn’t need US!

Actually I’m pretty sure she would be a lot happier if we all pissed off but that’s just because we treat her like our personal waste dump: we pollute her, we cut down her trees, we poison her waters, we mine her insides. So what, we can have nice things and live in comfort?! All the while the rest of the Earth, the planet included, becomes destroyed!?

My walk on this day made me realise; it’s us! We are the only ones doing this and we are the only ones who can fix it!

The Dalai Lama once said, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

We can be more mindful of our waste and how we dispose of it. We can recycle, we can take our own shopping bags with us to the supermarket instead of using the plastic ones. We can decline a straw and we can take a reusable coffee cup with us to get our coffee every morning. We can also pick up any trash we see on the side of the road. Drop the ego, I know it’s not your rubbish but: if not you, who? If not now, when?

You can make a difference even if it’s just a small one.

For every piece of plastic I picked up it was one less that a bird or another animal would accidentally eat.

And imagine what the world would look like if we all took an extra 15 minutes on our walks to pick up a little trash!? Or, crazy idea, we didn’t dispose of our rubbish on the side of the road

So I ask, how can you help Mother Earth today? How can you help ensure the following generations have a clean and healthy planet to live on!?

Because you must kiss the ground you walk upon……….

SA xxx