When’s the Last Time You Really Visited Your ‘Mom?’

How’s your Mom? Mother Earth, that is.
Sad to say, many of “her” children have not visited her lately to give an intelligent answer. As so many adult children may find, getting away to see that lady who gave you life is not an easy thing. We’ll do it next week, honest.
So, instead of going outside today, maybe after lunch for a walk, we solemnly vow that tomorrow, we will walk twice as far, run twice as hard, to make up for the time we didn’t take with Ma today.
Many of “her” children don’t know their mother very well. They can’t tell a holly tree from a sycamore, don’t know what an angry squirrel sounds like, and have a mistaken belief that the woods are silent.
Here in Cape May County, Earth Day will be celebrated with a daylong series of things to keep children and adults busy with nature friendly activities.
As with many things, there is a tendency to believe that saving the earth from our harmful acts ought to be left to children.
One of the things that may be viewed as “cute” on Saturday will be lessons master gardeners give to mostly youngsters, about planting seeds.
If only we could understand the importance of planting the real “seeds” of learning how to live in concert with nature, how much better we would be.
I find it heartening that economics have finally lit a fire under government, and made it realize there is viable power to be tapped from the sun and the wind.
Gaining wider acceptance, well, that’s another thing.
As children, we never fully understand all the things that our “mother” has done to make our life possible. We seem to believe that the water we drink will forever flow, pure, regardless of what we put back into the earth.
As regular readers know, there is a belief among many of our neighbors that the very water we have fouled is now causing a variety of health problems. Mother gave us something fresh and clean, we don’t appreciate that until it’s gone, or until we have to pay high rates to extract drinking water from salty wells.
We live in one of the nation’s grandest locations to watch nature, like migrating birds and butterflies, horseshoe crabs and wonderful wetlands.
How many times have you raised your eyes skyward to watch northbound geese returning to our peninsula? Have you spent even a half hour near the marshes to watch what happens there?
Remember some of those things your mother used to say like, “You’ll see. When I’m gone, then you’ll know what I’m going through?”
It’s like that with Mother Earth. We don’t truly appreciate what it is until it’s gone.
When I look at those grand “specimen” trees in The Home Depot’s parking lot, it’s like watching a caged wild animal, awesome but oh, so lonely.
Think how many of those majestic trees were felled to give us all the so-called advantages of civilization right here in Cape May County.
Another tree, believed to be over 400 years old, was spared from the state’s chainsaw on Route 47 about a decade ago close to the East Creek Manor.
Perhaps part of the county’s Earth Day festivities should include a map with other grand trees on a self-guided bicycle tour. It would be like going back to the old homestead to see what mom was working on while we were away.
“Mom” may have planted some seeds of her own, making us feel bad about wasting what was provided for us. To fill that empty space, we are now being sold light bulbs that take a fraction of what older type bulbs take.
We are being offered shopping bags that will last longer than the federal deficit in place of flimsy plastic bags. Even newspapers are throwing in the towel, saving trees, and putting news on line. Paper mills are closing; trees continue to grow, so maybe Mom is glad in the long run.
Don’t feel bad about procrastinating any longer. Go on, go out and visit your “Mom.” Glory in the colors she’s spread, especially in the spring, and later, in fall. Breathe in the fresh scents she’s scattered around, earthy smells, flowers, that sulfur smell at low tide.
Don’t wait so long to see Mom next year. Don’t be a stranger to your Mom; she is certainly no stranger to you.