Friday 22 April 2011

Part Of The Plan?

I am reliably informed that today, aside from being Good Friday (and a good Friday it is here in the English sunshine), it is International Mother Earth Day.

Established in 2009 by the General Assembly, its aim is to:

"...promote[s] a view of the Earth as the entity that sustains all living things found in nature. Inclusiveness is at the heart of International Mother Earth Day; fostering shared responsibilities to rebuild our troubled relationship with nature..."  General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann

 ...and it was this 'troubled relationship with nature' that I was thinking about on my commute home last night.

In the first four months of 2011, we have seen nature at her most fearsome - earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, tornados just to name a few - and many reports suggest that these events are random or at least illogical in nature.  We don't expect them and particularly given the catalogue of tragic events during the first part of this year, we can't understand how and why everything is happening 'at once'. 

Is it really our impact on the environment, changing the climate, that unleashes nature's fury?  Is Mother Nature really coming home to roost?

But, I thought, what if we turned this thinking around? What if this is all part of some greater scheme?  That Mother Nature is so much bigger and grander than we can ever contemplate and we, despite all of our blinkered self-absorption, are just tiny pieces of a much, much greater puzzle?

What if it's really just all part of the plan?

Something to think about...

3 comments:

Linda A. said...

This is a GREAT question! It's odd, I have no qualms thinking about faith or wondering whether we live our lives according to some bigger plan, etc. But trying to imagine Nature's bigger plan? It stumps me. Totally mystifying.

Unknown said...

Linda I can't imagine it either... whilst I'm not particularly religious, I do believe that there is something 'bigger' than all of us but this kind of questioning is what long commutes will do to a person - plenty of thinking time!

Linda A. said...

It's great that you consider the long commute the blessing in disguise that it is - time to read and reflect. I looked at my earlier comment and when I said I have no qualms, I meant that I have faith and do believe there is a bigger plan. (It came across a little iffy.) When Haiti happened, then the Australian floods, Christchurch and Japan, my daughter thought it was all part of something bigger. It may be, but in her case I think it was really just suddenly paying attention to the outside world! Vrolijk Pasen - Happy Easter!