The Earth Laughs in Flowers

THE EARTH LAUGHS IN FLOWERS. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote is a favorite of mine. So much truth.

Earth day is tomorrow and there is much to be said about this “holiday’ which started because there was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, no Clean Water Act. There were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our environment. In spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to force this issue onto the national agenda.

So I suppose one can say great progress has been made. On the other hand, so many hundreds of years of damage have been done to our environment that coming back from the brink seems impossible. Witness all the dystopian TV series about folks trying to stay alive in complete wastelands. In a time that our children and grandchildren may well be alive. Chilling.

Happily there are a plethora of organizations and forward thinking politicians working to save the earth in some manner and there are multiple ways to participate in environmentally positive actions in our daily practice that can give us and our children a modicum of a sense of control. We recycle. We compost. We contribute to/volunteer with places like NRDC, the Environmental Defense Club, the Sierra Club, and smaller more on the ground organizations like the BEE CONSERVANCY , Cafeteria Culture (founded by artist Debbie Lee Cohen as Styrofoam Out of Schools) which works with youth to creatively achieve zero waste/ climate smart schools communities and a plastic free biosphere. And so many others.

A few years ago I took a class at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens about how to garden better. Start by giving up the lawn. Use indigenous plants. Plant flora that attracts bees and butterflies. This approach is satisfying and relatively east to do, and, given the exhorbitant cost of lawn upkeep, a whole lot cheaper.

A larger and larger number of florists are finding more ecologically sound ways of creating arrangements - I just taught a class at BBG in the use of Agra wool which can be purchased online at New Age Floral for those of you who want to get more exacting in your floral design.

Floral Design starts with a reverence for nature. With that in mind, I encourage all or us to do whatever we can, on a daily basis, to do less damage, to offer more to the precious existing natural flora and fauna to thrive. And bring nature into our lives more often.