The opening words this morning are as follows:
I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.
Each blade of grass,
Each honey tree,
Each bit of mud,
And stick and stone
Is blood and muscle,
Skin and bone.
And just as I
Need every bit
Of me to make
My body fit,
So Earth needs
Grass and stone and tree
And things that grow here
Naturally.
That's why we
Celebrate this day.
That's why across
The world we say:
As long as life,
As dear, as free,
I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.
-Jane Yolen
Please rise in body or spirit for the chalice illumination and call to worship.
From all that dwell below the skies; 
let faith and hope and love arise.
Let beauty truth and good be sung;
through every land by every tongue.
Thank you. As we know, Earth Day is April 23 this year. Are we doing anything special, or just looking at it like a completely normal day? I love the way the opening words put it, and I like the way this poem puts it:
I Am Of The Earth
I am of the earth
She is my mother
She bore me with pride
She reared me with love
She cradled me each evening
She pushed the wind to make it sing
She built me a house of harmonious colors
She fed me the fruits of her fields
She rewarded me with memories of her smiles
She punished me with the passing of time
And at last when I long to leave
She will embrace me for eternity.
-Anna Lee Walters.
I know that this service is going to be sort of jumpy. I apologize in advance.
Why do we hurt our Mother Earth. What do we eat? Food bore by Mother Earth. What do we drink? Water bore by Mother earth. Can you see where I'm headed with this? "We owe our lives to the sun... How is it, then, that we feel no gratitude?"
~ Lewis Thomas, Earth Ethics, Summer 1990.
That quote also goes for the earth. If there was no earth, would you be here, reading this? I Don't think so! Gosh, if it weren't for the Earth, I wouldn't be here writing this! We wouldn't be here. We owe our existence to the sun, earth, and sky. Why are we ruining the latter two?
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.~ Henry David Thoreau
There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all.
~ Robert Orben
Two contracting quotes, both so true. Do you get the picture?
If you don't mind, for our closing words, I will Bomb-bard you with earth day proverbs.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.
~ Cree Indian Proverb
"Regard Heaven as your father, Earth as your mother and all things as your Brothers and Sisters."
~ Native American Proverb
"Treat the Earth and all that dwell theron with respect."
~ Native American Proverb
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.
~ Native American Proverb
All earth Day poems, proverbs and quotes from www.theholidayspot.com/earth_day.htm
Thank you for joining me on this day. have a great week!
