What Shall we tell our grandchildren?
What will we tell our grandchildren when they ask…why did you let this happen? How come there are so many people starving, Why are there millions of children hungry? Why do 200 species become extinct every day? Why have you let our planet become polluted. Why have you killed three to five billion trees each year? Why are the sea levels going to rise some six or seven feet by the end of this century? Why are the polar ice caps melting at astonishing rates? Who killed all the wild animals? Why are so many people killing each other? What will I tell MY children?
Will they ask “didn’t you listen to John Denver’s song ” I Want To Live”? Perhaps they will sing it for us to help us awaken, if it hasn’t been too late!
On a scorched and barren plain
There are children raised beneath a golden sun
There are children of the water
Children of the sand
And they cry out through the universe
Their voices raised as one
I want to see I want to know
I want to share what I can give
I want to be I want to live
Seen the breaching of a whale?
Have you watched the dolphins frolic in the foam?
Have you heard the song the humpback hears five hundred miles away
Telling tales of ancient history of passages and home?
I want to see I want to know
I want to share what I can give
I want to be I want to live
For the native and the wanderer in kind
For the maker and the user and the mother and her son
I am looking for my family and all of you are mine
Face to face and arm in arm
We are standing on the threshold of a dream
No more hunger no more killing
No more wasting life away
It is simply an idea
And I know its time has come
I want to see I want to know
I want to share what I can give
I want to be I want to live
Will we tell them that we got involved? That we recycled? That we demanded that our governments become conscious? Did we vote in the people who cared about all the beings and flora and fauna of the Earth? Did we march for peace? Did we make a difference?
We still have a chance to slow down climate change. We still have time to feed the poor, clothe the naked, nurture the homeless. It is true that many things that are damaging our planet are beyond our ability to fix. However, we are the spiritual beings who came here to experience the fullness of life in human form. We are the ones who can make a difference. We are amazing, intelligent, talented, resourceful, resilient, tenacious and persevering. This is our home and only we can save it. Then perhaps, when our grandchildren thank us for leaving them a beautiful, healthy loving planet. We can say I was thinking of you while I got involved and helped create heaven on Earth. From my environmental heart to yours, Thomas