A Letter from Mother Nature

A Letter from Mother Nature.

Severe storms affected a significant part of the southern region over the weekend. Living in Tornado Alley, aka Mississippi, the region experienced extensive weather events. These occurrences have become more frequent over time.

Several small towns and communities near us suffered tremendous damage to homes and lives upended. Dear friends of mine lost everything. I cannot comprehend how one even begins to pick up the pieces. The good news is they are still with us. Things can be replaced, they cannot.

If you are not noticing that our weather patterns are changing, you must be living under a very solid rock. Just watch the national weather news to see what I’m referring to. 

While we were all hunkered down on Saturday, there was a small earthquake in the middle of the state. Further west in Oklahoma there were wildfires. We are all aware of the recent fires in California that took out homes and land in the past couple of months. 

What the heck, Mother Nature? 

Thinking about my friends and others left to deal with loss and a thousand other worries, I found myself constructing a letter to Mother Nature. I was ranting and give her what my mother would have called “a come to Jesus” talk. After I caught my breath, a little voice said, “What if she has a message for you?”

Maybe it was too much coffee or the remnants of being ill for a month, but I heard that question plain as day. Okay, I’ll bite. What would the old gal say? Something like this, maybe?

Dear Humans,

Mother Nature here with an important service announcement. Put down your devices and listen up.

You guys suck. Not just a little, but a lot. Like the biggest suckage of all suckages.

Before you shake your fist at me over the failings of nature, let me remind you of a few things.

1. I gave you Paradise. We all know how that went. Exit signs were created in remembrance.
2. I gave you fresh air, mountains, oceans and rivers, trees, flowers and plants, animals of every kind, bugs that pollenate the plants and land, fruits and vegetables to nourish your bodies. A cornucopia of endless delights. 
3. What have you done in appreciation? With your pollution, greed, neglect and downright abuse, the air is no longer clean, the land is dry and parched, the glaciers are drying up, fruits and vegetables are taunted with pesticides, and animals are mistreated. Further, you totally ignore my benevolence. Each spring I still send new leaves and bulbs that pop open even though I know you may neglect to notice.
4. If this was not tragic enough, the way you treat one another belies your blatant disregard for all the above. You hate one another based on the most ridiculous prejudices. I do not even have the energy to list all the ways, but basically if someone does not look like you, shares your opinion, religion or beliefs, you are against. You abuse one another, and in many cases, kill one another. How can you possibly give proper care to the planet when you care so little for one another?
5. Here’s a little tidbit. Weather is part of our atmosphere. There is science behind how it works. It never occurs to you humans that how you treat the planet may possibly play a hand in how the atmosphere responds. Yet you are the first to yell and scream when something goes wrong. And always the first to deny any responsibility.
6. What I notice about you humans is that it always seems to take a tragic event to bring you together. Let a tornado hit a town. People come from all over to lend a hand and help rebuild. Within minutes of the storms hitting Saturday, people came from all over with chain saws, equipment to move things, etc. They are still there today, working. Each time I see this happen and think that maybe you are awakening to the gifts of compassion and empathy, but sadly, it never lasts. Within days, you are bickering amongst yourselves.
7. So here are some questions for YOU, my dear humans. WHY does it take a tragedy to get you to care for one another? Why can’t you love one another during all the sunny days I send? There are far more sunny days than bad weather ones. What does it really matter if someone is different from you? What if reducing our carbon footprint may slow down the change in weather cycles? What if, love?

Dear humans, please stop the suckage. I am not averse to begging, so please, I beg of you, stop the suckage.

Sincerely,

Mother Nature

(P.S. Mother Nature never got my letter. Do not send the letter, do not pass go.)